Jackaroo

Setup

An eight-sided board with a track of 76 spaces drilled round it, nineteen in front of each player — the track dips inward along each side and comes back out at the four corners, where the marble yards sit. Four seats, in fixed partnerships: you and the player facing you are one side, and the two beside you are the other.

Every marble starts in your yard, off the track. Your start square sits at the head of your own nineteen, and your home column — four spaces — runs inwards from just before it.

The quick game gives each player THREE marbles and runs ten to fifteen minutes. The host can choose the full four-marble board in the lobby, which is the game as it is sold in a box and takes about half again as long.

A standard 52-card deck with the jokers taken out. You hold four cards at all times, drawing back up after every turn; when the deck runs out the discard pile is shuffled and becomes the deck again.

Who starts is drawn at random. Everything on the board is visible to everybody — only the four cards in each hand are hidden, and they are hidden on our servers rather than merely covered on your screen.

How to play

On your turn you play exactly one card and do what it says. You may not pass, and if a card can be played you must play it — even when it hurts you. If nothing in your hand can move anything, you discard one card instead and your turn ends.

ONLY AN ACE OR A KING brings a marble out of the yard, onto your start square. Nothing else will do it, so a hand with neither is a hand that cannot start a marble however good it looks.

The plain numbers move one of your marbles that many spaces forward: 2, 3, 6, 8, 9 and 10 as printed, the Queen 12, the King 13.

THE ACE moves 1 or 11 — your choice. THE FOUR moves BACKWARDS, four spaces, and that is the whole of what it does.

THE FIVE moves ANY marble on the board five spaces, including your opponents'. It never pushes a marble past its own home entrance: if the five spaces carry it into its home column, in it goes, and if they would overshoot that column, the five cannot move that marble at all.

THE SEVEN splits between two of your marbles however you like — six and one, four and three, or all seven on one.

THE JACK swaps one of your marbles with an opponent's. Neither may be in a yard, in a home column, standing on its own start square, or leading a block.

THE KING, when it moves its 13, captures EVERY marble it passes over, not only the one it lands on. It is the most destructive card in the deck and the reason a long run of marbles in front of you is dangerous.

Controls

Your four cards sit along the bottom. Tap one and the board shows you every marble it can legally move, with the destination marked — so you can pick each card up in turn and see what it would do before committing to anything.

Tap the marble you want to move. For a card with a choice — the Ace's 1 or 11, or how a seven splits — the app asks after you have chosen the marble, so the question only ever appears when it is real.

A card that cannot move anything is greyed out. When every card is greyed out the Discard button appears, and it is the only thing you can do; the app will not let you discard while a legal move exists, because playing is compulsory.

Your opponents' hands are shown as a count of face-down cards. You never see their cards and neither does your phone.

The board turns so YOUR yard is nearest you, whichever seat you are in. Your partner is always opposite, which is what makes the partnership readable at a glance.

The rail above the board shows how many marbles each side has brought home, out of six in the quick game or eight in the full one.

Scoring

There is no score inside a game and no running total across boards. One board is the whole game: a side either brings its marbles home or it does not.

CAPTURING is the closest thing to scoring. Land exactly on any marble and it goes back to its owner's yard, to be brought out again with an Ace or a King. A marble sent back from near its home has lost a whole lap.

There is no mercy for a partner: landing on your partner's marble sends it home too, and so does landing on your own. Because playing is compulsory, you will sometimes be forced to do exactly that.

THREE THINGS CANNOT BE TOUCHED. A marble standing on its own start square cannot be passed, captured or swapped. Two marbles on adjacent spaces form a block, and the leading one is protected the same way — with one exception: bringing a marble out onto its own start square with an Ace or a King sends home any opponent standing there, even one leading a block. And you may never jump over one of your own marbles, wherever it is.

On your profile a win pays 28 points, a draw 9 and a loss 4 — the largest award of any game here except chess, because even the quick board is the longest thing in the app.

Jackaroo is rated and moves the same ladder as chess. Rating only moves in an online match between exactly two people, so a four-handed game pays both partners full points and stats and leaves everyone's rating alone.

Winning

A side wins when ALL of its marbles are home — six in the quick game, eight in the full one. Your partner's marbles count as much as yours, and neither of you finishes alone.

To enter your home column you need a count that lands inside it. Overshoot and the move is not allowed at all — a marble never sails past its own entrance for another lap. A marble one space short of home with only a King in hand is genuinely stuck, and that is the game.

Marbles fill the column from the FAR END backwards, so an early arrival never blocks the ones behind it. You cannot reverse into your home column with a four — the way in is forwards, all the way round.

ONCE ALL YOUR OWN MARBLES ARE HOME, YOU PLAY FOR YOUR PARTNER. Your cards move their marbles for the rest of the game. This is the rule that makes Jackaroo a partnership game rather than a race with a shared score, and finishing first is not the end of your turn — it is the start of a different job.

Leaving the match forfeits it, and that costs your partner too: your side loses and the other pair both take the win. A turn left unplayed for two minutes is NOT a forfeit: it is played for you — a real move where there is one, a burned card where there is not — so one slow turn never costs your partner the match.

Tips

Play an Ace, then a four. Coming out onto your start and immediately reversing four puts you four steps from your own home entrance instead of a full lap away. It is the best opening in the game and the reason the four exists.

Keep a marble on your start square when you can. It is untouchable there, and while it sits there nobody can pass your quadrant at all.

Hold your King for a crowd. A 13 that passes four marbles takes all four, and spending it to move one marble thirteen quiet spaces is the most common waste in the game.

The five is an attacking card, not a moving one. Five spaces of your own progress is little; five spaces of an opponent's can leave their marble exactly where your next card captures it.

Watch for blocks before you commit. Two marbles side by side stop everything, including you, and a block just in front of your own entrance is the worst place on the board to find one.

Bring your marbles home deep first and do not rush the last one. The column fills from the back, so there is no penalty for waiting — but a marble caught on the track near home is the easiest capture your opponents will get all game.