COURTYARDL U D O
THE ROYAL COURTYARD A place to play together
Every great evening starts with “one more game.”Royal Courtyard
A QUICK REFRESHER

The house rules.

Four colours. Four tokens each. Get all four home first to win.

  1. Take your place. Red sits upper left, green upper right, yellow lower right and blue lower left. A random player starts; turns go clockwise.
  2. Roll a 1 or a 6 to come out. Place one token on your coloured starting square, or move a token already on the track by the full roll. Use one fair six-sided die. You cannot split a roll, and you must make a legal move when one is available.
  3. Good things earn another roll. A 6, a capture, or getting a token home earns one extra roll. Combining rewards still gives just one. A 6 with no legal move also earns another roll.
  4. Three sixes end your turn. On the third consecutive 6, discard that roll and pass the die. Moves from the first two sixes stay. A non-six breaks the sequence.
  5. Make a little mischief. Land on opponents on an ordinary square to send all their tokens on that square back to their yards. Tokens can share squares, and never block movement.
  6. Eight safe squares. The four coloured starting squares and the four star squares are safe. Opponents can share them without being captured.
  7. Capture to unlock home. You must capture at least once before any of your tokens can enter your home lane. This unlock is permanent for all four tokens, even if the capturing token is sent back.
  8. Another lap is always possible. Before home is unlocked, skip its entrance and keep going for as many laps as needed. After a capture, each token enters its own lane on its next approach to the entrance; it cannot jump back.
  9. A perfect finish. Only your colour can use your home lane, where tokens cannot be captured. Roll the exact number to get home; overshooting is illegal. If no move is legal, skip the roll. The first player with all four tokens home wins.
Stars mark safe squares, not the ends of home lanes.
YOUR NEXT GAME, ONE TAP AWAY

Make yourself at home.

Add Courtyard Ludo to your home screen for its own app window. Friends can join from the app or their browser.

01
iPhone or iPad

Open this site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. If shown, turn on Open as Web App and tap Add.

02
Android

In Chrome, open the ⋮ menu and choose Install app or Add to Home screen.

03
Desktop

In Chrome or Edge, use the install icon in the address bar or the browser’s install menu. On Safari for Mac, choose File → Add to Dock.

Online rooms need an internet connection.

Open the game online once to prepare offline play.