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The great Viking board game, reborn for one hand. Unlike chess, the two sides are not mirror images: you command a small band of light defenders and a golden king on the central throne, while the AI fields eight dark attackers ringed around you — almost twice your numbers. Your goal is simple and desperate — walk the king to ANY of the four corners and he is free. The attackers want the opposite: hem the king in and surround him on every side. Every piece glides like a rook, and capturing means trapping an enemy between two of your own, so the whole game is a running siege of feints, sacrifices and sudden dashes for the edge. Win sieges in a row and the besiegers think deeper with every escape, so your streak measures how long the king can keep slipping the net.
You command the light defenders and the golden king on the central throne; the AI commands the dark attackers ringed around you. You move first. Tap one of your pieces and the squares it can reach light up; tap a glowing square to move there.
Every piece moves like a rook in chess: any number of empty squares straight up, down, left or right — never diagonally, and never jumping over another piece. Only the king may stand on the central throne or on a corner square; your other defenders cannot stop there.
You win the instant the king reaches ANY of the four corners — those squares pulse gold when he can reach one. The AI wins if it captures the king by surrounding him with attackers (four sides near the throne, or two opposite sides out in the open). To capture an attacker yourself, move a piece so that an enemy ends up sandwiched between two of your pieces, or pinned against a corner — it is then removed. Crucially, moving your own piece into the gap between two enemies is completely safe; only the player who closes the trap captures.
Win a siege and a fresh one begins at once, keeping your streak alive — your score is how many you have won in a row. The attackers search one step deeper as your streak climbs. A loss resets the streak; tap Save to send it to the Hall of Fame.
The king is your only goal, but a naked king is a dead king. In the opening don't sprint him off the throne — first prise open the wall of attackers with your defenders so there is somewhere to run. The corners are reached by a straight rook path, so think in clear lanes: a king two unblocked squares from a corner is one move from winning, and the AI knows it too.
Threaten two corners at once. A single escape route is easy to plug — the attackers just block the one open lane. But if you can get the king to a square that has a clear path to TWO different corners, the besiegers cannot guard both, and the next move wins. Manoeuvring toward those double-threat squares is the heart of defensive play.
Use your guards as battering rams, not bodyguards. Defenders are most valuable when they capture: line one up so your next move sandwiches an attacker against a friend or a corner, thinning the ring. Each attacker you remove is one less wall around the king. Don't hoard them clustered on the throne where they only block your own escape.
Beware moving the king next to two attackers in open ground — out away from the throne he can be taken by just two enemies on opposite sides, so a careless step into a file the AI can answer loses on the spot. Near the throne he is safer (it takes four), which is exactly why the early game is a fight to open a gap before you ever break for the edge.