El Mundo – Four Player Backgammon?
Not long ago, I was poking around a local flea market, where I saw a beautiful backgammon board with a round playing area. This in itself is unusual today, but it also reminded me of an interesting tables game from the Libro de los Juegos. I’ve already written about the dice games from that book, but there were also quite a few games played on what today we would recognize as a backgammon board.
Growing up, my mother introduced me to backgammon, and while I never played for points using the doubling cube, it was one of the first games I felt a strong affinity for. Maybe it was tactile – there was something about the clack of the bakelite pieces and putting them down onto the soft corrugated felt board, the faux leather case, and the muted thumping of rattling dice in the cups. As a matter of fact, I still own the board she taught me on.
A Race Around the Table
It seems that as soon as someone had the idea of taking dice games (based on a total, or the die faces in relation to each other) and added a board, the natural concept would be racing games. Roll the dice, move your piece, and the first player to reach an end goal wins.
The earliest example of this type of game for which we actually have rules is The Royal Game of Ur, from ancient Mesopotamia around 3,000 BCE. It uses pyramidal dice, which today we would think of as a D4. Of course, the layout of pips is much different than modern dice.
Breaking it down to the bare bones, you have 7 pieces, and must take a specific route around the board. You must roll a specific result on the dice to allow a piece to enter on your side, with the goal being to reach the end of the route and exit the board. The first player to move all their pieces through the complete route and back off the board, wins!
Sound familiar? This basic game structure evolved through many forms, including Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum, Ashtapada, Suguroku, and others, including the aforementioned backgammon. I’ll go into more details about these other games in a future article.
Alfonso X – Game Designer?
To be fair, there’s no evidence of this concept at all. However, El Mundo is among several games in the Libro de los Juegos which he credits the origin of to sabios antiguos (“ancient wise men”). Scholars assume he was likely talking about Aristotle and Ambrosius. I lean toward the idea that the attribution simply means that none of his sources knew where the game originated.
But I can’t help but muse whether Alfonso couldn’t resist making something up while while compiling all these game rules, and said it was from ancient wise men to avoid the scrutiny of the Church. After all, at least for El Mundo, the Libro de los Juegos seems to be the only source that references this game.
El Mundo itself isn’t included with the other tables games in the Libro de las Tablas section of the Libro de los Juegos. Instead, it’s found two sections later, in an untitled fifth section which scholars refer to as “The Book of Four-Player Games.” This include a chess variant called Acedrex de los Quatro Tiempos (“Four-Seasons Chess”), and El Mundo, also called “Four-Seasons Tables.”
Colors and Symbolism
In describing both Four-Seasons Chess and Four-Seasons Tables, Alfonso draws heavily from St. Isadore of Seville’s De Natura Rerum (“On the Nature of Things”), specifically the relation between the four elements, seasons, and the four humours that were believed to control the body’s health.
Alfonso first describes the four seasons, then explains their association with the four classical elements. Next, he assigns them each a color based on the element and occurrences within each season. Finally, he gives each season a humour, and tries to explain why he chose each one. For our purpose, the player colors are the main association that matters.
Spring – Air – Blood
Summer – Fire – Choler
Autumn – Earth – Melancholy
Winter – Water – Phlegm
Aside from the board being divided into four quadrants representing the four seasons, each season has six points for pieces to move through. Together, these 24 spaces may represent the 24 hours in the day. Each player has a total of twelve pieces, which could symbolize the twelve months of the year. Interestingly, De Natura Rerum has a total of 48 chapters, which equals the combined total of all player pieces. Research says nothing in particular here, so there’s no way of knowing whether this was done on purpose, or is a happy coincidence.
How to Play El Mundo
Mechanically, the movement in El Mundo is more like pachisi than backgammon, in that all players move in the same direction, rather than opposite ones. The main difference is that you have twelve pieces, instead of four.
The goal of the game is to move your pieces to the quadrant opposite your starting one, then “bear” them off. Bearing off is a common term in tables games, and means to roll the correct number to move your token off of the playing track after reaching the ending area. The first player to bear off all their pieces wins the game.
Setup
First, each player chooses their starting quadrant. Then, everyone rolls a die, and the highest number gets to go first. Obviously, if more than one player ties for highest, they must roll again. Next, they each take all pieces in their color.
Like most of the dice games in the Libro de los Juegos, El Mundo uses three dice, not two. Starting with the first player, and continuing to the right, each player takes turns rolling the dice and placing three pieces at a time onto the board in the appropriate space, until all 48 tokens are on the board. The spaces are rarely numbered, but think of the board as the mirror-image of a 24-hour clock. Movement will be counter-clockwise to follow the progression of the seasons, so the spaces in your quadrant are “numbered” from left to right, as shown here. Because the board is circular, slots with many pieces may crowd out their neighbors, so it’s common to stack your discs when needed.
Remember, your goal for the game is to get all of your pieces to the opposite side of the board from where you began. Thus, Winter moves into Summer and vice-versa, While Spring and Autumn are trying to reach each other. Once you have reached your end quadrant, you may not move your pieces past it, into the season immediately before your own.
Movement
Once all the pieces have entered the board, the first player rolls the dice and begins to move counter-clockwise. During the game, a slot with a single piece (a “blot”) on it is vulnerable and may be landed on (“struck”) by an opponent’s piece. Slots with two or more of the same color (“stacked”) are safe.
Movement is straightforward – simply choose a die, and move one piece that number of spaces. Of course, there are a few restrictions to movement that must be obeyed:
- Each die must be used exactly one time, if possible.
- There is no bonus for rolling duplicate numbers.
- If a slot has a stack of two or more opponent pieces, you may not land on it. This might make some dice unusable.
- When a die cannot be used by the active player, the chance to take that movement passes around the table in seasonal order. If one of these other players is able to use the number on the die, they must do so, even though it is not their turn. If nobody can use the roll, it is lost, and the next player rolls the dice for their turn.
- If you are able to strike a blot belonging to either of the two seasons after yours, you must do so. Striking a blot from the season before you is optional. This is similar to a rule during the first move of Four-Seasons Chess, where you must attack the player to your right, while defending against the player on your left.
- Keep in mind that a forced strike includes those where multiple dice are required to reach the target, so long as each individual move is legal.
Struck Pieces
Unfortunately, the original text is ambiguous on this point. After giving the requirement to hit opponent pieces, Alfonso is vague about how to reintroduce them into play. He only states “And that one whose piece it was, is to return it to where it was first entered.” Presumably, this simply means the quadrant belonging to that player, since it’s not realistic to know exactly which slot a given piece first entered the game. Here are a few options, and some brief thoughts on each one might affect the gameplay.
- Put Them Anywhere: Allow the player to simply place a struck piece on any available slot within their starting quadrant before rolling the dice. For game balance, you may not strike an opponent blot with this free move. This saves time by not using up any dice which could otherwise be used for movement. In the unusual case of not having any available slots, the player must still roll the dice, even though they may not move, then allow the roll to be used by their opponents, as normal.
- Save Them for Later: This method requires a die roll to put a struck piece back into play, but you may do so on any later turn. This fits with the pachisi roots, where you have to eventually get all your pieces through the route, but they don’t all have to be in play at all times. It also allows for strategic re-entry, where you can come in behind an opponent who is getting close to having everything in their goal quadrant, allowing you to set them back.
- Modern Backgammon Rules: On your turn, you must first use dice to return any struck pieces to a slot designated by the roll. Until all struck pieces have returned to the board, no other piece can be moved. This method will be the easiest for a backgammon player to get used to. However, this can really slow down the early game, because of the random setup. You will frequently be striking opponent blots, and spending rolls to return your own pieces means you may take a long time to get out of your starting quadrant.
- Priorities of War: This concept is my own invention. In this one, we prioritize attack, then defense, then returning a struck piece to the board before you can move your other pieces. Note that it only applies if you have pieces off the board at the beginning of your turn. Check the following conditions in order:
- If a returning piece can strike an opponent’s blot, you must do that first. Remember that striking the season just before yours is optional, while the two following seasons are required. That means that if the only vulnerable pieces are from the season before you, you may skip this step.
- If one of your other pieces (those already on the board) is able to strike an opponent’s blot, then you must do that.
- If neither case above is true, and you have a blot that can be defended, you must move to cover it, or move it into a stack of your pieces. Like forced attacks, this is still required even if it costs multiple dice to accomplish.
- If you’re neither forced to attack or defend, but you can still return a piece to your quadrant, then you must do so before you may move anything else.
- Finally, if you can’t attack, defend or return the struck piece, then you may not move, and that die is forfeit to the other players, as normal.
Bearing Off
When you eventually move all of your pieces into the quadrant opposite the one you start in, you’re ready to begin the process of “bearing off.” In El Mundo, this is similar to when you were bringing your pieces on at the beginning of the game. The numbers you roll allow you ro remove a piece from that numbered slot. If there is nothing there, you may move one of your other pieces into a different position within the quadrant. And of course, if you can do neither of these, that die is forfeited to the player to your right as usual.
Unlike backgammon, there is no rule allowing you to use a higher numbered die for a lower-numbered slot if there is nothing there. That means you may only remove pieces from the appropriately-numbered slots. Strategically, that normally means you want to spread them throughout the quadrant to improve the odds of using all your dice.
However, be warned! As you remove pieces, you may expose blots that may be attacked by the other players. When this occurs, you may not bear anything else off until you reintroduce that struck piece, and move it all the way back into your goal quadrant. You may only bear pieces off if all of your remaining pieces are in the season opposite your own.
Game Over?
In most tables games, once one player has removed all their pieces from the board, they win the game. However, in El Mundo, this isn’t quite as certain. This is because Alfonso was a little vague in the description again. Here’s the original translation: “And the player who first should bear off his pieces will beat the player to his right and so on around.” This implies the remaining players might continue the game. Indeed, recall that Four-Seasons Chess is described in the same section, and some aspects of the game seem to be related. So what happens when one player is checkmated in Four-Seasons Chess?
And if it were checkmate, he must give him who gave him checkmate as many stakes as he has pieces and then remove his pieces. And of the three players that remain thereafter, the first to be defeated leaves on the board as many stakes as he has won there and plus as many (as) pieces as remain to him when he is defeated. And of the two players that remain, the one who should win should take all the stakes that are on the board. And plus as many pieces as remain to the loser, he must give him that many stakes.
So while it’s not explicitly stated in the rules for El Mundo, it seems that you do have the option of continuing the game with the remaining three players after someone has won, to determine a second- and third-place winner.
Playing for Stakes
Again, this concept isn’t actually mentioned in the rules for El Mundo. I’m borrowing from Four-Seasons Chess, which requires you to pay a stake each time one of your pieces is captured, or your king is put in check. Then, as seen above, you lose any winnings you may have accrued when you’re put into checkmate. So how could we adapt this idea to El Mundo?
As I mentioned before, strikes are extremely frequent in this game, especially because the rules force you to attack if the two seasons after yours are vulnerable. So, we’ll simply require you to pay a chip to the player who struck you whenever one of your pieces is attacked.
Then, as you bear off pieces, we can have each remaining player pay you one chip for each piece you successfully remove, for a profit of up to 3 chips per piece. If you choose to continue the game after one player has successfully borne off all their pieces, this means diminishing returns for each following player, which makes sense for second and third place.
Final Thoughts
Aside from the challenge of getting four players together to play an unfamiliar board game, people I taught this one to had a lot of fun, and said it was pretty easy to understand once you get going. The most common problem we had was people missing required captures, but for a casual game, that’s not really a big deal.
However, be warned that this game goes on for a long time, because you’re required to attack so often. This means you will be spending a lot of dice returning pieces to the board instead of moving them. Of course, you can mitigate this by using the “Place Them Anywhere” rule for struck pieces. This lets you use the dice only for movement, speeding things up considerably.
On the other hand, if you can tolerate the extra length with one of the other options for struck pieces, a win after a hard battle to keep your pieces moving can feel really satisfying. Playing for stakes also keeps things interesting – just make sure everyone starts with a sizable pool of chips.
While it doesn’t have the chaos and pretty pictures of Juego de la Oca, it has still gone over pretty well when I’ve demonstrated it, most likely due to the novelty. Backgammon is near and dear to my heart, and I look forward to exploring all the tables games as the subject of a future book.
Do you like my custom game board? Would you like to play on it yourself? I’ve put it onto a rubber-backed round mouse pad that you can purchase and play! Just add your own dice and player pieces.
