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GAME BOARD

LUDUS CALCULORUM
INFORMATION AND RULES

LUDUS CALCULORUM
ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED
This is a speed/strategy game. We are not completely sure of the • 2 players
rules, although the basics seem simple. The game is related in some • A gridded board; ours is 8�10 squares (download and print ours, or
ways to Gomoku and checkers. Many boards were scratched in the draw your own)
dirt and carved into pavements and doorways. Bored soldiers and • 35+ playing pieces for each player, such as light and dark pebbles or
entourages of the rich needed something to do in a pre-digital age! coins (heads and tails). You can also cut out our gaming pieces and
glue them to pennies or circles of cardboard
Archaeology produces few rules for games, since people took them
for granted (and written reports often decay with time). We can’t be
sure of all the games played on all the different boards that survive,
RULES
but we CAN be sure there were variations. Goal: The first player to place five pieces in a row across, up, down,
or diagonally wins
• Players take turns placing a game piece on any empty space
• Pieces are not moved or removed; they stay in place
• A double open-ended row of three is forbidden (3 game pieces that
cross in a T or X if not blocked by an opponent beyond the third
game piece)
• If there is no winner when the board is full or the pieces have run
out, there is a draw

To make the game harder


Left: Roman clay floor tile incised with a game board, with ivory Forbid a double row of four pieces in an X or T, as well as a double
playing pieces, Silchester. row of three
Right: Rectangular game board carved on the steps of the
Basilica Julia, Roman Forum, Rome.
Left to right: Reading Museum, England. Photo by BabelStone / CC VB-SA3.0; Photo
by Eric Livak-Dahl, 2004, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, via Wikipedia

DIAGONAL WIN HORIZONTAL WIN VERTICAL WIN ILLEGAL X-SHAPED


ROW OF THREE

© J. Paul Getty Trust

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