# Questions tagged [board-games]

A board game is a game that involves counters or pieces moved or placed on a "board" according to a fixed set of rules.

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### A Key Game of Battleship

What two relevant words are encoded in this game? The stuff in the trays doesn't matter too much No special knowledge or programming needed. Hint:
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### Pit of Radiance - A study on board games

(Click to enlarge) (Author Note) A while ago I made some puzzles for a now defunct puzzle hunt project, here's one of them. The answer to this (and most other puzzles of said hunt) is a single word. ...
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### Smallest number of moves to reach a "reverse checkers" position

A "reverse checkers" position is a position where every piece for one player is on one colour and every piece for the other player is on the other colour. Consider this position, for example:...
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### Police and Thieves

I played this game when I was young, but cannot find it online. It is played on a checkers board (e.g. the black squares of a chess board) between two players P and T. The game goes as follows: P ...
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### Who wins the game of "Sticky Gomoku" on an infinite board?

This is a Gomoku like game, played by two players with Go pieces (black and white stones) on an infinite (in all four directions) Go board. Rules Four in a row: players alternate turns placing a ...
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### What is the most STAMINA-efficient strategy to escape the well?

You are roleplaying as an adventurer under the direction of a sadistic DM who has just thrown your character down a well. In order to escape, you have unlimited chances at a STAMINA check, difficulty ...
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### A solitaire Blokus problem on a rectangular board

Rules As in Blokus, you have a total of 21 pieces (every piece from monomino to pentomino) in hand: All of these polyominoes are free, this means that you can rotate or flip them as you wish before ...
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### Peg Solitaire variant: from 48 on an 8x8 board

Looking at David Ahl's Basic Computer Games, one of the programs that caught my eye was One Check. It's like Peg Solitaire, which I've figured, but it's on an 8x8 board with the 4x4 inner bit hollowed ...
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### Only kings and horses

This is the fourth entry in my decentralised or "Swiss" chess mini series. See bottom for a recap of the modified rules of Swiss chess. Enough warm up! It is time for a proper Swiss chess ...
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### Shooting them blanks (double optimization task)

I don't know the answer, I just state that this problem could be interesting. Best estimate gets the tick. "Battleships" game field (at least, in the USSR version I used to play) is a 10x10 ...
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### But She Don't Care

Eve was visiting Alice and Carol's house and looking through the stuff on their side table, as she does. Eventually, Alice came back from the kitchen and Eve waved a piece of paper she had found in ...
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In chess, the white player makes the first move. It is generally understood that this gives white a minor advantage, with a win rate of 52-56%. In this initial position, white actually has checkmate ...
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### Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #10 – Risky Finale

This is the tenth and final Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. Once this puzzle is solved, this Chain ...
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### Plus-sized amoeba escapes

As an extension to @WhatsUp 's question here, the rules of which are included below, with the following differences: In one of the squares, there lives an amoeba (marked as a circle in the following ...
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### Amoebas escaping the prison

There is an infinite grid of squares. In one of the squares, there lives an amoeba (marked as a circle in the following pictures). Amoebas cannot move, but they can perform their unique action: an ...
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### Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #09 - “The” Cryptic Movies

This is the ninth Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
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### Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #08 - Targui, or not Targui

This is the eighth Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
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### Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #06 - So Sorry

This is the sixth Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
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### Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #03 - Down and out in London

This is the third Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
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### Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #01 - Let's Play

This is the first Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
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### 7x7 Knight's tour: Minimal proof for universality on black squares

We already know that 7x7 board cannot have a closed Knight's tour, and it cannot start or end at a white square if R1C1 is black. But our knowledge about 7x7 Knight's tour is still limited. So here is ...
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### Move chess pieces to flip starting position in center

The white pieces in the above position should maneuver themselves into the flipped starting position (i.e. king in e3). All pieces makes regular moves within the 4x4 center squares. By removing a pawn ...
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### A Game of Black and White

Two people are playing a board game that involves dice. However, one of the players has rigged the dice so that they get the highest possible roll on every turn, while the other player gets a random ...
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### What number should be placed in that last slot? [closed]

I came across a very difficult puzzle. What number should be placed in that last slot? I only know 16 is not the correct answer, because 11 is before 10.
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### An Eastern Jackpot

Normally I'm for 9 Exceptionally I'm for 13 To east, I am from heaven To other directions, I am from earth The brightest primary color You either care about 1 and 9 Or entirely forget about numbers ...
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### Where am I supposed to be tonight?

This is bad. Really bad. We’ve only just met, and you don’t know me from Adam, but I really need your help – it’s a matter of national security. I work for… well, let’s just say I work for the ...
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### Intellectual numerical puzzle of different sizes

There is an intellectual puzzle 3x3, as in the photo: You need to get an ordered set by moving the buttons through an empty area, like: Question: Is a 4x4, 5x5, 6x6 game possible? Sub-question: Does ...
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Consider the following position in a game of Binary Homeworlds. ...
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### Alice and Bob invent a game

The rain was still falling in Wales, and Alice and Bob were terribly bored of having to stay inside the caravan. With just a deck of cards to entertain them they had played all of the card games in ...
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### Playing the Square Chess

On an ordinary chess board (8x8) without any pieces on it as a starting position, two players will alternately place a pawn on any square (unoccupied) so that the first player that form a square (...
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### Homeworlds: War Games

Here's my second Homeworlds problem! (My first was Homeworlds: Mini Doomsday Machine.) ...
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### Homeworlds: Mini Doomsday Machine

Loosely inspired by Allumwandlung, here's my first attempt at a Binary Homeworlds problem in the same vein as Simple, Monopoly, Inheritance or Insurance Fraud, and Blastdoor. ...
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### Shortest game of Monopoly

This video claims that the fastest game of monopoly involves 4 turns and 9 rolls of the dice. I am wondering if this is actually the shortest game or can we do better in theory? What is the ...
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### Black War Heroes or Whites Save the Queens?

After Black Cavalry successfully captured White princesses, White empire learns their Black opponent is hungry for more and wants White Twin Queens dead! White will never let such a disaster happen ...
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### What was the last move made in this game?

What was white's last move in the game shown below? Note: This is a screenshot taken from an actual game and all moves made were legal. ETA: The last move played by white was the last move of the ...
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### What is the name of this game?

Around 15 years ago I remember playing on my computer with this game I loved. But it turns out I never knew its name and so, I can't find it anywhere now when I want to play it again. So, I've had ...
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### What is the minimum-sized Blokus board which can contain all pieces?

Rules: Each player has the twelve pentominoes, five tetrominoes, two trominoes, one domino, and lone square. These may be flipped and rotated in any manner. The board on which these are to be placed ...
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### Gliding through an ice-maze

Two men are trapped in an icy cave. Nowhere to go, except for two small holes in the ice, heading down. Only by working together, they can get deeper into the cave, hopefully finding a way out. Will ...
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### Twelve Labours - #02 Lernaean Hydration

This puzzle is part of the ‘Twelve Labours’ series. Previous instalments can be found here: Prologue | 01 His first labour now complete, Hercules made his way up the street to the storage depot for ...
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### Minimum number of turns to capture all pieces in Checkers

On an 8x8 checkerboard, there are 12 red kings and 1 black king. The kings behave as they would in any normal game of checkers, being able to move in any diagonal direction one space and jump any ...
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### Magic Maze Puzzle

Inspired by the board game, Magic Maze Set-up: Cut out each 4x4 tile, and the four small tokens (orange, yellow, green and purple), from the provided image below. Place tile 1 on a flat surface with ...
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### Marbles on a Mancala Board

I would like to introduce an ancient African board game I've just invented. Until someone comes up with a better name, it's called Marble Mancala. The rules are pretty simple: There are two ...
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### Don't bully your cousin at Reversi

Title (only) inspired by Don't bully your little sister at chess Prologue Well, this happened when I played Reversi with my cousin a few days ago... I, not being as nice as @Arnold ...
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### A game of red and black

Two players, red and black, play a game. The outcome is as follows: CCCBBABCDFBBDDE Who won the game, and what game were they playing? HINT:
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### How to solve this specific situation in 2048?

In trying to develop and perfect my strategies, I've been playing 2048-undo. This is what I got myself into: Since this is not an uncommon situation and I still don't know how to properly get out of ...
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### Black to play and win (Teeko)

\def\S#1{\phantom{\Space{18px}{22px}{0px}}\llap{#1}} \begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|}\hline \S{}&\S{}&\S{}&\S{}&\S{}\\\hline \S{}&&&&\\\hline \S{}&&X&O&X\\\...
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### Traversing a grid

I'm wondering if there's a way to check if every square of a board can be visited such that every time you move to a new square, it can't be in the same row, column, or diagonal as the previous square....
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### What is the optimal way to play standard Battleship?

I've seen the questions on this site with modified Battleship, but I haven't seen one for the standard variation. So - what is the optimal strategy to win this game?
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### What is the optimal strategy for this triangular board game?

I saw a board game somewhere and I want to know the optimal strategy for it. The game is played on a triangular board with 21 slots: The two players, red and blue, take turns to put numbered circles ...
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