Ludo
The family race game. Roll a six to bring a token out of your yard, take it round the board and up your home column, and send other colours back to the start when you land on them. The first player with all four tokens home wins. Play against three house players, or pass the device round with up to four people.
Four colours. A game takes 15 to 30 minutes. More board games: Checkers, Reversi, Four in a Row, Backgammon, Dominoes and Sea Battle are in Yuzool's Board Games too.
How to play Ludo
- The start: four colours, each with four tokens waiting in its yard. One die is used.
- Getting out: a six brings a token out of the yard onto your start square.
- Sixes: every six gives you another roll.
- The track: tokens travel clockwise, 50 squares round to their own home column, then up it. A token needs the exact number to reach home.
- Capturing: land on a square held by another colour and that token goes back to its yard. Two tokens of one colour may share a square, and both are sent back if they are landed on.
Tap Roll (or let the die roll itself, in Options), then tap the token you want to move. Tokens that can move pulse. The full rules, with worked examples, are in How to play Ludo.
Winning
The first player to bring all four tokens home wins, and the game stops there. In the standard game there are no safe squares and no blocks: any token on the track can be captured until it turns into its home column.
Tips
- Use sixes to bring tokens out early. More tokens in play means more choices on every roll.
- Stay out of range. A token one to six squares in front of a rival can be hit with one roll.
- Capture near their home. Sending back a token that has nearly finished costs its owner the most.
- Do not race one token alone. A single runner leaves you with no choice of move.
Questions
Is Ludo free to play here?
Yes. Ludo against the Easy and Medium house players, pass and play for up to four people, the coach and autosave are free, with no ads and no sign-up. Board Games Pro, a one-time $1.99 upgrade for all seven games, adds the Hard players, rule options, full statistics and history, and extra board and piece looks.
Is the die fair, and do the computer players cheat?
Every roll comes from the game's seed, and the house players are given only what a person in their seat could see: the board and the roll in front of them. They never see the rolls to come and they throw the same die as you.
Which rules are these?
Standard Ludo: one die, a six to come out, a six rolls again, an exact roll to get home, and captures by landing on a token, with no safe squares and no blocks. Pro adds rule options: "Safe squares", "Blocks", "Three sixes in a row lose the turn", "A capture rolls again" and a short game with two tokens each.
Can four people play on one device?
Yes. Pass and play takes up to four people, each with a colour, handing the device round. The game is saved in this browser on this device. A move cannot be taken back once the die is thrown.