Proelium

The most minimalist strategy game (with the permission of go). Proelium is a turn-based tactical game inspired by classic board games like checkers, go, and mainly the almost forgotten latrones, played in the Roman Empire. A minimalist gameplay system with very few rules to memorize, yet it offers depth and room to develop your own play style.

Arrange your pieces, block your opponent’s pieces, and eliminate them to claim victory. Challenge a friend on the same device (the iPad version is optimal for this mode, but it’s also avalaible on iPhone), play against a friend or stranger over the Internet, or try to defeat the AI at three different difficulty levels.

In Proelium, there’s only one type of piece, and it can perform only two actions: move and attack. The key is to position your pieces to flank the enemy from at least two sides, blocking them (while avoiding the same fate). Only blocked pieces can be attacked and removed. The interplay of blocks and counterblocks makes Proelium a game of emergent complexity ―easy to learn, but challenging to master.

The rules of Proelium symbolize, in an abstact way, the combat between phalanxes in ancient Greece. The result is a dynamic reminiscent of hoplite warfare ―fundamentally positional and defensive.