Ludo Game

Pachisi or ludo originated in India by the 6th century. The earliestevidence of this game in India is the depiction of boards on the cavesof Ajanta.
This game was played by the Mughal emperors of India; and kings ofIndia. It is said that the Mysore Ruler Customized the game to 6Players so he could play with his 5 queens together.

Variations of the game made it to England during the late 19thcentury. One which appeared around 1896 under the name of Ludo.

The players alternate turns in a clockwise direction.To enter a tokeninto play from its staging area to its starting square, a player mustroll a 6. If the player has no tokens yet in play and does not roll a6, the turn passes to the next player. Once a player has one or moretokens in play, he selects a token and moves it forward along thetrack the number of squares indicated by the die roll. Players mustalways move a token according to the die value rolled, and if no moveis possible, pass their turn to the next player.

When a player rolls a 6 he may choose to advance a token already inplay, or alternatively, he may enter another staged token to itsstarting square. The rolling of a 6 earns the player an additional("bonus") roll in that turn. If the additional roll results in a 6again, the player earns an additional bonus roll. If the third roll isalso a 6, the player may not move a token and the turn immediatelypasses to the next player.

A player may not end his move on a square he already occupies. If theadvance of a token ends on a square occupied by an opponent's token,the opponent token is returned to its owner's yard. The returned tokenmay only be reentered into play when the owner again rolls a 6.(Unlike Pachisi, there are no "safe" squares on the game track whichprotect a player's tokens from being returned. A player's home columnsquares are always safe, however, since no opponent may enter them.Ludo played in the Indian subcontinent features a safe square in eachquadrant, normally the fourth square from the top in the rightmostcolumn. These squares are usually marked with a star.

The Player whoes all four tokens reach Home Wins!