Your turn — roll
Your turn — roll
The cross-shaped race board played all over the world. Roll a six to get a piece out of your base, run it all the way around the board, and bring it home before the three computer players bring theirs. Land on a rival and it goes straight back to the start. This is the quick version with two pieces each, so a game lasts a few minutes rather than half an hour.
Tap Roll. A six lets you move a piece out of your base onto your coloured starting square, and it also gives you another roll — up to three in a row.
When more than one piece can move, the ones you may choose light up with a white ring; tap the one you want. If only one move is legal it is played for you, so most turns are a single tap.
Landing on a square holding a rival piece sends that piece back to its base, except on the darker safe squares. To finish, a piece must travel the whole loop and then up its own coloured column, and the last step must be exact — an overshoot simply is not allowed. Get both pieces home before the other three and your win streak grows.
Two pieces changes the maths completely. With four you can afford to leave one exposed; with two, losing a piece that is forty squares along costs you most of a game. Treat the dark safe squares as stepping stones and plan your rolls to land on them when a rival sits close behind you.
The piece just ahead of an opponent is the one in danger, not the one behind. A rival needs an exact roll of one to six, so anything within six squares in front of an enemy piece is live. Before committing a move, glance backwards along the track: if both of your pieces would sit inside someone's six, move the more advanced one out of range first.
Bringing a second piece out is not automatically right. A six is worth more when it advances a runner that is already halfway home than when it puts a fresh piece on a starting square where three opponents will pass. Early on, get one piece moving and let it build a lead; bring the second out when the board ahead of it is clear or when your first is already safe in its column.
Exact-count finishing catches people out. A piece six squares from home needs precisely a six, and every other roll wastes the turn for that piece. Slow down as you approach: park a piece two or three away from the end rather than one, because there are more rolls that will finish it from there.