TacTix Strategy Game

A simple but intriguing two-player strategy game - Test your skill with this online Java game of the TacTix boardgame created by the games inventor Piet Hein, a variation of the classic puzzle Nim

How To Play

TacTix is a two-player game, where you play against the computer. Players take turns removing counters from the board, and the goal is to force the other player to remove the last counter.

On any turn, you may remove counters from either a single row or a single column. The counters must be on adjacent squares, and you may remove as few as 1 or as many as 4 counters on your turn.

To make a move, use the mouse to select the counters you want to remove from the board, then press the Move button. Selecting a counter twice will cancel the selection.

The computer will make its move automatically after yours. To pass at the beginning of a game and have the computer make the first move, simply press the Move button without selecting any counters.

Strategy

TacTix, created by the brilliant Danish inventor Piet Hein, is a variation of Nim, one of the oldest and most-analyzed of mathematical games. It has been proven that the player of TacTix who moves second can always win, if he or she plays perfectly. At the Expert level, the TacTix program will indeed play a perfect game. So if you want to win at the Expert level, you must let the computer move first!