Score
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Best
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Line up your marbles, outnumber the rival, and shove four of theirs off the hex board. Numbers win pushes — a lone marble can never move a pair.
Tap one of your blue marbles to select it. Tap a neighbouring blue marble in a straight line to add it — up to three in a row. Tap a selected marble again to drop it.
Highlighted cells show where that group can go. Tap one to move a single step in that direction. You can move along the line you formed, or sideways as a whole row when every destination is empty.
You only push when you outnumber: three can push two or one, two can push one, and equal numbers never budge. The pushed row needs an empty cell behind it, or the edge of the board — and a marble shoved over the edge is out for good.
Push four rival marbles off to win. If neither side gets there within fifty moves each, whoever pushed more wins, and an exact tie is a draw that keeps your streak alive.
Everything in Sumito comes from one rule: pushes are decided by numbers alone, never by position. A single marble can never move anything. So the whole game is about assembling threes while breaking the rival's threes apart, and the player whose marbles are scattered has already lost the argument even if nothing has been pushed yet.
Stay in the middle. A marble in the centre cannot be shoved off in one push, and it takes several moves for the rival to walk it to an edge. Marbles on the outer ring are the ones that die, so treat the rim as dangerous ground and only step there with a plan. The corollary is that when you are ahead you should retreat toward the centre rather than chase — your lead is safest when nothing of yours is near an edge.
Sideways moves are the quiet strong move. Shifting a row of three sideways keeps the group intact while repositioning it, so you can slide a wall of three across the board to meet a threat without ever breaking formation. Beginners only push forward and their groups slowly fall apart; strong play uses sideways steps to keep three marbles touching at all times.
Watch the move counter. If neither side pushes four off, the player who pushed more wins on count, so a single early push-off is worth defending for the rest of the game. When you are one ahead late, you do not need another one — you need to keep your marbles clustered in the middle where nothing can be shoved out, and let the clock decide it.