Patintero is a popular traditional Filipino street game that's all about speed, reflexes, strategy, and a bit of luck. It's commonly played by children on the street. They draw the play area with whatever they can find: chalk, rocks, or broken pieces of pottery.
You can easily replicate and customize the Patintero board game to your liking by simply copying the basic 5 by 3 lines layout on a piece of paper or by printing it. Let your imagination run free! Don't like the color scheme? Change it! Don't like how round and flat the pieces are? 3D print your own custom play pieces! Want to just print-and-play? Just click here for a printable PDF copy of the board.
Minimum recommended board size: A4
Maximum piece size if using A4: 25mm diameter or smaller (ex. Philippine 5 peso coin)
The pieces are arranged symmetrically as shown in the image. The board is made up of 5 horizontal lines intersecting 3 vertical lines, making up a total of 8 squares with X-intersections inside each square. Attackers start at the bottom while the Defenders occupy the middle 3 lines.
All pieces can only move 1 point at a time.
Attackers start with 3 pieces. These pieces can only move one space at a time in any direction along the lines.
Defenders start with 3 pieces, with one piece marked differently. Defenders are confined between the 2nd and 4th horizontal lines.
The piece marked differently is the leader. The leader can move horizontally along its starting line and vertically along the central line only.
The two other defender pieces can only move horizontally along their starting line.
The objective for the Attackers is to move one piece to the very top line and back to the starting line without getting captured by the Defenders. The objective for the Defenders is to capture all the Attackers without them accomplishing their objective first.
Players make their moves at the same time. They move after a countdown, “3…2…1…move!”, or if they want a more unpredictable game, move after someone shouts “Move!” Players can also opt to have a 3rd person shout "Move!"
A capture is made when a Defender moves to occupy the same point as an Attacker. When an Attacker is captured, that piece is brought out of play.
A captured Attacker piece can be revived when another Attacker piece reaches the top line. When a piece is revived, it can be placed on any point along the starting line.
