peer2peergames

Mine Duel

You are all working the same minefield and you can all see everything that has been uncovered. Tap a mine and you have flagged it: it counts for you and you go again. Tap safe ground and the numbers open up for everybody, and your turn is over. There is no way to lose by tapping a mine, because finding them is the whole point of the game.

Play Mine Duel Leaderboard

The field and the tap

  1. The field is 16 squares by 16, so 256 squares in all, and 51 of them hide a mine.
  2. There is one field and everybody works it. Anything anybody uncovers is there for everybody else to read.
  3. A tap on a covered square either finds a mine or opens safe ground. Nothing else can happen, and no tap can end your game.
  4. A number on an opened square is the count of mines in the eight squares around it, or fewer than eight at an edge or a corner.
  5. Open a square with no mines at all around it and the whole blank region it belongs to opens with it, which is where most of an open board comes from.
  6. A tap arms a square and the Commit button plays it. On a phone the squares are small, so nothing is sent until you commit and a mis-tap costs you nothing.

Claim it and go again

  1. Find a mine and you flag it. It is counted to you, and you keep the turn.
  2. Find safe ground and the numbers open and the turn passes on.
  3. So a good run is several mines in a row without ever giving the turn up, and that is what a strong player is doing.
  4. Nobody is ever knocked out. A tap that opens ground costs you the turn and nothing else.

Why a safe square is the worst tap

  1. This is the part that is the other way round from what you will expect, so it is worth reading twice.
  2. Everything you uncover is public, and the player who moves next reads it before you get another turn.
  3. So a square you have worked out is definitely safe is the worst square on the board. You lose the turn AND you hand over the numbers you paid for it with.
  4. A square that is probably a mine is usually the better tap. If you are right you score and go again. If you are wrong you have lost the turn, which is what the safe square was going to cost you anyway.
  5. At the longer deadlines the gift is bigger still, because whoever moves next has a day or a week to study what you opened.

Winning, and how a game ends

  1. You win as soon as you have more mines than anybody can still catch you with, counting every mine left in the field.
  2. Between two players that is 26 of the 51, because 26 is more than the other 25 put together.
  3. The game ends the moment somebody is out of reach. It does not wait for the field to be finished.
  4. With three or four players, equal counts at the top are split by who opened fewer safe squares getting there, and after that they share the place.
  5. A resignation or a missed deadline ends the game against that player.

Two things that surprise people

  1. There is no safe first tap. The first tap of a game is a straight 51 in 256 and it is not made safe for you, on purpose: you WANT to find a mine, and a first square guaranteed to be safe would also tell everybody something about the field before a single move had been made.
  2. The board is still half covered when the game ends. The game is decided on mines and not on clearing the field, so a lot of safe squares are simply never opened.

The field is never stored. It is worked out from the game's seed, and the seed is published when the game ends, so anybody reading the log afterwards can lay the whole field out and check every tap in it. While the game is running the seed is in nothing the page is sent, and nor is any covered square: the board you are sent is built up from the taps that have been played and not cut down from the field. That is the only reason a game where everybody shares one board can be safe to play.

Mine Duel terms

Flag
What happens when you tap a mine. It is counted to you and the turn stays yours.
A number
The count of mines in the eight squares touching an opened square. Eight is the most; an edge square has five and a corner three.
The blank region
A run of squares with no mines near any of them. Opening one of them opens all of them, with their numbers around the outside.
Out of reach
Having more mines than anybody else can reach even if they took every mine still in the field. That ends the game.
Arm and commit
A tap on the field arms a square and says which one in words; the Commit button plays it. Nothing is sent until you commit.

Playing it here

  • Against a person or the bot. The bot needs no account and starts at once. To play a person, be rated and keep your games, you need an account: an email address and a password.
  • At your own pace. Every move has a deadline you both see, from one minute to a week. A game can take an evening or it can take a fortnight.
  • Nothing to buy and nothing to win. No stakes, no prizes, no boosts, no undo. The only thing on offer is a place on a leaderboard, and only if you want one.
  • Every game can be checked. Anything decided by chance comes from the game's seed, and the seed is published the moment the game ends, so any finished game can be replayed and verified by anyone. See fair play.