Roman Games

Roman Games

by Signora Giata Maddalena Alberti

Rota

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Rota, means “Wheel” and is the Roman equivalent of Tic-Tac-Toe, though the name they called it has been lost. Like most medieval games, the rules have been reconstructed based on similar games.

Rules of play, as researched by Guillaume de Pyrenees (mka Sam Wallace) in his Synopsis of Morris Games class.

Each player gets 3 game pieces.

Players take turns putting their game pieces on any line in the circle including the middle.

Once they've put all 3 pieces on the board, they can move their pieces from line to line, but only to one that's next to the line that they're on.

The player who gets three in a row  first wins.

The players will need to decide before hand if three in a row around the edge of the circle counts or if the three in the row must cross through the center.

Lucky Sixes

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Felix Sex is Latin for “Lucky Sixes” and is probably a derivative of the earlier Duodecim Scripta and a precursor to Tabula and, later, Nard. The rules for this game are reconstructed, as there are no surviving references to it other than circumstantial. It was played by the Romans and by the people who remained after the fall of the Western Empire (e.g. in Anglo-Saxon Britain).

Each player starts with 15 pieces o  the board. Three dice are tossed for movement. The pieces move  rst up the center line of letters (or spaces), and then over to the player’s left. Finally they would travel to the opposite side of letters and then off the board.

The object is to get all one’s pieces across the board to the final square. If you landed on a square that had an opponent’s piece already on it, that piece would return to (their) square one. If two or more opponent’s pieces were already on the square, then it could not be occupied. Presumably you would be forced to fall short, or rearrange the moves of your own pieces. Each die is counted separately for movement, and all three must be used if possible.

No pieces may move beyond the first ‘word’ until all pieces had entered the board. Likewise, no pieces could exit the board until all pieces had landed on the last word.

As researched by Guillaume de Pyrenees in his Synopsis of Intro to Medieval Board Games class.

Five in a Row

Image source.

Calculi, or “Five in a Row” is a Roman game played on the same board as Latrunculi. Each player has 33 pieces, in opposite colors.

The traditional rules of Calculi, or "Five in a Row," are as follows:

 1. Black plays first.

 2. First person to line up five stones in a row orthogonally (straight across or straight up and down) or diagonally wins.

 3. It is illegal to make a "double open-ended three" unless one is forced to do so.

 4. If the board becomes filled, the game is a draw.

A double open-ended three, or three in a row simultaneously in two directions, is banned because it is too easy to win, and occurs frequently. This rule makes for a much more interesting game, and leads to the strategy in which one tries to make a double "three and a four," which is like a double open-ended three, except that one line is made of four in a row.

As researched by Wally J. Kowalski from Able One Education Network

[Source: Fleurty Herald]