Ludo — Full Board Game

Ludo is the parlour descendant of Pachisi, the cross-and-circle race game played in India for centuries — the Mughal emperor Akbar is said to have played it life-sized on palace courtyards with attendants as the pieces. A simplified version was patented in England in 1896 under the name Ludo (Latin for "I play"), and that ruleset — four tokens each, one die, a 52-square loop and a final home stretch — is the one the whole world now argues over.

This board plays the full classic rulebook. You need a six to release a token from base; landing on an opponent away from a safe square sends it back; and a six, a capture or getting a token home each earn another roll — but three sixes in a row burn the whole turn. Finishing requires an exact roll, and the eight safe squares (each player's start plus the four starred squares) cannot be captured on. Two to four players share one device in any mix of humans and bots: name each seat, give it its own turn tone, and — where the browser supports speech — have the game announce whose turn it is. A quick mode with two tokens per player roughly halves match length.

The bots weigh moves the way experienced players do: capture when possible, finish tokens, get into the home stretch, release on a six, and rescue tokens sitting on threatened squares. To beat them, resist racing a single token — spread out, park on safe squares, and remember a token can only be caught by an opponent sitting one to six squares behind it. Staying out of that band is most of Ludo strategy.