Race your chariot to the opponent's side of the board to win!
Polis is played on an 8×8 board. Each player controls:
BC/BD = Blue Chariot/Dog | RC/RD = Red Chariot/Dog
The chariots start in opposite corners. Blue's chariot is in the top-left; Red's is in the bottom-right.
Get your chariot to the opponent's back row (the row where their pieces started). The game ends immediately when a chariot reaches the final rank.
Players alternate turns. On your turn, you must move one piece. You cannot skip your turn.
All pieces move one square in any direction:
This is the core mechanic of Polis! After you move a piece, all adjacent pieces hop to the opposite side of the piece you just moved.
↓ Blue moves top-left dog to center ↓
What happened:
There are important exceptions to the hopping rule:
A piece won't hop if the target square is occupied or off the board. The piece stays in place instead.
An enemy piece won't hop if there's another enemy piece on the opposite side along the same axis.
Defended (piece stays):
The middle Red dog is anchored by the left Red dog, so it won't hop.
Not defended (piece hops):
The Red dogs aren't on the same axis, so the bottom Red dog hops right.
Stunned chariots don't hop (see Chariots section below).
After all hops are resolved, check for captures:
A dog is captured if it's surrounded by two enemy pieces on opposite sides along the same axis (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal).
Safe (not captured):
The Blue dog is NOT on the same axis as both Red dogs.
Captured:
The Blue dog is surrounded on a diagonal axis - it's captured!
Important: Captures happen simultaneously. Both pieces can capture each other in the same turn.
Both center pieces get captured!
Chariots move like dogs but have special properties:
When a chariot is surrounded by enemy pieces on the same axis, it becomes stunned:
The Blue chariot is stunned. The middle Red dog is SAFE because the stunned chariot doesn't count as a surrounding piece.
You cannot move a piece to a square where it would immediately be captured or stunned.
However, you CAN make a move that causes your allied pieces to hop into danger.
Capture enemy pieces to gain numerical advantage. More pieces means more control!
Lone dogs are easy targets. Groups of dogs are much harder to capture and can threaten enemy pieces.
Look for two of your pieces on the same axis with one empty space between them:
Moving the right Red dog will hop the Blue dog between them for a capture!
Position pieces one space apart to create traps:
Any piece hopped into the center will be captured! Works on diagonals too.
Counter-intuitively, moving your frontmost piece backward hops your other pieces forward while keeping your formation together.
Chariots can advance quickly but can be hopped backward by enemies. Keep allied dogs behind your chariot to block enemy hops and provide support if it gets stunned.
Polis - A game of tactical positioning and dynamic board control