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.
