Ludo Rules

Roll a six to leave the yard

All four of your tokens start in the yard. You need a six to move one onto your start square. Rolling a six also gives you another roll, so a good opening can put a token on the track and push it forward in the same turn.

Race clockwise around the track

Each roll moves one token that many squares clockwise around the cross-shaped track. When you have more than one token out, you choose which token uses the roll - that choice is where all the skill in Ludo lives.

Capture opponents by landing on them

Land exactly on a square holding a single enemy token and you knock it back to its yard. It must roll a six to start over. You cannot capture tokens resting on a star square or on their own start square.

Use the safe squares

Eight squares are safe: the four coloured start squares and the four starred squares. A token parked on safe ground cannot be captured, so plan your moves to hop from one safe square toward the next when enemies are close behind.

Bring all four tokens home

After a full lap, each token turns up its own coloured home column. Home squares are private, so nothing can be captured there, but you need an exact roll to step onto the final home triangle. First player with all four tokens home wins the game.

Start with a token on the track

Every player begins the game with one token already on their start square, so you have a runner from the very first roll. The start square is safe ground, but the moment you step off it, the race - and the risk - begins.

Leave the yard on any roll

You never wait for a six in Quick Ludo. Any number can move a token from your yard onto your start square, so fresh runners are always one roll away. A six still earns you an extra roll, and three sixes in a row still ends your turn.

Race clockwise and capture

Each roll moves one token that many squares clockwise around the cross. Land exactly on a square holding a single enemy token and it goes straight back to its yard. Tokens on star squares or their own start square cannot be touched.

Pick which token takes the roll

When several of your tokens can move, you decide which one uses the roll. In a race this short, that choice matters even more than in Classic Ludo - one smart dodge or one well-timed capture can swing the whole game.

Bring two tokens home to win

After a full lap, each token climbs its own home column, where opponents can never follow. The final step onto the home triangle needs an exact roll. The first player to walk two tokens all the way home takes the game.

Know your team

Team Ludo is two against two: you control red, a computer partner controls yellow, and you face the allied team of green and blue. Partnerships are fixed for the whole game - you win together or lose together.

Play by the Classic rules

Everything you know from Classic Ludo applies. Roll a six to move a token out of the yard, take an extra roll after every six, and lose your turn if you roll three sixes in a row. Tokens race clockwise and need an exact roll to finish.

Share squares with your partner

You can never capture yellow, and yellow can never capture you. If your token lands on a square your partner occupies, the two simply share it. Only green and blue tokens are captured by landing on them - and they can capture you and your partner right back.

Use the eight safe squares

The four coloured start squares and the four star squares protect any token standing on them. Steer your runners - and keep an eye on your partner's - from one safe square toward the next whenever enemy tokens prowl behind.

Bring all eight tokens home

Your team wins only when every red and every yellow token has climbed its home column - all eight of them. If green and blue land their eight first, you lose. Finishing your own four is only the halfway mark, so help your partner the whole way.

Throw six cowrie shells

Instead of rolling a die, you toss six cowrie shells and count how many land mouth up. Two, three, four, five or six mouths move a piece that many squares. Exactly one mouth up scores 10, and zero mouths up scores 25, the biggest throw in the game.

Enter the board with graces

Throws of 6, 10 and 25 are called graces. Your first piece may walk out of the yard on any throw, but every piece after it needs a grace to enter. A grace also wins you another throw, so opening the gate never slows you down.

Pick the piece for each throw

Every throw moves one piece clockwise around the cross. Once several pieces are on the track you choose which one takes the number, and since throws range from 2 all the way to 25, matching the right piece to the right distance is the heart of the game.

Hold the twelve castles

Twelve castle squares guard the track: the four starts, the four stars, and four more spaced evenly around the loop. A piece resting on a castle cannot be captured, so careful players travel castle to castle like stepping stones across a river.

Capture, then bring them home

Land on an enemy piece outside a castle and it returns to its yard - and you throw again. Pieces finish at the charkoni in the centre of the board, and since cowrie throws skip the number 1, there is no exact count: a throw larger than the distance left still carries the piece home.

Leave the nest on a five

All four pawns start in the nest and need a five to come out. A five on either die opens the door, and so does a pair adding up to five - 4 and 1, or 3 and 2 - though the combined entry spends both dice. An entering pawn even captures an enemy parked on your start square.

Throw two dice, make two moves

Each die moves one pawn its own number of squares. You may give one die to each of two pawns, or feed both to a single pawn as two separate steps. A die that no pawn can legally use is simply lost, so keep your pawns spread where every number has work.

Ride your doubles - carefully

Doubles always earn another throw. When all four of your pawns are out of the nest, doubles get richer: you move the tops and the bottoms of both dice, four moves totalling 14 squares. But a third doubles in a row sends your lead pawn straight back to the nest and ends your turn.

Wall the track with blockades

Move two of your own pawns onto one square and you have built a blockade. Nothing may land on that square or pass over it - enemy pawns, and your own pawns too, all stop dead until you break the pair. Well-placed walls choke the board; badly placed ones choke you.

Cash your bonuses and finish

Capturing an enemy pawn earns a bonus move of 20 squares for any one pawn at the end of your turn, and bringing a pawn home earns 10 the same way. If no pawn can use a bonus, it is lost. The last square demands an exact count, and all four pawns home takes the game.

Throw two dice and spend both

Every turn you throw two dice, just like on a real messdeck. Use one die on each of two pieces, or put both numbers onto a single piece for one long move. A die that no piece can legally use is forfeited, so keep your pieces spread out where every number has work to do.

Roll a six to reach your doorstep

A six lifts a piece out of the base onto your doorstep, the start square outside your base, and any throw holding a six earns another throw. A double six can bring two pieces out together. If the game's very first throw is snake eyes - a 1 and a 1 - every piece of every player comes out at once: all bits out.

Build barriers to own the track

Put two or more of your pieces on one square and you have a barrier. Enemy pieces cannot land on it and cannot pass it, so they queue up behind your wall while the rest of your side runs. A barrier never blocks your own pieces, and in the partners game it never blocks your partner either.

Uck lone enemies back to base

Land by exact count on a square holding a single enemy piece and you uck it off - straight back to its base to wait for another six. Only the doorsteps are safe ground; there are no star squares in Uckers, so every lone piece on the open track is a target.

Bring your side home

After a full lap each piece climbs your private home column, and the last step needs an exact count. In 1 vs 1 the first player with all four pieces home wins. In the 2 vs 2 partners game victory goes to the first team to bring all eight of its pieces home.

Find a six to leave the yard

Only a six brings a token from your yard onto your start field, and every six earns another throw. When everything you own sits in the yard or already at home, the rules grant you up to three throws per turn to hunt for that six, so a slow start never lasts long.

Obey the entry and start-field rules

Entering is compulsory: while tokens wait in your yard, a six must be spent bringing one out if the start field is playable. And a token standing on your start field - the A field on a German board - must move on before your other tokens may, so the doorway never stays blocked.

Capture anywhere on the track

There are no safe fields in this game - no stars, and not even the start fields protect anyone. Land by exact count on any enemy token and it flies back to its yard to begin all over again. Expect the same treatment in return, constantly.

Move when the die says move

If any legal move exists you must make one, however painful. Your own tokens can never share a field either, so a throw that would land a token on one of your own cannot be used by that token. Careless crowding throws away moves.

Shepherd all four tokens home

After a full lap each token turns into your private home column, out of reach at last. The final field takes an exact throw, so the endgame becomes a small numbers puzzle. First player to tuck all four tokens home wins.

Leave the yard on a one or a six

Each of your four tokens starts in the yard, and a roll of one or six moves one of them onto your start square. That is twice as many entry numbers as Classic Ludo allows, so expect all four colours on the track within a few turns. A six still earns you another roll on top.

Race clockwise round the cross

Every roll moves one token that many squares clockwise along the shared 52-square track. Because two of your own tokens can never stand on the same square, a move that would land on your own piece is not allowed - choose another token or another plan.

Push enemies back to their yard

Land by exact count on a square holding an enemy token and you push it - the famous knuff - all the way back to its yard. The pushed token can return on a one or a six, so a knuff stings without ending anyone's game.

Stay moving, because nowhere is safe

Fia has no star squares and no protected start squares. Any token on the track can be pushed at any time, so survival comes from spacing, not parking. Keep your tokens more than six squares ahead of anything that can reach them.

Finish with exact rolls

After a full lap each token turns into its own home column, where enemies can never follow. The last step onto the home triangle needs an exact roll, so oversized numbers must go to another token. Bring all four tokens home and you win.

Yard & start square

The yard is your corner base where tokens wait to enter. Your start square is the coloured cell where they land when they come out - in most variants it doubles as safe ground.

Track & home column

The 52-square track loops the whole cross; every player races it clockwise. After a full lap each token turns up its own coloured home column, which opponents can never enter.

Captures

Land exactly on a square holding a single enemy token and it goes back to its yard to start over. Safe squares - where they exist - block captures entirely.

The bonus throw

Most variants reward a lucky throw with another one: a six in the Ludo family (three in a row end your turn), doubles in Parcheesi, and graces of 6, 10 or 25 in cowrie-thrown Pachisi.