How to play Oustwit

Oustwit is a board duel. Two players, an empty 6×6 grid, eight pieces each. The rules fit on a card. Winning takes practice.

The board and pieces

The board is six squares wide and six squares tall — 36 squares in total. You and your opponent each start with eight pieces of your own color (Red or Blue) held off the board. Red moves first.

The rules in one minute

1. Place

On your turn, drop one of your pieces on any empty square. You can never place onto a square that already has a piece.

2. Push

The moment your piece lands, it shoves every neighbor — yours or your opponent's — one square outward, in the direction away from your piece. There are eight directions in total: up, down, left, right, and the four diagonals.

A neighbor is only pushed if there's room. If a neighbor has another piece directly behind it, the push is blocked for that direction. Pieces don't stack, and chains of pieces don't all slide together — only the one directly next to your placed piece moves.

3. Return

A piece shoved off the edge of the board doesn't disappear. It returns to its owner's hand, ready to place again. This is true for both players' pieces — including yours.

4. Win

You win the match if either of these happens at the end of your turn:

• You have three of your own pieces in a straight line — horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.
• You have all eight of your pieces on the board at the same time.

If your move accidentally creates three of your opponent's pieces in a row (by pushing them into a line), they win. The board itself can't tell whose move caused the line; the rule is "first line on the board wins."

That's everything. There are no dice, no cards, no hidden information, no timer pressure on individual moves. Every position is one you can read in full.

A first match, move by move

Here is a typical opening exchange so you can see the rhythm.

Move 1 (Red): Red places a piece in the center, on a square with empty space all around it. Nothing to push. Red's piece sits alone.

Move 2 (Blue): Blue places diagonally adjacent to Red's piece. Blue's placement pushes Red's piece one square farther toward the edge. Blue is starting to set up an outward shove.

Move 3 (Red): Red places next to Blue's piece, pushing Blue toward the corner. Both players are now testing edge pressure rather than committing to a line.

Move 4 (Blue): Blue plays the corner-adjacent square, intending to push Red right off. Red's pushed piece has another square behind it, so it slides one square — it doesn't fly off.

A few moves later, somebody has the option to either threaten three-in-a-row or set up to land all eight of their pieces on the board. The choice between "make a line" and "fill the board" is the heart of the game.

Things that surprise new players

Your own pieces can come back. If your piece sits on the edge and your opponent places next to it from the center, your piece is the one that gets pushed off. It returns to your hand, but you've lost a tempo.

Three in a row by accident. It's possible to set up a winning line you didn't see, especially via diagonals. It's also possible to put your opponent's pieces in a line by pushing them. Always look at the whole board before placing on the edge.

Placing all eight is a real win condition. It's rarer than three-in-a-row, but if your opponent keeps pushing your pieces off and you keep placing them back, you can ride that grind to a fill-the-board win.

Diagonal pushes count. A piece in the center has up to eight neighbors and pushes all of them at once. The corners have only three neighbors. Where you place is part of how strong the push is.

Tips for getting better

• Open in the middle. A center placement has the strongest push because it has the most neighbors.
• Watch the diagonals. New players over-focus on horizontal and vertical threats. Diagonal three-in-a-rows are easy to miss until they're won.
• Count pieces in hand. Knowing how many pieces each side still has to play tells you who's under fill-the-board pressure.
• Don't always push. Sometimes the best move is one that protects a line you're building, not one that ousts an opposing piece.
• Watch your replays. Every online match is saved. The single fastest way to improve is to watch your last loss and find the move where the position turned.

Single-player vs. online

In single-player, you face the AI at one of three difficulties:

• Easy — the AI plays solid moves but won't punish small mistakes. Good for learning the rules.
• Medium — the AI looks several moves ahead. A reasonable practice partner.
• Hard — the AI plays a deep search. Not unbeatable, but you'll need to be careful.

In online play, you face other people. Matches are turn-based and synchronous — there's no per-move clock unless we add one in a future update, so you can take a few seconds to think. If you disconnect mid-match, the game waits while the app reconnects you; only a true forfeit ends the match early.