Board and setup
One of each animal in two colors is shuffled and placed face-down on the sixteen squares. Nobody knows what is under a tile until it is flipped. The first tile the first player flips sets that player’s color; the other player takes the other color.
Turns
On your turn, do one thing: flip one face-down tile, or move one of your revealed animals one square up, down, left, or right. Face-down tiles block movement and cannot be captured. You cannot pass.
Captures and trades
Both colors use the same ladder. Strongest to weakest: elephant, lion, tiger, leopard, wolf, dog, cat, rat. A higher-ranked animal captures a lower-ranked enemy by moving onto its square. A weaker animal cannot capture a stronger one.
Equal ranks work differently. When an animal captures an enemy of its own rank, both pieces leave the board, and neither side keeps the square.
The rat and elephant reverse the usual order: a rat can capture an elephant, while an elephant cannot capture a rat.
Winning and draws
You win when your opponent has no animals left, or starts a turn with no legal flip or move. If the last animal of each color is removed in an equal-rank trade, the game is drawn.
Games draw on threefold repetition, or when 40 half-moves (20 by each player) pass with no flip, capture, or trade.
Mistboard also ends a fully revealed, one-animal-each position when neither side can force a win. Equal ranks are always dead because any meeting removes both; some unequal-rank chases are also unwinnable. These positions are drawn immediately.
A sample game
MistyJungleFlip against itself at three times the strength the site’s bot plays at. The first flip turns up red, so the first player is Red. The cats meet and trade off on move 10, a red rat takes Blue’s elephant on move 24, and on move 28 the two lions trade off too, which leaves Blue with no move. Red wins.
The companion study has all twenty games from the run, each opening into its own deal, with a note on how it went.
Common questions
- Can the bot see the face-down tiles?
- No. The engine gets the same board you do. Every face-down tile is sent to it as unknown, along with the count of what is still hidden, and it learns what a tile is at the moment it flips, the same moment you do.
Play on Mistboard
When an animal takes an enemy of the same rank, both leave the board. No account needed.