Lattice Checkers

The goal of the game is to move as many of your pieces as possible to the opposite side of the lattice (bottom -> top).

You and the AI take alternating turns and follow the same rules. On each turn a player must either move one of his/her pieces or take one or more of opponent's pieces.When moving a piece, it can go only forward (yours - up, AI's - down), to one of the nearest nodes.

If at the start of your turn you find your and opponent's pieces on neighboring nodes, and the nearest node on the opposite side of the opponent's piece is unoccupied, you must take the opponent's piece.This is done by placing your piece on that unoccupied node removing the opponent's piece from the lattice.

Pieces can be taken in both forward and backward direction. One you take an opponent's piece, you don't end your turn as long as you can immediately take another piece, and so on (just like in checkers).

If at the end of your turn or during it you place your piece on the topmost plane of the lattice, it turns into a "star" piece. Once this happens, you can recover one of your pieces that was taken by your opponent (if such pieces exist) and place it on any unoccupied node at the bottom-most plane of the lattice. "Star" pieces may move and take as the usual balls, but they has take to back direction at first time as turned.

The game ends when one of the players loses all the pieces or when no more actions are possible. At this point, the winner is the player having more pieces on the opponent's starting plane of the lattice.