One after the other, players move one their pieces of one cell in any direction. A stack of two pieces is allowed in a cell, but only the top piece can be moved. To win, move your white piece to the center of the grid, but note it must remain on top of one of your other pieces. To capture a white piece, move one of your colored pieces on the same cell. To capture a colored piece, the piece you move needs to come from a stack of your color. Captured pieces are removed from the board. If you cannot play your turn, or if you are out of time, your white piece is removed from the grid and the game continues for the other player(s).
A game ends in a draw if none of the players could win within the agreed maximum number of turns or if all players are out of time. At the moment, all games are limited to 100 turns and there are no time limits.
In a physical game set, the white pieces used in the digital world are Marbles and referred as such. The other pieces usually have a dimple to accept a marble. These are known as Stones. The goal cell at the center of the grid can be gilded and consequently be known as the golden cell or simply the Gold.
In Latin, Arcēs means “you enclose”, “you defend”. It also means “fortified city”. This is a reminder that the game is an allegory of siege wars and therefore justifies the following vocabulary: The content of a cell is called a Formation. A formation combining a marble and a stone is called a Command; a stone alone, a Unit; a stack of stones of the same color, a Tower; and a stack of stones of different colors, a Cage.
On iOS, piece selection requires two distinct taps and some animation will not trigger. The game otherwise seems to work well on the most popular browsers on Android, MacOS and Windows..
www.zigzagemporium.com/arces/ (the Site) allows you to play Arcēs without subscription, without fees, without ads and without your usage data being monetized by the site owner. Better yet, you may even download the site's pages to play offline if you will.
However, if you want to use the Site or its code for commercial, personal or educational purposes, please communicate with Jean-Philippe Mailloux via LinkedIn to obtain his permission.
Arcēs and its logo are trademarks.
Copyright © 2021, Jean-Philippe Mailloux. All right reserved.