Dead Eye! 2026

The sun hangs high over a dusty frontier town, and two gangs of gunslingers face each other across the street. Loose cartridges lie scattered in the dirt between them. There's no time to holster up, so a cowboy has to grab a bullet off the ground and fire it on the spot. Every gunslinger knows the code: count three paces, then shoot. Anyone who falls is laid to rest under a tombstone right where he dropped, and the street gets more crowded with every shot.

Each player starts with six cowboys on their back row of an 8×8 board, with 28 bullets spread across the middle in a mirrored pattern so neither side starts ahead. On your turn you move one cowboy a single square in any direction, like a king in chess. If you step onto a bullet, you have to fire it right away. Every shot travels exactly three squares in a straight line, in any of eight directions. It flies over other bullets but can't pass through cowboys or tombstones. If it lands on an enemy cowboy, he's out and a tombstone takes his place. If it lands on an empty square, the bullet drops there and can be picked up again. If there's no legal place for it to land, the gun misfires and the bullet is lost.

Strategy comes down to range and positioning. Each loose bullet is a loaded threat aimed exactly three squares away. Keep your cowboys out of reach of the bullets your opponent can pick up, and move into position to strike yours. Tombstones work as cover, blocking both movement and fire, so the board changes as the fight goes on. The sharpest players set up two threats at once, so their opponent can only escape one of them.

You win by gunning down four of your opponent's cowboys. If every bullet is used up first, the side with more cowboys standing wins. A tie goes to whoever made the last capture. For a bigger showdown, play on a 9×9 board with nine cowboys a side and 36 bullets; the first to six captures wins.

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