Mandua

Dossier

Mandua is an asymmetrical abstract strategy game, played on a square board with 25 spaces plus an aditional space at the middle of each side for a total of 29 spaces. One player plays the 4 tigers, the other one the 25 hunters. Tigers are on the board from the beginning and moving one space orthogonally, while hunters are first placed on the board one by one until all hunters are on the board. Then these also move in the same way. Tigers now can capture hunters by jumping over one hunter and land on a free space behind it or move (not jump!) between two hunters and remove both of them. If a jump opens an occasion for another jump, this is done in the same move, and so on. The tigers are forced to capture as many hunters as possible, and the tigers` player has to tell before his move, how many total hunters he will capture in his move. The only way hunters can capture tigers is a wrong move by the tigers` player. This is, when the tigers move in a way that they are only capturing less hunters than possible, if made a "perfect" move. The tiger which is doing the "wrong" move, is captured. Hunters win, if tigers are all captured or immobilized. There are two more special situations, both "stalemates", but wins for the hunters: 1. If hunters are immobile (Mandua stalemate) or 2. if they are even sacrificed with the effect of immobilizing the remaining hunters. Tigers win, if all hunters are captured. This game was invented by two Germans living in Indonesia and is derived from the tactics of ancient Indian tiger-hunting.

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