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Pachisi

Pachisi is a board game thought to originate in India, it is played on a board shaped in the form of a symmetrical cross. A player's pieces move around the board based upon a throw of six or seven cowries (the number of shells landing appeture upwards indicating the number of places to move).



Table of contents
1 Players
2 Style
3 Goal
4 Eating
5 Score
6 Related board games are

Players

It's a game for 4 players. It is usually played in 2 player teams. The yellow and black ones play against the red and green ones. The winners are those 2 people who get their pawns out first. The turn can be forfeited voluntarily

Style

Pachisi is a Cross and Circle game. Games of this type are: Pancha Keliya from Ceylon; Nyout, from Korea and "Edris To Jin" from Syria. In the Mayan ruins of Mexico vestiges of a similar game have been found. It is presumed that Moctezuma's subordinates played it. It was called Patolli

Goal

Pachisi's goal is to run a complete circle around the board. The exit is the same starting place, Charkoni. Each toss is only valid for one pawn. If an extra turn is won, it is possible to move with another one. In order to leave the jail, the first pawn may leave with any toss of the dice. The other pawns must leave with a 6, 10 and 25, respectively

Eating

Other player's pawns can be eaten only in squares which are not safe. Safe squared are called castles. The player places his pawn next to the other one and the other one is returned to its Charkoni. In addition, the player who eats it also wins an extra turn

Score

In order to know the score, the number of cowries which fell upwards are counted, as follows:

COWRIES    VALUE 
2:           2
3:           3
4:           4
5:           5
6:     6 and another turn
1:    10 and another turn
0:    25 and another turn

Related board games are

Parques, Parcheesi, Ludo, Patolli, Parchis