Reply To: A 2-player game you can play with pieces you probably already have

Updated:

Mixtour (designed by Dieter Stein)

Number of players: 2

You will need:

A 5×5 grid to place pieces on and 22 pieces for each player

(a different color for each). The pieces must all be able to

be stacked on top of each other. If playing a “tournament” game,

4 tokens of some kind are also needed. (Pieces from backgammon,

checkers, or Connect Four are well suited. Rummikub tiles can also

be used, with 1 player’s tiles face down. I’m not sure you’ll need the

full 22 pieces if you’re not playing the “tournament” game.)

Setup:

Place each player’s pieces within their reach.

(The board is empty at the start of the game.)

Gameplay:

The object of the game is to create a stack of 5 or more pieces

with one of your own pieces on top (if the other player creates

the stack, that also counts).

The players alternate turns (choose a first player by any method).

On their turn, players must take 1 of the following 2 actions:

1. Place one of their own pieces on an empty space of the board.

2. Move at least one piece from one occupied space to another occupied space, stacking the moved piece(s) on top of the piece(s) already there.

The rules of movement are as follows:

Either player can move any piece. If there are multiple pieces

stacked on a space, the player can move as many of them as they

desire from the top down (without changing their order).

Example – a space has the following combination of pieces

stacked on it:

P1(A)

P2(B)

P2(C)

P1(D)

Either player can move A, A+B, A+B+C, or A+B+C+D, but they

cannot change the vertical order of those pieces, or move any piece

without moving the pieces above it.

The movements that can be made with a piece or stack do not

depend on the piece(s) being moved, but rather on the piece(s)

that are being moved onto. However many pieces are in the

destination stack, that is the exact distance from which pieces

can be moved onto it – for example, if a stack has 3 pieces in it,

any stack that is exactly 3 spaces away in any direction,

orthogonal or diagonal, can be moved onto it.

However, the spaces between the two stacks must be empty –

pieces cannot be moved past occupied spaces.

Visual aids (#=destination stack, X=legal move, O=illegal move):

O O O O O



O X X X O



O X 1 X O



O X X X O



O O O O O

The space in the center has a 1-piece stack on it, so any

stack that is 1 space away from it can be moved onto it.

X O X O X



O O O O O



X O 2 O X



O O O O O



X O X O X

The space in the center has a 2-piece stack on it, so any

stack that is 2 spaces away from it can be moved onto it,

(assuming that the space between them is empty).

O O O O O



O O O O O



O O 3 O O



O O O O O



O O O O O

The space in the center has a 3-piece stack on it, so any stack

that is 3 spaces away from it would be able to be moved onto it,

except that no spaces are a distance of 3 from the center space,

so no pieces can be moved onto the center space (rather, the stack

in the center would have to be moved to make use of its pieces).

Winning:

When a stack of 5 pieces is created, the player

whose piece is on top of the stack wins the game.

“Tournament” variant – for a longer, more strategic game, play as follows:

When a stack of 5 pieces is created, it is removed from the board

(and its pieces returned to their owners) – all other pieces on

the board remain in place. The player whose piece was on top of

the stack takes a token. When a player takes their third token,

they win the game.