Game Description:

Ludo is a game for two to four players, for ages six and upwards. The game comes with a square board which is divided into four brightly coloured areas - red, yellow, blue and green.

I am a sucker when it comes to spending more on board games when they look extra smart. This has a thick wooden gaming board, none of that folding out cardboard. There's nothing wrong with that I just like to be aesthetically pleased by a product, from time to time, but it really makes no difference to the actual play. The word 'handcrafted' tends to get me to part with my money.

There are sixteen playing pieces, four of each colour. The players pick which colour they would like and then place their pieces in the designated, colour co-ordinated area of the board. The pieces are nice to handle unlike in some Ludo games I've played where you have fiddly counters to manoeuvre.

Aim:

The aim of the game is to be the first player to have all four of their pieces safe in their own matching coloured 'home'.

Frustrating beginning:

You cannot move anywhere until you roll a six on the dice. I've known games where all the other players are happily moving towards the end goal whilst I've been huffing and puffing because I hadn't managed to roll a six!

Once you have thrown a six goes after that allow the player to move forward one to six squares depending on the dice.

Bonuses:

If you get a six again you can choose to move your piece forward or take out a new playing piece onto the board. Also, as a result of throwing a six you get to have another bonus go.

Another bonus on rolling out a six is that if you are lucky enough to have more than one piece out on the board in active play then you may divide the six squares between them. You may want to move one piece only one square and the other piece five squares. As you can see this game is excellent for enhancing number skills.

Beware:

Throw three sixes in a row and you are punished and you must forfeit your go in the next round.

The frustration continues when you roll the die but don't have the exact number to get your piece to the end. You can only get there if you can move the correct number of spaces to finish in your coloured space called 'home'.

But it gets worse - there's your piece, finally out on the board, and along comes the opposition and lands their piece on your square. Back, your piece goes to the beginning, you are trapped again, until you are successfully in throwing a six. There's nothing worse in this game then having waited all that time to throw a six and get out only to be sent back again! You are never safe until you have advanced around the board and have reached the centre, where you are home.

I found this particular product to be easy to pick up the cone shaped pieces. It looks good and has provided fun games. I would say that you need patience and not everyone will be able to endure the frustration. We usually have one game only before moving on to something else.

Normal cost £15. Current offer in Hamleys is buy one wooden game and get the second half the price. Go on you know you want to!