Vying Games : Ataxx

Ataxx was invented in 1988 by Dave Crummack and Craig Galley. Their intention was to create "a board game that would work better on a computer than a traditional board". Their computer program was originally called Infection and it went through several incarnations before becoming best known as the arcade game Ataxx.

Ataxx is a territory game that has much in common with Othello.

How to Play

Ataxx is played on a 7x7 board between two players who control red and blue pieces, respectively. Each player starts out with to pieces positioned in opposite corners of the board.

There are two types of movement:

Splitting: Move a piece to an adjacent square (including the diagonals) and it will split (or twin) to occupy both the adjacent square and it's original square.
Jumping: Move a piece two squares away and it jumps, leaving it's old square unoccupied. You can jump to any unoccupied square that's within range, and you don't need to jump over an opposing piece (though you may).

The 8 squares a piece may split to form a ring around it. Those 8 squares are surrounded by a ring of 16 squares that are in jumping range. Given that the board is only 7x7, it should be clear that each piece has a generous range.

You cannot voluntarily pass your turn. However, if you have no valid moves your turn will be skipped automatically until you do (or the game ends).

Infecting (Capturing) Other Pieces

After your move, all neighboring enemy pieces are "infected" (captured) turning them into your pieces.

Blocks

Each game has a random configuration of blocks on the board. The blocks are represented with an 'X', and no piece may land on a block. Pieces may, however, jump over the blocks to land on an unoccupied square.

Our block configurations are taken from the Blocks-Config page at Pressibus.

Each game has an equal chance of getting any of the 629 block patterns listed there (including a board without any blocks).

Game Over

The game ends when the board is completely full. The player with the most pieces of their color wins. Because jumping doesn't increase the number of pieces on the board, it's technically possible for both players to collude to create an infinite game. In some rare circumstances it's possible for one player to jump indefinitely. Naturally, such behavior is frowned upon.

About the Bots

For now there are only two, easier bots. We'll add a third, more difficult bot in the future.

CapellaBot, the less challenging of the two, uses a very short look ahead and only considers score. This simple "greedy" strategy should be easily defeated with a little practice.

VegaBot is similarly greedy, but plays the opening (somewhat) more cautiously, trying to create some stability before becoming completely greedy.