The Coyote and the Chickens Game (El Juego del Coyote y los Pollos) is a Mexican strategy game, with each player having a different goal and a different number of tokens. It seems that each country has a similar game, but it is interesting to discover regional variations. As with all of these games, the rules are easy to learn, but it takes longer to develop a strategy that works.
The Coyote and the Chickens Game Materials
- cardstock paper
- tokens (buttons, game pieces, coins, etc.)
- 2 players
- template
Making your Game
Make a copy of the game board template on cardstock paper. Gather together 13 tokens, 1 for the coyote and 12 identical tokens for the chickens.
The Coyote and the Chickens Game Goal
If you are the coyote, your job to is gather all the chickens. If you are the chickens, you must surround the coyote so it cannot move. The game is over when all the chickens have been gathered or the coyote can no longer move.
The Coyote and the Chickens Game Directions
One player is the coyote. He gets one game piece. The other player is the chickens. She gets 12 identical game pieces.
Set up the board as follows:
Both players can move their tokens 1 space in any direction into an open space. The chickens go first. Chickens can move 1 open space in any direction trying to surround the coyote and protect themselves at the same time.
During his turn, the coyote can move 1 space in any direction or it can capture a chicken by jumping over it into an open space like in checkers. The coyote can jump multiple chickens in one turn as long as it can continue to jump over another chicken into an open space.
Play continues until all the chickens are caught or the coyote is surrounded so it cannot move.
The next game players switch tokens and play again.
Leonard deciding on his first move.
