How to Play Petteia

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Petteia is a two-player abstract strategy game played on a grid board with equal sets of pieces for each side. Each player manoeuvres their pieces to trap and capture the opponent's, using a custodian mechanic in which a piece is taken when it is surrounded on two opposite sides by enemy pieces. There are no dice and no hidden information: every decision is purely tactical.

The game is valued for the tension it creates with relatively simple rules. Because captures depend on positioning rather than direct replacement, players must think several moves ahead to set traps while protecting their own pieces. It is well suited to a tabletop or classroom setting and travels easily with a small set of counters and a marked board.

A little history

Petteia's origins are unclear. It is mentioned by ancient Greek writers, including references attributed to Plato and later to Pollux, who described it as a game of pieces moved on a lined board, but no complete ruleset survives from antiquity. Scholars have long debated whether it is related to the Roman game Latrunculi, and some researchers treat them as variants of the same family, though that connection is not settled. The rules most commonly played today are reconstructions based on those ancient textual fragments combined with comparative study of similar custodian-capture games from other cultures.

Setting up

1. Place the board between the two players so that both have equal access to all sides.
2. Decide which player takes which colour of pieces.
3. Each player places their 16 pieces on the two rows nearest to them, filling those rows completely.
4. Decide who moves first, by agreement or by any random method such as a coin toss.

How to play

1. Players alternate turns. On your turn you must move exactly one of your pieces.
2. A piece may move any number of empty squares in a straight line: horizontally or vertically only. Diagonal movement is not permitted.
3. A piece may not jump over any other piece, friendly or enemy.
4. Capture is by custodian: if, after your move, an enemy piece finds itself sandwiched between two of your pieces on opposite sides along a row or column, that enemy piece is removed from the board immediately.
5. You may capture more than one enemy piece in a single move if the move simultaneously completes two or more custodian traps in different directions.
6. A piece is safe when it moves voluntarily between two enemy pieces: it is not captured simply by moving into that position. Capture only triggers when it is the moving player who completes the sandwich.
7. If a player has no legal move on their turn, they pass. If neither player can move, the game ends and the player with more pieces remaining wins.
8. Play continues until one player has captured all of the opponent's pieces, or until one player's pieces are all immobilised with no legal moves available.

Winning and scoring

A player wins outright by capturing every one of the opponent's pieces. A player also wins if the opponent has pieces remaining but none of them can legally move on the opponent's turn and the position does not change further. If the game reaches a state where neither player can make progress and both agree the position is static, count the pieces remaining: the player with more pieces on the board wins. In the event of equal pieces, the game is a draw.

The fine points

The most common point of dispute is the 'safe entry' rule. A piece that moves voluntarily into a square between two enemy pieces is not captured: the custodian capture only triggers on the move that completes the trap, and it is always the active player's move that does so. This means a defender can sometimes use this rule deliberately to slide a piece into an apparently dangerous gap without loss, because the trap is not sprung by the defender's own action.

A second dispute arises at the edges of the board. The board edge does not count as a capturing piece: you cannot capture an enemy piece by placing one of your own pieces beside it when it is already against the edge. Two of your own pieces are always required to complete a custodian capture, regardless of the geometry. If a piece in a corner is adjacent to two enemy pieces that form an L-shape rather than a straight line, it is not captured, because the two captors must be on directly opposite sides along a single row or column.

How to win more often

• Control the centre early: pieces in the middle of the board have more directions available and can threaten captures on multiple axes simultaneously.
• Set up two threats at once whenever possible. If your opponent must respond to one custodian threat, they may not be able to prevent the second.
• Do not advance pieces in isolation. A lone piece far from support is easy to trap; keep your pieces within one or two squares of mutual coverage.
• Remember the safe-entry rule and use it deliberately: if sliding a piece between two enemy pieces puts you in a strong position for your next move, and you know it cannot be captured while you are the one moving there, the entry is free.
• Count remaining pieces regularly. In late-game positions where full capture is unlikely, manoeuvring for piece advantage and eventual immobilisation of the opponent is a valid winning strategy.

Variations

Smaller Board (6x6)

Played on a 6x6 grid with 10 or 12 pieces per side, this version produces faster, sharper games with less room to manoeuvre. It is a good format for introducing younger players or for a shorter session, and the reduced board makes the custodian mechanic easier to see and plan around.

Latrunculi-Style Corner Rule

Some reconstructions, drawing on the related Roman game Latrunculi, treat corner squares as active capturing positions: a single piece pressed into a corner by one enemy piece is considered captured, because the corner itself stands in for the second captor. This rule is not universally accepted but is commonly adopted in competitive reconstructions and adds a significant tactical element around the four corners of the board.

Misere Petteia

In this inversion, the player who loses all their pieces first wins. Moves and capture rules remain identical, but strategy reverses: players try to engineer situations in which their own pieces are taken while keeping their opponent's pieces safe. It is a diverting change that exposes quite different positional thinking.

Unequal Forces

To create a handicap game, one player begins with 12 pieces and the other with 16, arranged however each player chooses within their starting two rows. The player with fewer pieces wins if they can reduce the opponent to an equal count while retaining all their own; otherwise standard winning conditions apply. This format allows a more experienced player to give a meaningful advantage to a beginner without altering the core rules.

Petteia: frequently asked questions