What is Ludo with blockades?
In the standard game here, two of your own tokens can never share a square of the track. With blockades, they can: move a token onto a square where another of your tokens stands, and the two form a blockade. More tokens may join it.
A blockade is a wall. No opposing token may land on it, so it cannot be captured, and no opposing token may pass it either. A token whose move would cross or end on an opposing blockade cannot make that move; if no token can move, the roll is lost, and a 6 still earns another roll. An opponent cannot even bring a token out of the yard while your blockade stands on their start square. Your own tokens may pass your blockades freely.
The blockade breaks up as soon as you move one of its tokens away. Placed in front of an opponent's start square or just ahead of a token about to run for home, a blockade can hold up a rival for several turns, but every turn you keep it costs you a move with two of your tokens.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Ludo | Ludo with blockades |
|---|---|---|
| Your tokens on one square | Standard LudoNot allowed: two of your tokens cannot share a square of the track. | Ludo with blockadesAllowed. Two or more of your tokens on a square of the track form a blockade. |
| Passing a blockade | Standard LudoThere are no blockades; tokens pass any square. | Ludo with blockadesOpponents cannot pass your blockade. A move that would cross it cannot be made. |
| Landing on a blockade | Standard LudoLanding on an opponent's token captures it. | Ludo with blockadesOpponents cannot land on your blockade, so its tokens cannot be captured. |
| Leaving the yard | Standard LudoA 6 brings a token onto your start square. | Ludo with blockadesThe same, unless an opponent's blockade stands on your start square. |
| Your own tokens | Standard LudoA token cannot land on a square another of your tokens holds. | Ludo with blockadesYour tokens may pass your own blockades and join them. |
| Home column | Standard LudoOne token per square, and you cannot jump over your own tokens. | Ludo with blockadesThe same; blockades form only on the track. |
| Other options | Standard LudoEvery option in the table setup can be used. | Ludo with blockadesIn team play your partner may pass and land on your blockades. With Pachisi rules, your doubled pieces become blockades. |
History
Blocks are among the best-known rules of the Ludo family. In many descriptions, tokens of the same colour stacking on one space form a block, which an opponent's single piece cannot take, and some variations let a doubled block be passed on a roll of a six or a one. Printed Danish Ludo rules describe the strict form played here: two or more counters of one colour on a space form a barrier that no other counter may capture or pass over.
The rule goes back to Pachisi, the Indian game Ludo comes from, in which more than one piece of the same team may share a square. Parchís in Spain and its American counterpart, other commercial descendants of Pachisi, are also known for blockades.
The standard Ludo rules played here leave blocks out, so that every token can be caught; this variant adds them in their strictest form.