I wasn't a fan of board games when I was much younger, I always thought that the players were exaggerating judging by the time and energy they put when playing. The players were always too passionate about it and there are times when players exchanged words because they are losing or cheated.
Many of the games made no sense to me and I will rather sit with a PlayStation at an uncle's place or just play football.
"It's old, outdated games", these are the words I used to describe board games until my mom brought a Ludo home one weekend. She claimed to have seen it at a very cheap price so she bought it, I didn't believe my ears and she went on telling me stories of how she was a Champion at it.
She told me the basics of the game and it looked very easy to me.
"So Ludo is all about running around and not letting your opponent take out any of your piece out until you get to your safe zone", I thought.
She set up the game up and I was eager to prove to myself that the game was cheap. For over 30 minutes of trying my luck, I was beaten all through and every time she said she wasn't even playing her best made me angry.
She was not playing her best game and I couldn't take just one out of my eight pieces to the safe zone, that was a huge slap on my ego and in the end, I gave up. I felt terrible and even hated the game more.
Every time I thought of a way to beat her, I always challenge her but it ends the same way for me always. I began to realise that the game had logic and tactics that my mom wasn't telling me about so I started learning from every time I failed playing against her.
Ludo is a strategic board game just like every other board game. It has to do with attacking and defending or both depending on the player's understanding of the game.
It can be played by 2-4 players but I prefer two and there are days when I played alone just to practice. The things that make up a ludo are two dice, the board itself and 16 pieces of small objects used while playing.
The board has four bases and each has a particular color that represents a player so the 16 pieces I mentioned earlier will be shared to the base with the same colour.
If the base is red, the four red pieces will be arranged on the red base and the same will be done for the other bases as well.
The game is all about safely taking your piece from the base to the base column. Yes, it is easy but not as you think it.
Aside from the fact that your opponent's task is to take his or her pieces to the base column, taking you out of the way is one of the things that makes the game fun.
When the opponent catches up with you on the column except your base column that has the same colour as your piece, your piece is automatically taken out and that particular piece is going to restart the race from the base.
The dice is responsible for the piece movement, you need a six on a dice before a piece can get out of the base.
It's as easy as that theoretically but a different thing when playing. I suffered several defeats before I became good with the game, losing to my opponent was fun to them but it was a learning process for me.
Since there are different strategies for the game, I studied every opponent's style and improve on them until I became good as well.
I don't have a fix strategy for the game and my opponent's approach to the game would determine which of my strategies I will apply. After getting good at the game, I wouldn't stop showing off. I always wanted to take on anyone and even my mom couldn't beat me anymore.
I always wanted to play against people who were better than I am just because it helps me to improve, they will only beat me a few times before I come up with a strategy to beat them.
I remembered visiting a friend back then and his friends were playing ludo. They were actually betting which I don't do, I play games for fun so my friend insisted that I played because he knew how good I was.
He paid for the bet but I lost. Everyone wouldn't stop laughing at how poor I played but they regret looking down on me after all. I mentioned earlier that Ludo is a strategic game, yes it is but can also be played with the mind.
That day was the first time I tried playing a mind game with my opponent and they fell for it. I made them feel like I didn't know much and they let their guard down.
It doesn't work for every opponent and it is not advisable to play mind games when you have just one shot at taking your opponent down.
Ludo being a strategic game can help an individual boost their reasoning ability, it is a game that doesn't give you all the time in the world to think and you must be fast with decision-making when playing. It helps you think faster and more accurately.
Every decision won't be perfect but the more I made mistakes, the better I get at the game.
The lesson I learned from playing Ludo is relatable to life. Avoiding defeat because of our incapability won't help us get better, taking challenges head-on will help us gain more experience even though we lost and that's not failure me.
Failure is when I refuse to try because of the fear of losing, thanks for engaging with my response to Weekend Engagement topics by @galenkp Feel free to check them out, you are definitely going to love them.
At some point, I really liked playing this game but the last time I tried playing it, I was beat with a large gap. Ludo is a really fun bored game to play, especially when your opponents are lively people.
Lolz, I always felt it was boring until I started winning. The game is very tactical and it requires you to understand your opponent's game and come up with a style to defeat them.
Exactly. I think that applies to many games
It must be fun to play it. I'm not into board games, card games, or any video games. But I do know the word Scrabble (I guess it's a board game too 😅), Rubik, the temple of Hanoi, and other mind puzzle games I learned back in college..lol.
Yeah, scrabble is a board game and they all have one thing in common which is helping us improve our mental capabilities.
After ludo, I learnt other traditional board games but I find ludo more interesting.
I started just like you, man. I didn't understand the game much and usually lost a lot. Growing up, out of many frustrations, I believed the game to be by luck. That opinion changed over time.
The dice are uncontrollable, yes, but it's what one does with what they have handed to them that matters the most. In my opinion, I'd say Ludo is a representation of life and the decisions we make.
This is very well presented, man. Well done.
You are well on point man, Ludo is very relatable to life just like every other board game. Too bad I didn't take my time to learn chess, I love the game just don't have the time like I did with ludo.
A lot of things on our minds now.
I love playing lude when I was little and when I became an adult I love it more because of the strategy some need to win that game
Hehe. I also play that game with my siblings and parents sometimes in our free time. It's easy to understand and play. I enjoy the game very much.
I love Ludo. I played it a lot during my childhood days. However, it's no longer my favorite board game. I began to lose interest in the game the day a rookie defeated me badly. I had better strategy but the rookie could easily draw "six". In fact, he drew "double six" in every 5 to 6 attempts.
Conversely, I wasn't too lucky with six. So, despite all my superior tactics, he defeated me. Hence, I concluded that Ludo is based on 50% luck and 50% efforts. All the same, it's still a very interesting game.
This post is great, thanks for teaching others about this game, Ludo is my favorite game as a child, I played it a lot hahaha and I still do.