Streak
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Pieces do not sit side by side, they stack. Whoever is on top owns the tower, a tower moves as far as it is tall, and anything squeezed out of the bottom is captured.
The board is an eight by eight square with the four corners trimmed away, and every square starts with a single piece in a chequered pattern of blocks. The piece on top of a stack decides who may move that stack.
To move, take any number of pieces off the top of one of your stacks and carry them that many squares in a straight line — one piece moves one square, three pieces move three. They land on top of whatever is already there, keeping their order. Diagonals are not allowed and you may not leave the board.
A stack never holds more than five. When a move pushes it over, the extra pieces fall off the bottom: your own pieces go into your reserve and can be dropped back onto any square later as a whole turn, while enemy pieces are captured for good.
Capture six enemy pieces to win. You also win if your rival is ever left with no move at all. Your score is your win streak.
The piece you want is not the one on top, it is the one at the bottom. A five-high tower is one move away from spilling, and whoever moves onto it decides whose piece falls out. That means a tall enemy tower with your pieces buried in it is not a threat to you, it is a prize: land on it and your own men come back to you as reserve while theirs get pushed out.
Because of that, avoid stacking your own colour. Two of your pieces in one tower do the work of one — only the top one counts for ownership — and the buried one is hostage to whoever takes the tower next. Spreading thin looks fragile but keeps every piece doing something, and single pieces are the hardest to profit from.
Height is reach, so a one-high stack is nearly immobile and a four-high one covers half a rank. But moving the whole tower gives it away: take only part of the stack when you can, leaving a shorter tower behind that you still own. Splitting is how you keep a presence and make a threat with the same move.
Reserve pieces are worth more than they look because dropping one is a whole turn that can happen anywhere on the board. Hold one back for the moment your rival builds a tall tower next to their side — a reserve dropped on top of it steals the whole thing at once. Spending your last reserve to gain one piece is usually a bad trade; spending it to take a five-stack is game-winning.