🎲 Ludo
🎲 Board · 0 playsLudo
The old race round the board — simple laws, and more judgement than it lets on.
About Ludo
Ludo descends from the Indian game of Pachisi, and beneath the nursery reputation there are real decisions in it. Four tokens race a circuit to home: a six leaves the yard and earns another throw, landing on an opponent sends their token all the way back, and safe squares shelter whoever holds them. Since most throws offer a choice of token, the judgement lies in weighing progress against safety — whether to advance the leader through a dangerous stretch, bring a fresh token out to threaten, or park on a star and let the pursuers take the risks. Computer opponents fill the other seats.
How to Play
Roll the die, then choose which of your tokens to move; a six is needed to leave the yard and grants another roll. Landing exactly on an opponent sends their token back to its yard; starred squares are safe ground. Bring all four tokens the full way round and home to win.
💡 Tips & Strategy
Open more than one token early. A single runner is a single point of failure — every opponent throw is aimed at it, and a capture undoes your whole game. Two or three tokens in play spread the risk, offer real choices on each throw, and let the dice serve whichever token is safest to advance.
Count six squares behind every token you own, because that is the strike zone. A token sitting one to six squares ahead of an opponent lives in range of a single throw; a token just behind an opponent is itself the hunter. Prefer moves that leave your tokens out of range or past the pursuer, and when a capture is on offer, take it — the tempo swing of sending a token home is the largest single event in the game.
Use the safe squares as a road network. Plan moves so that risky stretches are crossed in one throw where possible, and idle on a star when the position is dangerous rather than pushing into range for the sake of motion. The lead token is your investment: spend the risky throws on the tokens behind, and walk the leader home along the shelters.
Play the endgame with cold arithmetic. Exact throws are needed to get home, so avoid stacking tokens at similar distances where they compete for the same numbers; stagger them. And do not neglect the fourth token in the yard while the glamour tokens race — the win requires all four home, and the last token brought out late crosses a board full of hunters with nothing left to protect it.