Age of Çotanak

How to Play

1. Red and Blue compete to control territory on the 6×6 map.
2. On your turn, select an empty cell that is adjacent to territory you already control.
3. Expanding near several friendly cells creates stronger local influence and can trigger tactical advantages on contested frontiers.
4. The computer responds using a positional evaluation of territory, adjacency and future expansion potential.
5. The match ends when the board is filled or no meaningful expansion remains; the player controlling more valuable territory wins.

Reading Territory

A cell is valuable for more than its immediate score. Central positions may open several future expansion directions, while narrow corridors can block an opponent from reaching an entire region. Frontier cells therefore have both current value and option value: they determine what moves become possible later.

Strategy Tips

• Expand toward flexible central areas before committing too deeply to one edge.
• Build connected regions so that one blocked frontier does not stop all future growth.
• Watch for bottlenecks where a single move can deny access to several cells.
• Compare immediate territorial gain with the future moves that each expansion creates or removes.

Algorithmic Strategy Connection

This classroom edition focuses on spatial control, heuristic evaluation and adversarial search. The original student concept combines territory competition with AI search ideas. Here, the compact board makes it easier to observe how an evaluation function can reward territory, mobility, connectedness and future expansion rather than merely counting occupied cells.