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BOARD GAMES Roman soldiers liked to play games. One of their favourites was a board game “Ludus Latruncularum”, or “the soldiers game”. This was a bit like Draughts and was played on a grid 12 squares by 8. If they didn’t have a board sometimes the soldiers would just scratch the grid on a tile or some stone and use pebbles for counters. These get found in all sorts of funny places. One of these grids can be found on a stone built into the corner tower of Vindolanda fort on Hadrians Wall, where the men must have been playing games during spare time (tea breaks?) while they were building it. All of these board games can be played by drawing out the grids on paper or on the ground with chalk, using anything which comes to hand for counters (buttons, beans, pebbles, nuts, etc). To decide who plays the first move, to start the game, either toss a coin (as in “Capita aut Navia “), or roll a dice. LUDUS LATRUNCULORUM (The Soldiers Game) This was a bit like Draughts and was played on a grid 12 squares by 8.
Each player has 12 counters (or pebbles) of different colours. They arrange them, one in each square, on the opposite outer sides of the board. The aim is to defeat the opponent’s “army” by taking all of his counters, or by blocking him in so that he cannot move and has to surrender.
The players take turns in moving, either one block forward, backward, or sideways (no diagonals). If a player’s counter is trapped between 2 of his opponents, then it can be taken and removed from the board.
Another variation is that the players can only move up or down the board, but can jump diagonally over an opponents piece to take it, as in “Draughts”. It is also allowed in this version to take more than one piece at a time. In another variation the board is made up of 8 squares by 8, and each army is made up of 16 counters, set out in 2 rows of 8. Yet another variation has an additional counter, a “General”, leading in the row in front of his “men”. MERILS (Nine Mens Morris) 2 players each have 9 counters of different colours. They each take turns to place a counter on any dot on the board, trying to form a row of 3 of their own colour. The opponent then tries to block these rows with his own. If a player forms a row, they are allowed to remove one of the opponent’s counters, providing it is not part of a completed row of 3.
Once all counters have been played, the players take turns to move a counter to an adjoining free dot.
If a player gets down to only 3 counters on the board, he is allowed to jump to any free dot, even if it is not adjoining. When any player is down to only 2 counters, he has lost the game.
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| Merils or Nine Mens Morris |
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ROUND MERILS or MOLEN This is a variation of ordinary Merils, and is a bit like “Noughts and Crosses”. It does take a bit more skill than Noughts and Crosses, lasting a bit longer too.
Each player starts with 3 counters each of different colours. They each take turns to place one counter on the board, trying to form a row of 3 of their own colour. When all 3 counters of each player are on the board, they take turns in moving one counter to an adjoining dot. The only way in this game to form a row is to hold the middle dot. A player can be made to give up the middle position though by blocking in his other 2 counters, forcing him to move the one in the middle. TABULA or LUDUS XII SCRIPTORUM (The 12 Dot Game) This was the ancestor of modern “Backgammon”.
The board is made up of 3 rows of 12 squares each (usually these are laid out in 2 sets of 6).
The players have 12 counters each of different colours, & to start with these are in the middle row. The aim is to get all of your counters around the board from the upper right, Square I, across the board right to left, to Square XII, down to the lower left, Square XIII, and across to the bottom right, Square XXIV.
The players take turns to throw 2 dice. The player may have one or all of his counters in play at any time. He then moves a counter by the number of squares as on each dice. That is, he can move a counter by dice 1, then move the same counter by dice 2, or he can move a different counter by dice 2. Either way, the counter must be put down between dice moves. A player is allowed to land on any empty square, or one occupied by his own colour, or if occupied by only one of his opponents. There is no limit to how many of his own colour may be on one square. If he lands on a square occupied by only one of his opponents, he is allowed to remove it. Any counters removed this way are then replaced in the central starting point, to start again.
If a player throws a double, he can throw again. At the end, a player can pass the last square with any amount over the required number.
The winner is the first to get all of his counters all of the way round the board.
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| Tabula - Ludus XII Scriptorum |
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