Win Surakarta

Win Surakarta

Win Surakarta brings the old Javanese board game of loops and lines to your pocket. On a six-by-six board, sixteen stones face off - eight lacquer red under your hand, eight lacquer black under the computer's. A stone with no plan simply steps to an open neighbouring cell. A stone with a plan slides down a rank or file, curls through one of the board's four gold loop tracks at the corners, and keeps sliding until it lands on the first enemy stone in its path, taking it. That is the whole trick of Surakarta: a straight shot at an enemy stone is never enough on its own - the capture only counts once the stone has bent its path through a loop. Reading which lanes connect to which loop, and when your opponent can do the same to you, is the entire game.

Twenty boards climb in difficulty. The computer's general starts modest and grows sharper, searching further ahead and reading the loops better as you advance. Clear a board quickly and without losing a stone for all three stars, and bank coins along the way. Every board is won on the strength of the position alone - no timers to buy away, no stones to purchase, nothing but the loops and your own reading of them.