Cờ Cá Ngựa

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How to Play Cờ Cá Ngựa

Four colours race four horses each around the board and up into the middle. First player to get every horse up their own staircase wins. That is the whole game — but the two rules that decide it are that landing on somebody sends them back to the start, and that the staircase needs exact rolls.

The four rules that matter

A turn

1. Roll the die.
2. Move one horse that many squares — around the loop, then up your own staircase. If you cannot move anything, the turn passes.
3. Rolled a 6? Go again.

You never have to click through a decision that isn't one: if the roll leaves you no legal move, or exactly one, it plays itself.

How to actually win

Cá ngựa looks like pure luck and isn't. The die decides what you may do; you decide which horse does it, and that is where games are won:

• Count the squares behind you. A horse sitting one to six squares in front of an opponent is a horse you are about to lose. The board tells you exactly who can reach you — the loop runs one way, so only the horses behind you are a threat.
• A kick is worth what the victim had walked. Sending a horse back from near its staircase undoes half a game; kicking one that has just left its stable achieves almost nothing and may cost you a better move.
• Spread out, then commit. Horses still in the stable are safe but useless. Horses strung out around the loop give you a choice of move on every roll, which is the real resource in this game.
• Mind the traffic jam at the top. A horse parked on the first step blocks every horse behind it, because the staircase cannot be jumped. Send the early ones deep.

Playing with fewer horses

Four horses each is the traditional game and it is long — every kick sends somebody back to the beginning. Three is the default here and plays in about half the time; two is quicker still, but with so few horses you rarely get a choice on a roll, so it comes down mostly to the die. If you want the game to reward playing well, play with more horses.

The computer

Empty seats are played by the computer, which is what makes this work on your own — cá ngựa wants four. It weighs each of its options by ground gained, what a kick would cost the victim, and how exposed the move leaves it. Beginner walks horses into danger and often misses a kick; Casual plays sensibly; Club counts the squares behind every horse before it commits.

Playing online

Host a room and share the 4-digit PIN, or tap the ET room. Seats go out in the order people arrive, and the computer plays any seat nobody has taken — so two friends can start straight away without waiting for four. The host rolls for the table, so nobody is rolling their own luck, and if somebody drops out the computer takes their horses over rather than the game stalling.