Goal

• Move all four of your pawns out of your yard, around the board, and into the center home. First color to get all four home wins.

Dice

• Each turn you roll two dice. You must play the larger die first, then the smaller.
• Each die moves any one pawn (they can be the same pawn or two different pawns).
• If a die has no legal move, it is skipped.

Leaving the yard

• A pawn leaves the yard onto its colored start star with a roll of 1 or 6.

Capturing

• Landing on an opponent's pawn sends that pawn back to its yard.
• A pawn resting on a star space is protected and cannot be hit.
• You can't stack two of your own pawns on the same square anywhere on the track.
• Only one pawn may rest on a star \u2014 you can't move onto a star that's already occupied, and you can't exit your yard onto your star if your own pawn is already on it.
• Exception: when a color comes out of its yard onto its own colored star, it hits any opponent pawn sitting there.

Finishing

• You need an exact roll to land a pawn on the final home square; overshoots are not allowed.

Extra turns

• Rolling double six earns another turn.
• Capturing an opponent earns another turn.
• Getting a pawn home by exact roll earns another turn.

Controls

• Click the dice to roll and click a highlighted pawn to move it. Hold the dice down to keep them spinning; they settle when you release.
• Keyboard: press and hold Space or Enter to spin the dice, release to roll; use the arrow keys to pick among the available pawns (the gold ring shows the selection), then Space or Enter to move it.

Players

• Each color can be a Human or a Computer.
• Your game auto-saves — use Continue Game to resume.

Computer techniques

• Casual — plays loosely with lots of randomness; a relaxed, unpredictable opponent.
• Balanced — weighs captures, safety, getting pawns out, and advancing fairly evenly.
• Strategic — cautious: favors safe squares and avoids leaving pawns exposed to capture.
• Aggressive — chases captures and pushes its lead pawn hard, largely ignoring risk.
• Alpha — follows a fixed priority order: get the first pawns out, hit opponents, land on stars, enter the home row, then make safe advances and space its pawns. Tends to press the attack.
• Beta — finish-first priority order: complete pawns and enter the home row before anything else, then leave the nest, step off stars, and hit opponents. Plays more defensively.

During play, Alpha/Beta show the rule they used, like #8(advance to 4 behind). Their full decision order:

Alpha decision order

1. 1st or 2nd pawn exits the nest
2. Hit an opponent
3. 3rd or 4th pawn exits the nest
4. Land on a star
5. Enter the home row
6. Exit the nest to a safe square
7. Block an opponent's start (move onto it while they still have a pawn in the nest)
8. Advance to within 1–6 behind the nearest opponent (threaten a hit)
9. Advance a non-star pawn to safety (out of reach ahead of the nearest opponent)
10. Reach the final home spot
11. Best advance (farthest pawn on an even roll, nearest pawn on an odd roll)

Beta decision order

1. Reach the final home spot
2. Enter the home row
3. Leave the nest
4. Leave a star
5. Hit an opponent
6. Best advance (farthest pawn on an even roll, nearest pawn on an odd roll)