Lines this game
Primrose Paddocks is dots and boxes, the pencil and paper classic, on a sheet of notebook paper in a spring meadow. Draw a line between two dots, close a box to fence in a paddock and claim the critter inside, and go again. It looks like a game for passing notes in class. Played well, it is one of the deepest little strategy games there is.
Dots and boxes was first published in 1889 by the French mathematician Edouard Lucas, who called it la pipopipette. It has been drawn in the margins of exercise books ever since, under plenty of names: boxes, squares, paddocks, dots and dashes, the dot game and, our favourite, pigs in a pen.
The rules take ten seconds to learn. The strategy took mathematicians most of the last century to work out, and the late Elwyn Berlekamp wrote a whole book about it. We built Primrose Paddocks so you can enjoy both: a quick, friendly game with the drawing feel of real ink, and house players and hints that quietly teach the ideas strong players use. It's free, it runs in your browser and there's nothing to download.
We also offer two classic starts from Scandinavia. On a Swedish board the outside border is already drawn, which makes every box on the edge more dangerous. On an Icelandic board the left and bottom edges are drawn.
Read the full Primrose Paddocks guide
Yes. It's free to play in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with no ads and nothing to download.
When you are handed a long chain, you take all but the last two boxes and draw the line at the far end. Your opponent gets the two boxes but then has to open the next chain for you, so you keep control.
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