Adugo
Alternate Names
Jaguar and Dogs
No. of Players
Two
Equipment
An Adugo board, one black jaguar counter and fourteen white dog counters are required for play. Traditionally, the jaguar is called "onça" and the dogs are called "cachorro". Note that the board used is an expanded Alquerque board with one triangular extension on one of its sides. The board was traditionally drawn on the ground using stones as counters.
History
This game comes from the Bororo tribe in the Pantanal region of Brazil. It is very similar and probably related to the Inca game described here as Komikan. Both games are thought to have been introduced by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century as the board they are played on is very similar to a simple Alquerque board and the hunt premise they employ is similar to other games known from antiquity in Spain such as Cercar la Liebre. The triangular extensions on the boards, however, have lead some to speculate a connection to Asian hunt games such as the Tiger Game, Rimau-rimau, Buga Shadara, Shap Luk Kon Tsu Tseung Kwan, Cows & Leopards, etc. The implications of this are somewhat staggering and may imply that Adugo and Komikan are pre-Colombian and come to the Americas via Asia, rather than Europe, which would probably make them very ancient indeed. Both ideas are acceptable as hypotheses but further evidence will be needed to confirm either way.
Objective
The jaguar attempts to capture at least five dogs in order to stalemate the game; a stalemate is a win for the jaguar. The dog player wins by blocking the jaguar from making any legal move.
Play
The board is setup as shown above with one playing playing the black jaguar and one player controlling the white dogs. The jaguar moves first and alternate turns thereafter entail the movement of a single friendly counter along one of the lines on the board to an adjacent vacant intersection. The jaguar captures dogs by the short jump to a necessarily vacant intersection just after the counter being jumped. The jaguar may capture more than one dog per turn with enchained jumps, changing direction after each jump if required. Printed versions of the rules never seem to mention if capture is compulsory or not, but I would suggest to make capture compulsory for the jaguar. This may create a strategic opportunity for the dogs to trap the jaguar.
The dogs do not capture.
Variations
Sources
Adugo at Board Game Geek. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/29341
http://www.origem.com.br/para-sua-empresa/produtos_descricao.php?lang=pt_BR&codigo_produto=178 - in Portuguese