Carpet Commanders

What to use for bands

Your phone or tablet tells the two armies apart by a colored ring around each toy's base: blue for one side, hot pink for the other. You probably already have something that works. You don't need to buy anything.

The three rules

  1. Blue for one army, hot pink for the other. Pick a clear, strong blue and a bright pink or magenta. Skip purple, teal and pale pastels: they sit between the two colors, and the camera may mix them up.
  2. About 3 to 5 cm across (1¼ to 2 inches): somewhere between a bottle cap and a golf ball. Too small and the camera can't see it; too big and it stops looking like a ring around one toy.
  3. Round, and around (or under) the base. The ring should sit flat on the floor with the toy standing in it or on it. One ring per toy, and every toy on a side gets the same color.

Tip: lighting changes how colors look. At the start of a game the app asks you to tap one blue ring and one pink ring, so it learns what your rings look like in your room.

Free things that work

Small rubber bands

The everyday office size (about 2½ inches long when flat, called #16) makes a ring about 4 cm across. Loop it around the base. Big bands can be doubled up.

Hair ties

Plain blue and pink hair elastics are almost exactly the right size, sit flat, and last forever.

Bottle caps

Milk-jug and juice caps are about 3 cm. Stand the toy on top. Blue caps are easy to find; for pink, color a white cap with a permanent marker.

Round stickers

Dot labels from the office drawer, 1¼ to 2 inches. Stick one on a scrap of card under each toy, or straight onto a clear base.

Craft-foam circles

Cut circles (or rings, with a hole in the middle) from blue and pink craft-foam sheets. A circle punch makes it quick. They lie flat and survive being stepped on.

Paper circles

In a pinch: trace a bottle cap on paper, color it in with a thick marker, and cut it out. Bold colors work best.

Safety first

Rubber bands, caps and small circles are choking hazards for children under 3, and stretched rubber bands can snap. Keep them away from little ones, and have a grown-up help with setup if younger siblings are around.

Shop

Nothing to sell you yet, on purpose. We'll only recommend a ring set after testing it with the game's camera in real living rooms. Until then, the free options above work great.

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