How Watchmen Set Their Fires: a Starbattle Story
Two hundred years ago watchtowers blinked fire signals across a gorge: one flame for calm, two for strangers coming. The rules were strict — neighbouring towers never lit at once, or the far post saw one blur and could not read the message. I remembered this when I first opened Starbattle.
The same fires on screen
Look: exactly two stars in every row, column and region. Stars never touch, not even at corners. It is the same signal code — lights set sparse so each reads apart. A click sets a star, another a dot, a third clears. Dots are my dark towers: I mark everything checked, and the field turns into a watch map.
What the watchmen teach
An old signaller started with cramped sectors — where the region is small but two stars are still due. Few options, fast search. I do the same: I hunt the region with barely any free cells left. And the main watch trick is thinking in shadows: one star bans all eight neighbours. Place one — eight cells go dotted at once. The board melts away.
The night shift
There is a special pleasure in the last star. Rows done, columns done, one region left with two empty cells side by side — and you already know both are burning. You click, and the field flares into the finished pattern. The watchmen damped their fires at dawn feeling the same: shift over, signal delivered.