Ludo rules: how to play Ludo, from the first six to home

The board, the pieces and the aim

Ludo is played on a square board with a cross-shaped track. Each corner is a coloured yard holding one player's four tokens. The arms of the cross carry the shared loop of 52 squares that every token travels round clockwise, and down the middle of each arm runs a coloured home column of five squares leading into that colour's triangle in the centre. You need the board, sixteen tokens and one die.

The aim is simple: be the first to bring all four of your tokens out of the yard, once round the loop, up your home column and into the centre. Two, three or four people can play; with two, they usually take opposite corners so that neither starts right behind the other.

Getting out: the six

Every token starts in its yard. To bring one out you need to throw a 6: the token goes to your start square, the coloured square just outside your yard, and the 6 earns you another throw, which you can use on that token or any other you have on the board. Until you throw a 6, all you can do is pass the die.

Players usually throw once each to decide who starts, highest first, and play then passes clockwise. Some groups let a 1 bring a token out as well as a 6, which makes the opening much quicker.

Moving and bonus throws

• Throw the die and move one of your tokens forward that many squares, clockwise. If more than one token can move, you choose which.
• If none of your tokens can use the number, the turn passes.
• A 6 gives you another throw after you move.
• Capturing a rival's token gives you another throw.
• Bringing a token home to the centre gives you another throw.
• Three 6s in a row lose the turn: the third 6 is not played and the die passes on.

Bonus throws decide most games. A capture or a token reaching home keeps the die in your hand, so a player who is behind can catch up quickly by hunting rather than racing.

Captures, safe squares and blocks

If your token finishes its move on a plain square holding a single rival token, the rival is captured and goes back to its yard, and it needs another 6 to come out. Only the square you land on counts: passing over a rival does nothing.

Some squares are safe. The four start squares and the four star squares cannot be captured on, so tokens of different colours can share them. A token on a star is out of reach even when a rival is one throw behind.

Two tokens of the same colour on one square form a block, the double token that many players call a double goti. In most rule sets a block cannot be captured. Rules differ on what else it does: in some games nobody may pass a block at all, in others only a rival pair can break it.

Going home

A token that has gone almost all the way round turns off the loop at the end of its own arm, into its home column, instead of starting a second lap. Nobody else can enter your home column, so a token there is completely safe.

To reach the centre you need the exact number. A token two squares from home can only finish on a 2, so a bigger number has to be used by another token, or the throw is lost if none can move. The first player with every token home wins, and the others can play on for second and third place.

House rules you will meet

• Kill before you go home: a token may not enter its home column until its owner has captured at least one rival token. It makes the end of the game far more aggressive.
• A 1 also brings a token out, sometimes only while you have no token on the board.
• Overshooting the centre bounces the token back by the extra squares instead of wasting the throw.
• Three 6s in a row also cancel the moves made with the first two 6s, not just the third.
• Nobody may pass a block, which turns a pair into a wall across the track.
• Only a token's own start square is safe for it, or no start squares are safe at all.

None of these is wrong; they are different games, so agree them before the first throw.

Simple Ludo strategy

• Get a second token out early. With one token on the board, every throw that cannot help it is wasted.
• Before you stop on a plain square, count the six squares behind it. A rival token in that range can capture you with one throw; a star or a start square cannot be captured on.
• Use a 6 to escape as well as to race: lifting a token out of danger is often worth more than six squares of progress.
• Pair up near a rival's start square. A block there makes every token leaving that yard think twice.
• A token in its home column is safe, so move the tokens on the loop first and finish the safe ones with small numbers.
• Late in the game, keep one token back as a hunter. Leaders racing home are easy targets, and every capture gives you another throw.

Play Ludo online free on TabSpawn

TabSpawn's Ludo plays the common rules above in a browser tab, free, with no download and no account. Two to four players sit at one phone, tablet or laptop and pass it round, and any seat can be the computer, on Easy, Normal or Hard. A pair of your tokens is a block a rival cannot land on, though tokens may move past it. The die tumbles in your yard, tokens that can move glow and show where they would land, and the game can move for you when only one token can go. Classic rules use four tokens and a 6 to start; Quick rules use two tokens and let a 1 or a 6 start, for a game in half the time.

Questions