How to play Lines of Action

Lines of Action is a connection game for two players. Instead of racing to a goal or wiping out the enemy, you try to gather all of your scattered pieces into a single connected group. What makes it special is how pieces move: the distance a piece travels is set by how crowded its line is, so every move changes the options of both players.

The game was invented by Claude Soucie and became widely known through Sid Sackson's 1969 book A Gamut of Games. Nothing is left to chance: it rewards players who can picture the board a few moves ahead.

How to play on skill.games

• Start a game. The settings window opens first: choose a difficulty and a board size, then press PLAY.
• Make a move. Tap one of your pieces. Green dots show every square it can reach, and red rings mark enemy pieces it can capture. Tap one to move, or tap a different piece to change your mind.
• Who moves first. You play the pieces that start on the top and bottom rows, and you always move first.
• The score line at the top shows how many separate groups each side has. You are aiming for 1.
• Pause. The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game, with options to resume, start a new game or switch the sound off.
• Saving. Your game is saved after every move. If you leave mid-game, choose CONTINUE next time to pick up where you stopped.
• Results. The end screen shows the pieces each side captured, what decided the game and how many moves were played, plus your wins, losses, draws, win rate and streaks for that board and difficulty.

Rules

Setup. On a square board, your pieces fill the top and bottom edges and the computer's fill the left and right edges. The four corners stay empty. That gives each side 8 pieces on 6 × 6, 10 on 7 × 7 and 12 on 8 × 8.

Moving. On your turn you move one piece in a straight line: horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The number of squares it moves is not up to you:

• Count every piece, yours and the opponent's, on the whole line the piece moves along, in both directions, including the moving piece itself.
• The piece must move exactly that many squares.
• It may jump over your own pieces, but never over an enemy piece.
• It may not land on one of your own pieces, and it may not move off the board.

For example, if a row holds your piece and two other pieces anywhere along it, a horizontal move along that row must travel exactly three squares, left or right.

Capturing. If the move ends on an enemy piece, that piece is captured and removed. Capturing is never compulsory.

Winning. You win when all of your pieces form one connected group. Pieces are connected when they touch side to side or corner to corner. Some details matter:

• If a single move connects both sides' pieces at the same time, the player who made the move wins.
• If your move leaves the opponent's pieces all connected (for example by capturing their last straggler) and yours are not, the opponent wins.
• A player with no legal move on their turn loses.

Draws. If neither side has connected after 200 moves in total (100 each), the game is a draw.

Strategy tips

• Head for the centre. A group that forms near the middle is much harder to split than one strung along an edge.
• Think about connection, not material. Capturing feels good, but every capture leaves the opponent with fewer pieces to connect, which makes their job easier. Capture when it breaks up their group or blocks a key square, not just because you can.
• Watch the line counts. Moving a piece changes the counts on every line it leaves and joins. A move can suddenly give an enemy piece the exact distance it needs to reach its group, so check the lines around your destination.
• Block with your pieces. Enemy pieces cannot jump over yours. A well-placed piece can cut off a whole direction of movement for a stray enemy piece.
• Deal with stragglers early. A single piece stuck on the far edge can cost many moves at the end. Start bringing distant pieces in while the board is still open.
• Count the groups. If the score line shows the computer down to two groups, find the move that would join them and stop it.
• Corner pieces are slow. A piece in a corner has only three directions to move in. Avoid parking pieces there unless they are already part of your group.

Difficulty levels

• Easy looks only at its own move, and about a third of its moves are random, sometimes good ones. A good way to get a feel for the movement rule.
• Normal looks at its own move and your reply, and only occasionally plays a random move.
• Hard looks further ahead and almost never makes a random move.
• Crazy looks the furthest ahead, takes the most time to think and never plays a random move. Every level always takes a winning move when it sees one.

Modes

Three board sizes are offered:

• 6 × 6, Quick with 8 pieces each. Lines are short and the pieces start close together, so games are fast and tactical. This is the default.
• 7 × 7, Medium with 10 pieces each, a step toward the full game.
• 8 × 8, Classic with 12 pieces each, the original board. With more pieces and longer lines, moves can travel further and the strategic battle for the centre matters most.

Statistics are kept separately for each board and difficulty.