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Madagascar's national board game. You do not capture by landing on a piece — you capture by moving towards a line of them, or by backing away from one, and the whole line disappears.
The board is five rows by nine columns of points joined by lines. Points where the row and column numbers add to an even number are strong points and carry diagonals as well; the rest only carry the four straight lines. Each side starts with twenty-two pieces and the very centre is empty.
A move slides one piece one step along a line to an empty point. If that step brings the piece up against an enemy piece directly ahead, you capture it and every enemy piece continuing behind it in that same direction. If instead there was an enemy piece directly behind you as you moved away, you capture that one and the line behind it. Some moves offer both, and then you choose which line to take.
Capturing is compulsory: if any capture exists, you may not make a quiet move. After a capture the same piece may capture again, as long as it does not repeat a direction it has already used this turn and does not return to a point it has already stood on. You may stop the chain whenever you like.
Take every enemy piece to win. Your score is your win streak, and the search looks deeper as it grows.
The first thing to learn is that a capture takes a whole line, not a single piece. That means the danger is never one enemy piece next to yours — it is your own pieces sitting in a neat row. Two of your pieces in a line can be taken together, three can be taken together, and a tidy wall is the most fragile shape on the board. Break your ranks early and keep your pieces on staggered points.
Approach and withdrawal are two different threats from the same square, and beginners only ever see the first one. Before you move a piece away from an enemy, check what is behind you: retreating is often a capture in disguise, and it is the move opponents least expect because it looks defensive. When a move offers both, take the longer line unless the shorter one opens a chain.
Compulsory capture is a weapon, not just a rule. If you can arrange things so your opponent has exactly one capture available and it is a bad one, they are forced to play it. Offering a single cheap piece to drag an enemy piece out of a strong point is a standard sacrifice, and the piece you dragged is often the one that gets swept up in your reply.
Strong points — the ones with diagonals — are worth far more than the rest, and the centre most of all. A piece on a strong point threatens eight directions and can start a chain that turns corners; a piece on a weak point threatens four and is much easier to trap. When choosing between two equal-looking captures, take the one that leaves your piece on a strong point.