Vying Games : Cephalopod | Play Cephalopod

Cephalopod is a board game played with dice (with no randomness!) invented by Mark Steere in 2006. You can find Mark's original Cephalopod rule sheet (pdf) at his site Mark Steere Games.

How To Play

Cephalopod is played by two players on a 5x5 board. The first player controls the white dice and the second player the black dice (though the look sort of red / brown, to be honest). The players take turns placing a die of their color on an empty square. If it's a non-capturing move a one (1) is placed. If it's a capturing move the die placed will equal the sum of the dice captured on that turn.

Non-capturing Moves

You can always place a die on any empty square. If placing a die on an empty square allows you to capture, you must capture. However, if you can make a non-capturing move to one square, and a capturing move to another, you have your choice of moves. You are not globally required to capture.

A non-capturing move is to place a one (1) on an empty square.

Capturing Moves

If you choose to place a die on an empty square that's neighbored to the north, south, east or west -- no diagonals! -- it's a capturing move if the sum of two or more of the neighbors is six (6) or less. That's a lot to take in, but it's really very simple, to be a capturing move:

• The empty square must be neighbored by at least 2 dice
• Two or more of the neighbors must sum to 6 or less

If you choose to place a die on a square that meets those conditions, you must capture. A question mark will appear in the empty square and you can select between 2 and 4 of the neighbors for removal. When you've selected the dice for removal, click the question mark to place the die equaling the sum of those removed.

For example, if the neighbors are (1,2,3,4) you could choose to capture the (1,2) and a 3 would be placed on the question mark. Or, you could capture the (1,2,3) and a 6 would be placed on the question mark. You could also choose to capture the (2,4) or (1,3) or (1,4). But you could not capture the (3,4) because the sum (7) is greater than 6. Likewise, you could not capture all the dice (1,2,3,4) because the sum (10) is, again, greater than 6.

Another example, say there are three neighbors (3,4,6). There's no combination of 2 dice that sum to less than 6, so you cannot capture. Therefore this would result in a non-capturing move and you'd place a one (1) on the empty square.

A final, very important note: You can capture dice of any color.

Objective

When the board is completely filled with dice, the player with the most dice of their color on the board wins. The faces don't matter, a 6 and a 1 count the same towards the score.

Strategy

It should be obvious that the higher the number on the die the harder it is to capture. It should also be obvious that 6's cannot be captured. So, early in the game, a single 6 is probably worth more than a handful of 1's because all the 1's will likely be captured at some point.

Early in the game, don't worry too much about who's dice you capture. If capturing 3 of your own dice results in a 6, you probably want to do it.

Keep in mind that sometimes, even a one (1) cannot be captured. Consider a 1 in a corner who's two neighbors are 6's. Because the 6's cannot be removed, neither can the 1.

About the Bot

CapellaBot is not very smart, but is a good opponent for beginners. The rules can sound complicated, but play is actually very simple. Playing CapellaBot is probably the easiest way to quickly learn the game.