Awithlaknakwe (also known as stone warriors, or game of the stone warriors[1]) is a strategy board game from the Zuni Native American Indians of the American Southwest. The board contains 168 squares with diagonal grids. Two or four may play, with players identified as North, West, South, and East.
The game was described by Stewart Culin in his book Games of the North American Indians (1907).
The gameboard is a 12×12 square grid with six extra squares centered on each of the four sides, totaling 168 squares. Diagonal lines run through each square (the diagonal lines are called trails; the orthogonal lines are called canyons). Each player has six warriors, and a seventh piece not yet in play called the priest of the bow.
The historical board was cut into stone slabs, and pieces were small discs of pottery with tops either plain or having a hole in their centers to differentiate ownership. The priest of the bow was distinguished from friendly pieces by being somewhat larger.[a]
Each player starts the game with six warriors on their six nearest squares (the player's home rank). The goal is to bring one's pieces to the opponent's home rank, while capturing as many enemy pieces as possible. The winning condition for this ancient game is not completely defined (see #Incomplete rules).
Players sit at opposite sides of the board; North plays against South.[4]
North and West are partners against South and East. Each team owns one priest of the bow (not two).
The rules described by F. H. Cushing and reported by Culin, and subsequently by Bell and Murray, lack specificity on some points: