Petteia Ancient Board Game
Petteia Ancient Board Game
Petteia Ancient Board Game is an offline, self-contained reconstruction of petteia — the ancient Greek board game Plato names and that survives only in fragments because its rules were never fully written down. Instead of pretending one lost rulebook is definitive, the app ships the three best-documented reconstructions side by side with their antique sources (Plato, Polybius, Julius Pollux and the Roman ludus latrunculorum tradition) and lets a player switch between them with a live board preview that resolves the same position differently under each set. On that shared core sits a genuine opponent: an authored negamax search engine with alpha-beta pruning and three calibrated tiers, a 60-problem graded puzzle course with step-through solutions, a 12-scenario campaign with historical briefings and asymmetric positions, an interactive tutorial built from forced-move lessons, an analysis bench where any position can be built or pasted and evaluated, pass-and-play for two people on one device, a sourced rulebook with board-size variants and a Greek glossary, play statistics drawn with Swift Charts, and a Daily Puzzle with an optional home-screen widget. It is made for abstract-strategy players, classics-curious readers, school and club players who want a real two-player game that needs no table, no pieces and no network. Everything is bundled: no account, no network call, no purchase, no camera, microphone or location request — the first screen renders instantly from local SwiftData seed content.
About Petteia Ancient Board Game
Petteia Ancient Board Game is an offline, self-contained reconstruction of petteia — the ancient Greek board game Plato names and that survives only in fragments because its rules were never fully written down. Instead of pretending one lost rulebook is definitive, the app ships the three best-documented reconstructions side by side with their antique sources (Plato, Polybius, Julius Pollux and the Roman ludus latrunculorum tradition) and lets a player switch between them with a live board preview that resolves the same position differently under each set. On that shared core sits a genuine opponent: an authored negamax search engine with alpha-beta pruning and three calibrated tiers, a 60-problem graded puzzle course with step-through solutions, a 12-scenario campaign with historical briefings and asymmetric positions, an interactive tutorial built from forced-move lessons, an analysis bench where any position can be built or pasted and evaluated, pass-and-play for two people on one device, a sourced rulebook with board-size variants and a Greek glossary, play statistics drawn with Swift Charts, and a Daily Puzzle with an optional home-screen widget. It is made for abstract-strategy players, classics-curious readers, school and club players who want a real two-player game that needs no table, no pieces and no network. Everything is bundled: no account, no network call, no purchase, no camera, microphone or location request — the first screen renders instantly from local SwiftData seed content.
Highlights
Play a complete match against the built-in oppon…
Play a complete match against the built-in opponent at Recruit, Hoplite or Strategos tier, ask for a one-move hint, take a move back, and replay a finished match move by move from the move list.
Switch between the three documented rule reconst…
Switch between the three documented rule reconstructions in the Rules Lab — rook-step movement, sliding movement and the corner-sanctuary capture rule — and watch a live board preview resolve the same position differently under each set.
Solve the Puzzle Gauntlet: 60 bundled problems g…
Solve the Puzzle Gauntlet: 60 bundled problems graded in tiers, each with a stated objective such as 'win a soldier in three', a hint, and a solution you can step through one move at a time.
Take on the 12-scenario Campaign, from the narro…
Take on the 12-scenario Campaign, from the narrow pass at Thermopylae to the plain of Mantinea, each with a historical briefing, an asymmetric starting position and a star rating to improve.
Learn the game in the interactive tutorial, wher…
Learn the game in the interactive tutorial, where every lesson is a forced-move exercise covering movement, flanking captures, chain captures, safe squares, zugzwang and the corridor finish.
Build any position on the Analysis Bench by drag…
Build any position on the Analysis Bench by dragging stones from the tray or pasting a short position code, then read the engine's evaluation, the stones currently under threat and the best available replies.
Privacy first
Petteia Ancient Board Game does not collect personal data — everything stays on your device, with no third-party tracking or advertising SDKs. Read the full Privacy Policy.
Support
Questions or feedback? Visit Support or email stijn.brander@lekar-enterprises.site.