Ember Pile Picks

Ember Pile Picks is a fireside collection of the classic token games, played against an engine that never guesses. It does not look for a move that seems strong. For every position it already knows whether the side to move is winning or losing, and it plays accordingly. Then it tells you why. FIVE TABLES, TWO ENDING RULES Every table can be played so that taking the last token wins, or so that taking the last token loses. The switch genuinely changes the correct move, not just the wording. - Classic nim. Several piles, take as many tokens as you like but from one pile only. The engine plays by the nim-sum, and the Reveal panel writes every pile in binary so you can see the column that refuses to cancel. - Subtraction. One pile and a take limit. The entire game lives in a remainder. - Staircase nim. Tokens slide down numbered steps. Only the odd steps decide the match, and the app shows you which ones are lit. - Two pile golden ratio game. Take from one pile, or the same amount from both. The losing positions form a ladder built out of the golden ratio, drawn on screen. - Corner grid. Clear a tile and everything above it and to its right goes too. No formula exists for this one, so the app solves every reachable shape backwards from the empty board and plays that solution exactly. THE TEACHING LAYER IS THE POINT Reveal prints the true value of the position you are standing in, including the times it is lost, with the running nim-sum and the offending bit highlighted so you can see which move zeroes it. After every engine move, one line names the principle it used. Where is the win hands you a winning move and the reason behind it, and says plainly when there is none. Drill mode deals a winning position with four candidate moves and explains the right answer and the wrong ones. A perfect engine is not unbeatable. It is only unbeatable from a position that was already lost for you. Win from a winnable start and the record book counts it. Win from a lost start and it is counted separately, because that means the engine never got a winning move back at all. WHAT IS INSIDE Five variants with twenty starting shapes, a normal and a misere rule for each, an engine that opens if you want a harder seat, twelve awards, a record book for every table, drill accuracy and a win streak. Everything is stored on your device and survives a restart. Completely offline. No internet permission, no ads, no analytics, no accounts, no purchases and no sound at all. Feedback is visual, with an optional short haptic buzz. Every board, token, grid and diagram is drawn with vector graphics, so the app stays small. No gambling, no wagering and no currency of any kind. Just tokens, arithmetic and a warm hearth.