Playing Ludo: the Main Rules, Objectives, and Strategies

Among all strategy board games, Ludo is one of the oldest and the most valued. It derives from ancient India, the cradle of the best strategy games that humanity ever invented. Yet, its modern rules and principles were established in the late Victorian epoch when Ludo was one of the most loved children’s games of the aristocracy. Due to its strategic rules, Ludo was considered a great training game for youth to develop their strategic thinking, ability to plan their actions, and play on prevention to the opponent’s actions.

If you still have no idea what is Ludo game, let’s check it out. Our article will enclose the main principles and rules of Ludo to help you start playing it successfully.

The Objective of Ludo

The Ludo game is played by two to four players having the main goal to move all their pieces to the home triangle. For this, the dice are used to decide on the length of each item’s path.

“Ludo is when everything is easy until your token lands on your enemy’s square. Then the real fun begins.”

The Game’s Setup

To play the Ludo board game, the players need the following setup:

• The Ludo board has special home base sections in its four corners, the routes for each player of various colors, and the central piece divided into four triangles where the items of each player should arrive at their color’s section.
• The set of 4 items (figurines) of 4 colors. Each player has 4 items of his color to move to the central area.
• The set of dice. One or two standard dice with the pips from 1 to 6 are used.

How to Play Ludo

The game starts with each player picking up his items of a certain color and placing them on a home base near his seat. The players decide on who will be the first. For this, each player runs the die and the player who rolls the highest number is a starter. All other turns go clockwise after the first player.

How does the Ludo game play run?

1. The first action every player needs to perform is to roll six by a die to take at least one item on the field. Each item can be moved to the field only when the player rolls 6.

2. If the first player rolls 6, he possesses his item on a starting position in his sector of the board and then rolls the die one more time. The number rolled shows how many steps an item can take. If the player rolls six again, he can either walk his item making 6 steps by it or take one more item from his home base. If three times the six is rolled in a row, the player ends his turn immediately.
3. All other players also need to roll 6 to take their items one by one from the home base. Then all the items move clockwise around the board until they make the full circle and reach their finish line. The idea is to be the first to land all four items of your color in the central triangle.
4. Keep in mind that when you move your items and your turn ends on the square where another player’s item stands, you discard this opponent’s item from the board and it returns to the home base and needs six to be rolled to start moving once again.
5. If two of your items stand on a single square, this square is blocked and no one’s item can pass it or discard your items until you move them further. At once, your other items can pass through the blocked area.
6. When the item reaches the finish line, it can be moved to the triangle only if you roll the number on a die that fits the number of steps required for a successful landing. That is, if your item stands in 4 steps from a triangle, you have to roll 4 or roll 3 and 1 during the next turn, or roll 2 one time and 2 the next time to land it successfully.
7. If you manage to move several items to the starting place, then you can choose which of them to move during the next turn.

Scoring Principle

Typically, there are no scores in the Ludo game. The winner is the player who manages to take all 4 items around the board and to the central triangle. Then his items are out of the game, and other players continue the game until someone loses.

Winning Strategies in Ludo

Ludo requires players to determine their strategies. Unless the gameplay depends on chance, you can try to win using one of the following strategies:

1. Try to block your opponents if you can by setting your two items on a single square to slow the opponent down.
2. Try to get as many sixes as you can to make all your items unlocked from the home base.
3. Try to discard your opponent’s items as they need to spend more turns to get six again to return the discarded item to the field.
4. Calculate the number of steps and decide which of your items should move during this turn.

Conclusion

Ludo is not too hard to learn and its rules can be learned by kids. It is a great board game for family evenings, and you can even arrange tournaments among your family or friends to spend time together with fun.

We offer you to try the Ludo board game as an example of a simple yet challenging game. If you succeeded in it, there are also various other board games you can explore in our blog articles. Let’s make board game movement stronger and make board games popular!