Description:
Capture territory before your enemy does and snag all the gold you can!
Plant tree lines, discover mountain ranges and construct tower lined castle walls to fortify your land and claim it as your own. A 1 or 2 player turn-based strategy/puzzle game inspired by the childhood pen-and-paper classic, with brand new game mechanics and isometric graphics, skilled artificially intelligent opponent on different difficulty levels and preset scenario maps. Includes Capture and Classic game modes and in-game achievements.
Instructions:
The game starts with some posts on the map such as mountains, trees and towers. Player 1 is the red nation, and when you have the sundial it is your turn. You can make a border from any visible post diagonally in 4 directions (but not from gold mines), and you can hover your mouse near a post to see a dotted path to know where you can go. Mouse click to confirm your choice. If the border reaches to an area where there wasn't a post before, one will be created and you can now create borders from there next time. You cannot make borders in the middle of empty space until a path extends from other existing posts into it.
When it is your turn and you make a border that encloses an area of the map, you claim that territory, it will change to your nation's color and you get another turn. In Capture Mode, you can claim multiple spaces in one click, and they don't have to be in a straight line. As long as you close an area to the outside, everything inside is yours. That includes gold mines, which are worth more points than a normal space. You cannot create borders inside already claimed territory.
In Classic Mode, the game begins with all available posts and no gold. Also, you can only capture one space at a time by surrounding it with 4 borders. For instance, you do not claim 4 adjacent spaces in a square that are surrounded by but not separated with borders. Otherwise the same rules apply.
Tips and Tricks:
- Make sure to watch where your opponent moves, to see if they accidentally give up points!
- Early on in the game when lines are being quickly and randomly drawn, setup a single space with 3 lines around it and see if your opponent misses it so you can take it.
- The AI taught me a strategy that I never thought of until after I finished programming it and started playing against it (it's fun to be surprised by your own creation). When you are forced to give away a group of tiles to your opponent, don't put a line at the end of the group to make it easy for them to take the whole thing in one click. Instead, put your line somewhere in the middle of the group. There's a chance they will only take the one side of the group and miss the other, leaving it for you to take. Even if they take it, their territory is broken up and doesn't look as pretty. ;)
- Separate gold mines from each other to prevent long chains containing them, so that you have options toward the end of the game and aren't forced to give the chain of gold to your opponent. It's hard to predict exactly what will be left at the end and whose turn it will be when the jackpot hits, so you can take my suggestion and play it safe or just see if you get lucky.
A ClickShake Games original. Sponsored by MaxGames.com.
New in 2023: This Flash game is now working in the browser again thanks to
Ruffle.