The flick-and-pocket board game, played solo. Set your striker on the baseline, pull it back like a slingshot and let go to knock the wooden coins into the four corner pockets. Sink and cover the red queen, avoid pocketing the striker, and try to clear the board before you run out of misses.
Slide the bar under the board to move your striker along the baseline, then press on the striker, pull it back away from where you want it to go and let go. The further you pull, the harder it flies — a coloured bar shows the power, and a dotted line shows the path to the first coin or cushion it will hit. Knock coins into the four corner pockets.
The board starts with nine white coins, nine black coins and the red queen packed in the middle. In this solo game every coin is yours: each white or black coin you pocket scores 10 points. Coins bounce off the cushions around the edge, and pieces hit each other, so a shot can sink a coin directly or by knocking one coin into another.
The queen is worth 50, but only once it is covered: you must also pocket another coin in the same shot or in your very next shot. If you do not, the queen goes back to the middle of the board. If the queen is the last piece left, sinking it is enough.
Pocketing the striker is a foul: you lose 10 points, one coin you had already pocketed goes back to the centre, and the shot counts as a miss. If the striker sits on top of a coin on the baseline you cannot shoot; slide it to a free spot first.
A shot that pockets nothing is a miss, and the counter starts at 12. Any shot that does pocket a coin is free. The game ends when the misses run out or the board is empty; clearing the board adds 10 points for every miss you still have. Save a good score to the Hall of Fame from the result card.
Aim at the far side of the coin, not the coin itself. A coin flies off along the line from the point where the striker touches it through its centre, so to send a coin into a pocket, picture the line from the pocket through the coin and aim the striker at the spot just behind the coin on that line. The dotted guide stops where the striker will meet the first piece and draws its outline there — line that outline up behind the coin and the coin will roll toward the pocket.
Use the whole baseline. Sliding the striker left or right changes the angle more than anything else, and a straight hit is far easier than a thin cut. Before each shot, look for a coin that sits roughly in line between a spot on the baseline and a pocket, and move the striker there. Coins near the corners are the cheapest points on the board; coins against a cushion can be rolled along the edge into a pocket with a gentle shot.
Control your power. A hard shot spreads the pack and can send the striker itself into a pocket, which costs you a coin and a miss. Most pockets need only a medium pull, and a softer shot keeps the striker near the middle of the board. Break the pack early with a firm shot straight at it when nothing is open, then switch to soft, precise shots as the coins spread out.
Plan the queen. Because she must be covered by the next coin, go for her when another easy coin is lined up for the following shot, or when you can sink both at once. Carrom is a traditional game from South Asia, played on a square wooden board with a smooth surface that players dust with powder so the pieces glide; in the full game two players or two pairs race to pocket their own colour. This solo version keeps the board, the pieces, the queen and the striker foul, and turns the race into a puzzle against your own miss counter.