Kevin HY Hau - Hello World 👋

📖 How to play Flock

Flock is a new board game, invented for this chapter. The whole game is three rules.

The three rules

• 1. Move. On your turn move one stone in a straight line (up, down, left or right) over empty squares. It may go as many squares as its flock has stones, up to 3. A flock is stones of the same colour that touch each other (up, down, left or right). A lone stone moves just 1; three stones in a clump can each move up to 3. The little number on each stone shows its range. Stones cannot jump over anything.
• 2. Sandwich. After you move, look at the four squares around the stone you moved. Every enemy stone that has one of your stones directly behind it (in the same straight line) is captured and removed. The edge of the board does not count. Only the stone that just moved captures, so stepping between two enemy stones is safe.
• 3. Win. Capture 3 enemy stones. You also win if your opponent cannot move. If 100 moves pass (50 each) the side with more stones wins, and equal stones is a draw. You may not move a stone straight back to the square it just left on your previous turn.

Tips

• A clump is fast but it is also a target: the stones at its ends can still be sandwiched across the clump, from above and below. Stones in a row protect each other along the row.
• Fast flocks threaten from far away. A lone stone is slow, so keep it behind your clump or use it as bait.
• Before you move, check what the move opens up: will an enemy flock now reach a square next to one of your stones, with another of theirs behind it?
• 💡 Hint shows a good move. ↩ Undo takes back your last move (and the computer's reply).

Where the ideas come from

• Chess, shogi, xiangqi: every piece type has its own move. Flock keeps one piece type but lets its power change with the situation.
• Draughts, dama, Hasami shogi, Tafl: capture by position. Flock captures by sandwich (custodian capture), like Hasami shogi and the Tafl games.
• Go and Othello: groups matter. In Flock your groups give you speed.
• Connect 4 and 5: a tiny rule set, easy to learn and hard to master. Flock aims for the same.
• Backgammon and mancala: repeated positions are a problem, so Flock bans stepping straight back, and sets a move limit.

It is a new game, so the computer's levels come from trying them against each other (a deeper search beats a shallower one every time). A human who finds a clever plan can beat even Master.