Roll the dice to climb
A press-your-luck dice race up eleven mountain columns. Roll four dice, split them into two sums, and send your climbers up those numbered columns — but you only get three climbers per turn, and each extra roll risks it all. Keep going to climb higher, or stop to lock your progress in safely. Roll badly with no legal move and you BUST, losing everything you gained this turn. The first to plant a flag on the top of three columns wins. It's a tug-of-war between greed and nerve against a calculating AI.
The board has eleven columns, numbered 2 to 12, each a different height — the middle columns (like 7) are tall and the edges (2 and 12) are short, because middle sums come up far more often when you roll.
On your turn, press Roll to throw four dice. You then split the four dice into two pairs, and each pair's total is a column to climb. Three ways to pair them are offered as buttons; pick the one you want and a white climber moves up one space in each of those columns.
You have only three climbers per turn. The first sums you choose place climbers on those columns; after three columns hold a climber, you can only keep advancing those same three. If a roll gives you no way to advance any of your active columns, you BUST: your climbers vanish and the turn passes with nothing gained.
After each successful roll you choose: Roll again to climb higher, or Stop. Stopping turns your temporary white climbers into permanent markers in your colour — that progress is now safe. Reaching the very top of a column claims it, and a flag goes up.
The AI takes its turn the same way, weighing its bust odds before each roll. The first player to claim three columns wins the match. Win to extend your streak; your best streak is your score.
Respect the bell curve. A 7 comes up far more than any other total, and 6 and 8 are close behind, so runners on the middle columns advance fast and bust rarely. The edge columns (2, 3, 11, 12) are short but treacherous — easy to start, brutal to finish, because the dice rarely cooperate.
Three middle columns is the dream. If your three runners all sit on 6, 7 and 8, your chance of busting on any roll is only about one in twelve, so you can press your luck for ages. Three edge columns is the nightmare; if you're forced there, bank early.
The danger is the third runner. While you have a free runner, almost every roll can place it somewhere, so busts are rare. The moment your third climber locks in, your bust odds jump — that is the natural point to think about stopping.
Stop sooner when you have more to lose. A few steps of progress is cheap to risk; a near-complete column is not. Weigh how much this turn has banked-in-waiting against the odds of the next roll, and don't let a greedy push hand a half-climbed column back to zero.