Chesstics
Chess moves, real battles: every unit has health, attack and armour, and a blow deals damage instead of taking a piece. Survive a melee and you strike back. Fight a campaign of card-built armies and shifting world rules, or take on a friend online.
Chess, but the pieces fight back
The pieces move as they do in chess — pawns advance, knights jump, bishops run the diagonals — but they do not capture by touch. Every unit has health, attack and armour. A blow deals damage, and a unit that survives a melee strikes back at once.
Because a blow only carries as far as the attacker's remaining strength, the first strike usually decides the exchange. A wounded unit is something you finish, not something you fear.
Six units, each with a job
Pikemen advance like pawns and stop riders in their tracks
Archers shoot two to three squares along a line — over other units — without leaving their square
Rangers run the diagonals
Cavalry jumps like the knight and takes the most punishment
Queen and King stand behind them, as in chess
Every unit is strong against some and weak against others, yet no attack is forbidden. Nothing is left to dice: every exchange can be read from the unit panels before you move.
A campaign that rebuilds your army
Fight the computer stage by stage. Every battle you win pays gold, and the shop turns it into cards from a deck of 69 — sharper pikes, armoured horses, an archer who outranges the board. You carry three at a time, so every purchase is a question about what to give up.
Over each stage lies one of 24 world rules, and it changes every time: thin armour, a moonless night, a peasants' revolt where the front rank threatens everything it touches. A defeat ends the run. The stage is the difficulty — the higher you climb, the further ahead your opponent thinks.
Online, without an account
Matchmaking pairs you with an opponent who has come just as far. Win and you climb a step; lose and you start over.
With friends: open a room with a five-character code, optionally with a world rule and starting gold to spend on cards before the first round. No sign-up, no profile, nothing stored after the match. If your connection drops, the game brings you back and your opponent waits a minute for you.
Made with care
Pixel art on an isometric board that builds itself before every battle
Sound generated live — the music is four pieces of classical repertoire, synthesized from the score
Mouse, keyboard or gamepad — or type squares: A 1 picks up a unit, A 2 moves it
14 languages
Your campaign saves itself, clock included []No ads, no account, no tracking