Rules
Twelve turns per player. Each turn:
- Roll 5d6. That’s roll #1.
- Tap dice to keep them, then pick up the rest and throw to re-roll. You get up to two re-rolls.
- Click a category cell in your column to score the current dice into it. The category is locked for the rest of the game.
- After your third roll you must score - even if the only open category awards zero.
When every player has filled every category, the highest grand total wins.
Categories
| |
|---|
| Ones - Sixes | Sum of dice showing that face. |
| Full House | 25 points for exactly a three-of-a-kind plus a pair (quads don’t count). |
| Four of a Kind | Sum of all five dice if at least four show the same face. |
| Little Straight | 30 points for exactly 1-2-3-4-5. |
| Big Straight | 30 points for exactly 2-3-4-5-6. |
| Choice | Sum of all five dice, always. |
| Yacht | 50 points for five of a kind. |
History
Yacht is the pre-Yahtzee game - documented in dice-game collections as early as the 1930s. Hasbro’s Yahtzee, released in 1956, is a direct descendant with extra categories (an “upper section” bonus, a Yahtzee bonus chip system) and slightly different score values. The classic Yacht has the cleaner 12-category structure used here.
Pure-strategy Yacht is well-studied: optimal play across all 12 categories averages around 240 points. Most casual players cluster in the 140-200 range. The bot uses a naïve greedy heuristic (score if best fit is ≥ 20, else re-roll all five) - easy enough to outscore once you grasp which categories to leave open for late-turn rescue rolls.
References