Come on, the board game was piss easy!! I won the first time, and played it again one time just to see if you got some other items from him and won.
Here's what you do (no walkthrough just board game tactics in general)
1. Get in attack position in the very beginning. That means, start doing threatening moves as soon as you can, should be attacking after move 2,3, or 4. This will make HIM have to defend and place pieces in silly places, never attacking.
2. While always keeping him defending, prepare the trap:
3. The trick is to make either 1 4-in-a-row with a clear space on each side, but this is difficult cause he interrupts. Instead, make two 3-in-a-rows with clear spaces on each side. Then he's doomed...you will win.
This is basic tactics when playing z-in-a-row-games btw...
To me, the hardest part was getting the owl to drop the piece. Even after reading the walkthrough on this part I just couldnt make it fall. I sat and tried soooo hard to make the string snap...but noooo.