Mundialito

Mundialito
José Carlos de Diego Guerrero
abstract strategy board game for Icehouse of movement and attainment
:Players	Players:	2
:Time	Length:	unknown
:Complexity	Complexity:	Easy
Trios per color:		2
Number of colors:		4
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:
Five-color sets:		2
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
Martian Coasters, 2 different tokens for balls
Setup time:		20 seconds
Playing time:
Strategy depth:		Easy
Random chance:		None
Game mechanics:		movement, attainment, turn-based
Theme:		Soccer
BGG Link:		27343
Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2006
Translated into English by Jorge Arroyo

Mundialito (Gold Cup) is an abstract strategy board game of movement and attainment whose objective is to score a goal (taking your ball to the last row) before your opponent does. Move your pieces, push, and jump above your opponent's pieces until you score a goal.

Ages: 7 and up, a game for children and adults.

Introduction

The Gold Cup of World Cup Champions, also known as "Mundialito" was a tournament that pitted together all the national teams that had won a FIFA World Cup. It was played in Montevideo between December 30, 1980 and January 8, 1981. This competition had a lot of repercussions at the time, and featured the best players from the best teams in what was considered a very high level tournament.

Goal of the Game

Score a goal (take the ball to the last row) before your opponent does.

Components

You need 4 Martian Coasters and 2 Treehouse sets of any color (this rule set assumes you'll be using two Rainbow sets).

Each player uses six pyramids that represent his six football players.

One player uses the six yellow pieces and the other uses the six red pieces. There are two balls represented by 2 small markers of the two colours. The yellow player is also called "Gualda" and the red player is also called "Bermellon".

Setup

Make a 6x6 board with the four coasters. Make sure the pips on the corners of the board all point towards the center.

The Yellow "Gualda" player chooses a side to play from, and the other player is forced to choose the opposite corner.

The board is considered to be cylindrical. A player exiting on one side enters from the opposite one. You cannot exit the board on the top or bottom sides.

Each player takes his six pyramids, 2 of each size. The Yellow player puts his 6 pyramids on the first row on his side as he wishes. Then the Red player does the same on the first row of his own side. Then in the same order they put their ball on any square of their second row.

The Red "Bermellon" player starts the game.

Actions

During each turn, a player may do any 2 actions from the following list:

• Move one of his pieces
• Switch the ball
• Push an opposing piece with one of his own
• Make one of his pieces jump over an opposing one

The same action can be played twice in the same turn.

- Moving a piece

The player may move one of his pyramids one square following the arrows on the coaster.

Special rules:

• You cannot move to a square where there is another pyramid or a ball.
• Also, remember that the board is cylindrical. If a piece exits on a side, it returns on the opposite one.

- Switching the ball

The player's ball may switch positions with a player's piece if that piece and the ball make a straight line (either diagonal or horizontal, but not vertical) of 1 or more squares of distance. The line cannot be blocked by other pieces or the other ball.

Special rules:

• The ball does not need to be in contact with another piece for the pass to be made.
• Note that this is the only way to move the ball, as it cannot be pushed.
• The ball cannot exit the board, so the board's cylindrical shape doesn't affect it.

- Pushing an opponent's piece

If a piece is adjacent to an opponent's piece and there's an arrow that allows movement to its square, then it may be possible to move your piece and push the opponent piece. Your piece must be of equal or bigger size than the opponent's and there must be an arrow allowing his piece to move back one square in the same direction as your push.

Special Rules:

• A piece that is pushed off the board will come back on the opposite side (only on the left and right sides).
• You cannot push a piece that is on the first or last rows.
• You cannot push a ball.

- Jumping over a piece

If one of your pieces is adjacent to an opponent's piece of a bigger size, and there are arrows that would allow your piece to move in a straight line 2 steps in it's direction, then you can jump over the opponent's piece. The jump must be straight (no turning in mid air).

Special rules:

• A piece cannot jump over the ball.
• A piece cannot jump over a pyramid that is at the first or last row.

Winning

The winner is the player that first manages to move his ball to his last row (the opponent's first one).

Variants

• During setup, place the coasters in any orientation (even with the corner arrows pointing to the outside).
• Put a time limit (30 minutes should be enough) and play games until the time runs out. The player that scored more goals wins the match.

Awards

This game is one of the finalists of the 2007 City of Granollers Game Design Contest.

License

This rule set has been released under the BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License (v 2.5)

External Links

• Spanish Rules: http://www.labsk.net/index.php?topic=4157.0 (The rules are available in Spanish. You have to be registered on this website to download it.)

• The first community of Icehouse in Spain: http://icehouse.labsk.net

• Mundialito Cardboard:
  • Fabricated in fine cardboard. Everything is comprised in a CD box or CD paper bag.
  • Spanish Rules, boards, pyramids
  • Balls 

• Mundialito at BGG: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/27343

• Rules in French available at jeux-icehouse.com.