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The drop-and-move capture game of the Gambia on a 5×5 grid. Each turn drop one of your twelve pieces on an empty point or step one already on the board; jump an enemy piece to capture it and remove one more of your choice. Hold the drop lead, beat the computer game after game and climb the levels.
Tap an empty point to drop a piece from your hand, or tap one of your pieces and then a green ring to step it one point up, down, left or right. A gold +2 point means a jump: land there, then tap any red-glowing enemy piece to remove it as well. The flag badge shows who holds the drop lead.
Both sides start with 12 pieces in hand and an empty board. A turn is a single action: drop one piece, step one piece, or jump. A jump goes over an enemy piece that sits right next to yours, straight onto the empty point behind it. You may make only one jump per turn and you never have to jump. Every jump takes the jumped piece and one more enemy piece of your choice from anywhere on the board, so a single jump costs the other side two pieces. If they have no other piece on the board, the extra piece comes out of their hand.
The drop lead decides who may move. The side that drops first starts with it, and the holder may always drop or move. The other side must answer every drop with a drop of its own for as long as it still has pieces in hand. Once the holder moves a piece, the other side is free: if it answers that move with a drop it takes the lead, and if it answers with a move the lead stays where it was.
You win by taking all twelve enemy pieces, or when the computer has no legal action left on its turn. After 40 turns in a row with no drop and no capture, or 200 turns in all, the side with more pieces (board plus hand) wins and equal pieces is a draw.
Every win sends you to the next level against a stronger computer. Each win scores a bonus of 4 points per piece you still own plus 50 minus the turns you took (never below zero), and your run is worth wins × 1000 plus ten times your average bonus. A loss or a draw ends the run. The computer drops first in the first game of a run, and the first move alternates after that.
Look at the corners first. A piece on a corner point has only one neighbour in each direction, so nothing can ever jump it; it can only be lost to the bonus removal that follows someone else's jump. A piece on an edge can only be jumped along that edge. The inner nine points are where pieces get jumped, so early on drop into the middle only when the point behind your piece is already filled or you are ready to plug it.
The lead is the real prize of the opening. While you hold it and keep dropping, the computer must drop too and cannot jump anything, so you can set up two threats at once and cash one of them the moment you choose to move. Moving gives the computer a free answer, though: if it replies with a drop it takes the lead away from you. Move when the jump is worth more than the lead, not just because a step is available. In computer self-play between equal levels, the side that dropped first won nearly two out of every three decided games.
Pieces in hand are safe from jumps and are the best defence you have. When one of your pieces sits next to an enemy with an empty point behind it, a single drop onto that empty point closes the threat. Keeping two or three pieces in hand late into the game lets you plug holes and still answer the computer's drops. The bonus piece is a free choice, so use it well: remove the enemy piece that could jump you next turn, or the one guarding a point you want to land on.
The score rewards clean, quick wins. Each piece you still own at the end is worth 4 points and every turn you save under 50 is worth one more, so trading pieces evenly lowers your bonus even when you win. Draws end the run like losses do, so when a game is level and the no-progress counter is climbing, look for a safe drop or a capture instead of shuffling.