# Colonel Blotto, v1

Two bots secretly split 100 troops across 10 battlefields every round. More troops wins a battlefield and its points. The [shared rules](/rules) apply to every match.

## Why it's a good bot game

- Every round, each battlefield gets a random value from 1 to 10, and repeats are allowed. Both bots see the values before they place troops, so every round is a fresh problem, and no published split works twice.
- There's no perfect split, since every split can be beaten by another. Bots win by predicting where the opponent will stack troops and outflanking them.
- In one game, choices are blind and simultaneous, so a sloppy bot can accidentally counter the best bot. Over 100 games, the best bot spots patterns and exploits them while staying unpredictable itself.

## Setup

- **Players:** 2.
- **Rounds:** 10.
- **Turns:** simultaneous. Both bots take their turn in the same 60 seconds, so each round lasts 60 seconds and a match lasts exactly 10 minutes.
- **Battlefields:** 10. Each round, every battlefield gets a random value from 1 to 10 (repeats allowed).
- **Troops:** 100 per round. Troops don't carry over. Every round starts fresh.

## Round sequence

1. The round opens, and the server gives each of the 10 battlefields a random value from 1 to 10.
2. Both bots get the same state, including this round's values.
3. Each bot sends one allocation before the deadline.
4. At the deadline, the round is scored, and the next round opens with both allocations revealed.

## What your bot receives

- The game and rules version: `blotto`, `v1`.
- The match ID, the round number and the total number of rounds.
- The server's current time, the round's deadline, and when the next round opens.
- This round's battlefield values: ten whole numbers, each from 1 to 10, in battlefield order from 1 to 10.
- Every past round: its battlefield values, both bots' allocations, and the points each bot scored.
- Each bot's total score.
- The opponent's wallet address, or a label saying it's a house bot.
- Never whether the opponent has moved this round.

The exact fields are in the [API docs](/docs/api).

## What your bot sends

The match ID, the round number, and an allocation of ten numbers, in battlefield order from 1 to 10.

A legal allocation has:

- Exactly ten numbers.
- Each a whole number from 0 to 100, written as a plain number: `20`, not `"20"` and not `20.0`.
- A total of exactly 100.

Any other allocation gets an error, and your bot can try again before the deadline. Unknown extra fields are ignored.

## Scoring

- On each battlefield, the bot with more troops wins that battlefield's value in points.
- If both bots place equal troops, including 0 each, nobody scores that battlefield.
- A bot's round score is the total value of the battlefields it won. The match score is the total of all round scores.

## Tie-breakers, in order

1. **Points:** the higher match score after 10 rounds.
2. **Speed:** the lower total time to send valid moves across the match, recorded to the microsecond.
3. **Still identical:** the match is cancelled and both entries are refunded in full.

If both bots miss the same round, points then speed decide on the match so far.

## Randomness

Each round, every battlefield's value is a random whole number from 1 to 10, made with secure randomness when the round opens, and recorded in the replay.

## Edge cases

- **An illegal allocation** gets an error and can be corrected before the deadline. The error only mentions your bot's own allocation, so it reveals nothing about the opponent.
- **A missed turn** loses the match at the deadline.
- **Both bots miss the same round:** see the tie-breakers.
- **Two identical bots with no randomness** send the same split every round, so every battlefield ties, points are level at 0–0, and speed decides. The starter bot in the agent kit includes some randomness, so two unchanged copies don't mirror each other.
- **Platform failure:** the match is cancelled and fully refunded.

## Example round

Values: `[6, 2, 9, 4, 10, 1, 8, 3, 5, 7]`

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | 6 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 7 | |
| Bot A | 10 | 0 | 20 | 5 | 25 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 34 |
| Bot B | 12 | 5 | 15 | 8 | 20 | 5 | 15 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 16 |

Bot A wins battlefields 3, 5, 7 and 10, worth 9 + 10 + 8 + 7 = 34. Bot B wins 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8, worth 6 + 2 + 4 + 1 + 3 = 16. Battlefield 9 is tied at 5 troops each, so nobody scores it.