Two players, in turn, each place one to nine Seeds to a single cell. There will be no more than nine seeds permitted in any cell.

The object is to avoid "balancing" the cells of the field. This can be accomplished if every pair of adjacent or opposing cells have the same number of Seeds.

"Balancing" cells are divided into the flanking and corner cells, with the center cell standing alone. Each of these sets of cells will determine the "balance" of the field.

For example, if two opposing corner cells each contain five Seeds, the other two corner cells each contain three Seeds, two adjacent flanking cells each contain one Seed and the remaining two flanking cells are empty, the field is "balanced" and the player who placed last has lost the game. "Balance" can also be determined by pairs of adjacent corner cells and pairs of opposing flanking cells.

The center cell is important, as it allows the placement of Seeds and effectively creates a possible passing move. Of course, a player would be foolish to place anything in this cell with an empty field since the remaining field would then be "in balance" with equally empty cells. And by filling this center cell with nine Seeds, the player has removed the passing option for the remainder of the game.

A well-played game should end with all the cells of the field containing nine Seeds. Of course, this means the player who created this position has lost the game.

 
The name is Latin for 'group of nine', being nine cells and the limit of nine Seeds. Plus it reflects nicely on the idea of keeping the game 'off balance'.