SIMCC game documentation

Maths Warriors — Rulebook

Learn to play. Read this once and you’ll be ready for your first game.

Every rule below has a small source note in brackets. Paths beginning with js/ or server/ refer to the archived implementation from which the rules were reconstructed. The current web client and game server share the pure TypeScript engine in packages/games/maths-warriors/src. You can ignore the notes while learning — they remain so a teacher or judge can audit how the rule was established.

1. What you need

Two players. Each player gets six dice, one of each kind (js/config.js:1):

Die Numbers it can show
D4 1–4
D6 1–6
D8 1–8
D10 1–10
D12 1–12
D20 1–20

That’s it. No board, no cards, no score sheet.

2. Setting up

  1. Everyone rolls everything. All twelve dice are rolled — your six and your opponent’s six (js/state.js:25-26). Whatever number each die lands on is its value for now.
  2. Line them up. Each player’s dice are sorted so they’re easy to read (js/state.js:31-34). By default they’re sorted from lowest value to highest.
  3. Decide who starts. Compare the two lines of dice, one position at a time, left to right. The first time you find a difference, whoever has the smaller number goes first (js/state.js:36-40). If every single pair is equal, Player 1 goes first (js/state.js:39).

⚠️ All-equal tiebreak is disputed. The code deterministically gives the start to Player 1, but the game’s own help page promises “a tiebreaker roll decides.” Neither engine implements a roll-off. See docs/OPEN-QUESTIONS.md item 9 — ask your judge before a rated game.

Going first is not purely an advantage. There’s a small handicap attached to it, called the First Player Penalty. See section 6.

3. What you’re trying to do

Capture all six of your opponent’s dice. The moment their last die is captured, you win (js/engine.js:124-127).

A captured die is gone for good. It doesn’t come back, it doesn’t get rerolled, and you don’t get to keep it or use it — it just leaves the game (js/engine.js:111).

4. A turn

Players take turns. On your turn you do exactly one of three things:

  1. A Strength attack
  2. A Mind attack
  3. Skip (do nothing)

Then it’s the other player’s turn (js/engine.js:129).

You can only ever capture one die per turn, because both attack types capture exactly one target (js/engine.js:111).

Strength attack — the simple one

Pick one of your dice and one of your opponent’s dice.

Your die’s value must be equal to or bigger than theirs. (js/engine.js:101)

If it is, you capture their die. Then your attacking die is rerolled — it gets a brand new random value (js/engine.js:119-121).

Example: your D12 shows 9. Their D8 shows 7. 9 ≥ 7, so you capture their D8. Your D12 rerolls and might now show anything from 1 to 12.

Mind attack — the clever one

Pick two or more of your dice (js/engine.js:103) and join them together with maths to make a sum that is exactly equal to the value of the die you’re attacking (js/engine.js:105-106).

You may use:

If your sum lands exactly on their number, you capture that die — and every die you used in the sum gets rerolled (js/engine.js:119-121).

Example: their D20 shows 18. You have a D6 showing 3 and a D8 showing 6. 3 × 6 = 18. Exact match — their D20 is captured, and your D6 and D8 both reroll.

Skipping

You can always choose to skip your turn (js/game.js:205-221). Nothing happens; play passes to your opponent. Skipping is never forced on you, and you’re allowed to skip even when you do have a legal attack available — the game does not check (server/game-logic.js:334-351).

5. The maths rules, precisely

These are the rules the game uses when it checks your sum (js/expression.js:84-170). They matter, so read them once carefully.

Normal order of operations. × and ÷ happen before + and −, and things in brackets happen first (js/expression.js:79, js/expression.js:143-153). So 2 + 3 × 4 is 14, not

  1. If you want 20, write (2 + 3) × 4.

Left to right for ties. 10 − 3 − 2 is (10 − 3) − 2 = 5, not 10 − (3 − 2) (js/expression.js:148).

Your final answer must be a whole number. If your sum works out to 3.5, it’s rejected (js/expression.js:168).

But halfway through, anything goes. Fractions and negative numbers are completely fine as long as the final answer is a whole number (js/expression.js:84-170 — there is no check on intermediate values).

You can’t divide by zero (js/expression.js:107) — though since dice never show 0, this almost never comes up.

Each die can be used only once in a single sum (server/game-logic.js:259). Your D6 showing 4 cannot become “4 + 4”.

You must actually use every die you picked. Picking a die and then not putting it in the sum isn’t how the game is meant to work (server/game-logic.js:251) — and on the screen, picking a die automatically drops it into your sum (js/ui.js:792-798).

6. The First Player Penalty

The player who moved first has one small handicap, and it only ever matters on the very last capture of the game.

When the first player attacks their opponent’s last remaining die using a Strength attack, their die’s value must be strictly greater than the target — > instead of ≥ (js/engine.js:100-101, server/game-logic.js:184-195).

So if you went first and your opponent has one die left showing 6, a die of yours showing 6 is not enough. You need 7 or more.

This only applies to the player who went first, and only to Strength attacks. Everything else stays the same.

(In the game’s own help page this penalty is described as also applying to Mind attacks. The code does not do that — see docs/OPEN-QUESTIONS.md, item 1. Ask your judge which one your event is using.)

7. Clocks

There are two optional clocks (js/timer.js).

Game clock. One clock for the whole game, shared. The default is 12 minutes (js/config.js:13, index.html:345). If it runs out before anyone has been wiped out, the game ends immediately and the winner is decided by counting dice — see below (js/timer.js:45-51).

Move clock. An optional per-turn clock, off by default (js/config.js:14, index.html:356). If it runs out on your turn, your turn is skipped automatically (js/timer.js:76-82).

8. How the game ends

There are two ways to win.

By capture. You captured all six of your opponent’s dice (js/engine.js:124-127). This is the normal way to win.

On the clock. The game clock ran out. The winner is the player with fewer dice left on their own side; if both players have the same number of dice left, the player who did not go first wins (js/timer.js:45-51, server/game-logic.js:368-382).

⚠️ That second rule reads strangely — you’d expect more dice left to be better. It’s written the same way in both halves of the code, so it’s not a typo in one place, but it does contradict the game’s own help page. It’s logged in docs/OPEN-QUESTIONS.md (item 2) and docs/SUSPECTED-BUGS.md (item 8). Ask your judge before a rated game.

There is no draw. There is no rule for what happens if neither player can move.

9. A full worked turn

Here’s one complete turn, start to finish.

The position. It’s your turn. You did not go first, so the First Player Penalty doesn’t apply to you at all.

  D4 D6 D8 D10 D12 D20
You 2 4 6 3 11 7
Opponent 1 5 8 10 10 19

Step 1 — Look for a target. Their D20 showing 19 is the scariest die on the board. You’d love to remove it.

Step 2 — Can you take it by Strength? Your biggest die is the D12 showing 11. 11 ≥ 19 is false, so no (js/engine.js:101). Strength won’t work on that one.

Step 3 — Try a Mind attack. You need a sum that hits exactly 19, using two or more of your dice (js/engine.js:103).

Have a look at what you’ve got: 2, 4, 6, 3, 11, 7.

Step 4 — Check it against the rules.

Step 5 — Attack. Their D20 is captured and leaves the game permanently (js/engine.js:111).

Step 6 — Reroll. The three dice you used — your D12, D8 and D4 — are all rerolled (js/engine.js:119-121). Say they come up 4, 1 and 3. Your D6, D10 and D20 are untouched, because you didn’t use them.

The position now:

  D4 D6 D8 D10 D12 D20
You 3 4 1 3 4 7
Opponent 1 5 8 10 10 —

Step 7 — Pass the turn. It’s your opponent’s move (js/engine.js:129).

Notice the cost: to take their best die you spent your three best numbers, and the rerolls came back low. That trade-off is the heart of the game.

10. Quick reference

   
Dice per player 6 — D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20 (js/config.js:1)
Goal Capture all 6 opponent dice (js/engine.js:124-127)
Strength attack 1 die, value ≥ target (js/engine.js:101)
Mind attack 2+ dice, sum = target exactly (js/engine.js:103-106)
Operators + − × ÷ and brackets (js/expression.js:79, js/expression.js:22-51)
Order of operations Standard — brackets, then × ÷, then + − (js/expression.js:143-153)
Final answer Must be a whole number (js/expression.js:168)
Halfway answers Negatives and fractions allowed (js/expression.js:84-170)
Dice used in an attack Rerolled (js/engine.js:119-121)
Dice captured Removed permanently (js/engine.js:111)
Skipping Always allowed (js/game.js:205-221)
First Player Penalty Strength only, last enemy die only, > not ≥ (js/engine.js:100-101)
Default game clock 12 minutes (js/config.js:13)
Default move clock Off (js/config.js:14)

This rulebook was reconstructed from the source code of the web implementation. Where the code was unclear or appeared to contradict itself, nothing was invented — those points are recorded in docs/OPEN-QUESTIONS.md and docs/SUSPECTED-BUGS.md.

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