Peat

A cutting duel for two, played misère. Four banks of peat stand in the bog, their sizes drawn by lot against a coin: half the bogs are already lost for the house that cuts first, and half are already won, so the reading comes before the spade. On your turn, CUT any positive number of sods from a single bank, or SEED exactly one sod from one bank onto another — a transfer, never a take, and only twice a game each. Whoever cuts the last sod of the whole bog loses the village’s favour outright. Seeds never empty the ground, so the bog cannot loop and cannot tie: somebody always cuts last, said plainly.

How it feels

• A bank of three you must leave at one
• Spending a seed to pass the poison
• The last sod standing alone in the ground

What the design is for

• 01

  Misère, all the way down

  Every instinct from taking-games is inverted: you cut to starve the rival’s options, not to gather yours. The endgame lives on the parity of single-sod banks, and the last sod is a gift you leave wrapped for the house that must take it.

• 02

  The seed, and what it is honestly worth

  A second verb the shelf has never had: move one sod between banks without taking anything, twice a game each. The solve is blunt about it — over all 495 distinct draws, holding two seeds or none changes who wins in zero of them. A seed passes the turn without changing the ground’s arithmetic. It is worth exactly one thing, and the tutorial teaches that one thing: the last sod standing, a seed in your hand and none in your rival’s, and the sod goes sideways instead of into your creel. The ladder counts what believing otherwise costs — over two hundred bogs the Drifter hands back 581 positions the law had already won it, 190 of them by seeding.

• 03

  No loop, no tie, said plainly

  Cuts shrink the bog and seeds only shuffle it, so the game cannot circle; and when one sod stands alone, the house to move must cut it and lose. There is no draw in peat, and the rules say so out loud.

• 04

  A bog drawn against a coin

  A bog whose banks XOR to nought is already lost for the house that cuts first; every other bog is already won. Drawn blind that is not a duel — the exhaustive solve says the first cutter takes 429 of the 495 draws, 87%. So the lot is drawn against a coin: half the bogs quiet, half loud. The ladder prints the split it drew and what came of it — 100 of 200 quiet, and with the law read by both houses the first cutter kept 100 of 200.

• 05

  Taught sod by sod

  Seven steps: the cut, the misère law, the parity of singles, the bank above a single, the one position where a seed wins, shaping the endgame from a big bank — and then a whole bog to yourself. Two of them used to teach the law backwards; every step is now checked against the solver in the tests, so what a step accepts is exactly what wins.