Mū tōrere

Mū tōrere is a two-player board game played mainly by Māori people from New Zealand’s North Island. The game has a simple premise but expert players are able to see up to 40 moves ahead. Like many other Māori board games played on a papa tākoro or game board and is tightly interwoven with stories and histories.[1]

Mū tōrere gameboard and starting setup

The Ngāti Hauā chief Wiremu Tamihana Te Waharoa reputedly offered a game to Governor George Grey with the whole country going to the winner, but Grey declined[2], possibly because Māori players of mū tōrere had been known to win large sums from pākēha visitors to New Zealand who were new to the game.[1]

Gameboard

Mū tōrere is played on papa tākaro, or gameboards, or can be inscribed into clay or sand. The board is in the form of an eight-pointed star with endpoints, called kewai, connected to the center point, or pūtahi. The lines connecting the kewai to the pūtahi are oriented at 45 degrees.

Rules

Each player controls four counters, or perepere, which are initially placed on the board at the kewai. At the beginning of the game the pūtahi is empty. (See illustration.)

Players move one of their counters per turn to an empty point. Players can move only to an adjacent kewai, and can move to the pūtahi only when the moved counter is adjacent to an opponent's counter. The player who blocks all the opponent's counters from moving is the winner.

Analysis

Mū tōrere has 1180 reachable positions. Out of those, 208 are winning, 128 are losing, and 844 are draws. The initial position is a draw.[3]

gollark: I already *kind of* have that with `/rom/programs/BSOD.lua`.
gollark: Still seeking potatOS feature ideas.
gollark: DEPRECATE HOW?
gollark: It'd break backwards compatibility.
gollark: INSTALL POTATos

References
  1. Brown, Harko (2008). Ngā Taonga Tākoro: Māori sports and games. New Zealand: Penguin Group. pp. 10, 11, 15–17, 40, 53, 58, 99. ISBN 9780143009702.
  2. A W Reed and Buddy Mikaere (2002). "Draughts". Taonga Tuku Iho: Illustrated Encyclopedia of Maori Life. p. 54. ISBN 1-877246-90-5.
  3. http://gamescrafters.berkeley.edu/analysis/analysisIndex.php

Bibliography

  • Bell, R. C. (1979) [1st Pub. 1969, Oxford University Press, London]. Board and Table Games From Many Civilizations. II (Revised ed.). Dover Publications Inc. pp. 149–51. ISBN 0-671-06030-9.
  • Bell, R. C. (1983). "Mu Torere". The Boardgame Book. Exeter Books. pp. 42–43. ISBN 0-671-06030-9.
  • Jelliss, George. "Mu Torere". Games and Puzzles Journal. Archived from the original on 7 September 2012.
  • Murray, H. J. R. (1978). "§4.8.3 Mu-torere". A History of Board-Games other than Chess (Reissued ed.). Hacker Art Books Inc. p. 93. ISBN 0-87817-211-4.

Further reading
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