Maya Mesoamerica · War Game · 2 Players
How to Play Puluc
Puluc is an ancient Maya war game from highland Guatemala, still played by the Kekchi Maya of Alta Verapaz into the 20th century. Two opposing armies advance toward each other across an 11-space track, capturing enemies and carrying them as prisoners. It is one of the only pre-Columbian games for which living tradition preserved original rules alongside archaeological evidence.
The Board and Pieces
The board is a linear track of 11 spaces. Player A's pieces start at space 1 (left end) and move right; Player B's pieces start at space 11 (right end) and move left. The two armies advance toward each other across the centre.
Each player has 5 pieces (called soldiers). Pieces enter the track one at a time — they do not all start on the board.
The Dice
Puluc uses 5 flat sticks, each marked on one side. Throw all 5 and count how many marked sides land face-up:
| Marked sticks up | Move |
|---|---|
| 0 | Move 5 spaces |
| 1 | Move 1 space |
| 2 | Move 2 spaces |
| 3 | Move 3 spaces |
| 4 | Move 4 spaces |
| 5 | Move 5 spaces |
Entering Pieces
On your turn, roll the dice. You may use the roll to enter a new piece from your starting end, or to move a piece already on the board. You can only have one piece in play at a time until that piece either reaches the opponent's end or is captured.
Capturing — The Prisoner Mechanic
When your piece lands on the same space as an opponent's piece, you capture them. The captured piece does not leave the board — instead, it is placed on top of your piece, forming a stack. Your piece now carries the prisoner and continues moving.
- Carrying prisoners: a piece with prisoners on top moves as normal — the entire stack moves together.
- Being captured while carrying prisoners: if your piece-stack is captured by an opponent, all your prisoners are freed and sent back to their owner's starting end. They must re-enter the board.
- Scoring: if your piece (with any prisoners on top) moves off the far end of the board (past the opponent's starting space), the piece and all its prisoners are permanently removed. You score those pieces as eliminated enemies.
Winning
The winner is the player who eliminates all of the opponent's pieces — either by pushing them off the far end of the board permanently, or by capturing them in a stack that then exits the board. The last player with pieces still in the game wins.
Strategy Tips
- Carrying prisoners is powerful but risky. A stack of 3 or 4 pieces is a huge prize — and a catastrophic loss if captured.
- Sometimes retreat to score. If you have captured prisoners and a clear path, race toward your side's exit to score them rather than pushing deeper and risking recapture.
- Flood with fresh pieces. If you keep losing pieces to capture, enter new ones quickly to threaten the capturing stack from behind.
Cultural Context
Puluc's prisoner mechanic mirrors the Maya practice of taking noble captives in warfare — captured enemies were carried back to court as trophies, their fates tied to the fortunes of their captor. The game encodes the Maya concept of conflict as cyclical: capture, reversal, liberation, recapture.
Scholars recovered Puluc's rules not from stone inscriptions but from living tradition — the Kekchi Maya of Guatemala's Alta Verapaz were still playing it when anthropologist Stewart Culin documented it in the early 20th century, making it one of the best-preserved pre-Columbian games.
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