Awithlaknakwe

Awithlaknakwe is a capture game played by the Zuni people of the southwestern United States from the late nineteenth century. It is played on a twelve by twelve grid with a line of six extra squares centred on each side and diagonals through every square, and pieces sit on the intersections of the lines. Two or four people can play; with four, the top and left players oppose the bottom and right players. Each player has six pieces and one larger piece, and all six begin on the central intersections of their own extra spaces. Pieces move one spot at a time diagonally and never backward. A piece is captured when it is surrounded on two opposite sides, and the captured piece is replaced by the larger piece, which may move diagonally or orthogonally. Play ends when all the remaining pieces have reached the opponent's starting squares, and the player with the most captures wins. The Ludii Portal draws its account from Stewart Culin's 1907 collection Games of the North American Indians and from H. J. R. Murray's history of board games.