Tactu – a strategy game for two without dice

How it works

Tactu is a board game without dice, and a thinking game in the strict sense: nothing depends on chance, everything on the order in which you spend your values. Each player holds the values 1 to 6, and each of them only once per round: a value you have played is spent until all six have been used. Then the set starts afresh. Which values you and your opponent still hold is shown openly for both sides.

• Entering: all pieces begin in the base. With value N a piece enters on the Nth field counted from your own entry. The two entries sit opposite each other on the track.
• Running: a piece moves on by exactly the value you chose. It may not land on a field held by one of your own pieces.
• Capturing: land on an opposing piece on the track and it goes back to its base. In the base and at home, a piece is safe.
• Home: after a full lap the piece turns into its own home stretch of three fields. There is no move beyond the last home field, and inside the home stretch no piece jumps over one of its own.
• Discarding: if none of your remaining values lets any piece move, you must discard a value. It is spent just the same.

A move takes two steps. Tap a piece, and the board shows every destination it can reach, each labelled with the value that gets it there. Up to this point you can still switch to another piece. Only tapping a destination — or dropping the piece on it — makes the move. After that there is no taking it back.

On the start screen you choose your opponent: two people on one device, the computer at Easy, Medium or Hard, or another person over an invitation link. For local games you also decide who opens and whether you play one game or home and away. Nothing starts on its own; the game begins when you tap “Start game”.

Tips & techniques

• Budget your values. Six values have to last six turns. Spend the big ones early and you may arrive at the home stretch holding numbers that do not fit — a piece gets home only with a value that does not carry it past the last home field.
• Read the threats. A piece that can be captured is marked. Behind the marker is plain arithmetic on open information: the distance from an opposing piece, set against the values your opponent still holds. If the matching number is already spent, your piece is safe where it stands.
• The base threatens too. An opposing piece in its base can enter with value N on the Nth field after its entry. The six fields behind your opponent's entry are never entirely quiet.
• Watch for the reset. When your opponent plays a sixth value, all six are back on the next turn. What was safe a moment ago may now be within reach.
• Moving first is an advantage. Measured over 4000 random games, the side that opens wins 54.2 per cent of them. Home and away evens it out, because each player opens once.
• Avoid discarding. A discarded value is a turn in which nothing moves. As a set runs low, keep one piece in a position where it can still use what is left.

Frequently asked questions

What kind of game is this?

A strategy game for two people on a board: a track of 24 fields, three pieces per side and a home stretch of three fields. What it keeps from the classic race game is entering, capturing and the dash for home. The die is gone: in its place are six fixed move values that each player spends exactly once per round. So every position can be worked out, and a game you lose was a miscalculation rather than bad luck.

Is there really no randomness?

None. Nothing is rolled and nothing is drawn, and the computer chooses without chance as well: from the same position it plays the same move.

How does a duel over a link work?

“Challenge someone” creates an invitation link. A duel is always two games: the challenger opens the first, the player who accepted opens the second, with 48 hours per move. Scoring is by points — 2 for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. Resigning or letting the clock run out loses the whole duel. Once accepted, the same link shows the game to anyone who wants to watch.

How long is a game kept?

A game on one device or against the computer lives only in the server's memory and expires after a while without a move (details in the privacy statement). A duel over a link stays.

Can a game end in a draw?

Yes, by threefold repetition of a position. In practice that is very rare.

Does it cost anything, and do I need an account?

No and no. Tactu runs free of charge in your browser, and you can play at once without signing up. Only a duel over a link needs saved progress on your device — a random key, with no email address and no password.