Tudor board games

Players take turns placing their Courtiers into the three Audience Chambers, each with unique actions. Then each player will place their one Lord in a Chamber of their choice. But be careful, since there are only a limited number of seats available in each Chamber and competing families can push you out of a Chamber!

The powerful Lords may also take both actions in the Chamber they occupy. Chamber Actions allow you to gain Court Cards and to move your Courtiers in the Throne Room onto spaces with square Court Tokens that represent various faction interests and demands at the court.

You collect these Court Tokens, which are one way to gain Prestige at court. When you reach the top space of a Court Office in the Royal Court, you will gain that title - represented by a Ring. A player's Rings are placed and displayed on their individual Player Hand Screens. Positioning your Rings on different fingers project your interests, intent, and inclinations to the other players, because different positions enhance specific Actions that your Courtiers take in the Audience Chambers!

In each game of Tudor , you will choose to play one of many scenario cards, each with their own special rules that can alter the game in dramatic ways. In addition, choose two different scoring cards to vary gameplay, creating a strategic experience with exceptional replayability. Tudor: Bonus Cards. Email: Password: Remember Me for 30 days. The aim of the game was to get all three dice, or at least two of them, landing with the same numbers showing.

The wealthier members of Tudor society would play games like chess and backgammon, but other games were enjoyed by all levels of society. This game was easy to set up. The two players just needed some kind of counter stones or coins would do, preferably in two different colours and a board which could be drawn or marked out in sand or earth. The board or grid comprised twenty-four intersections and each player used nine counters.

Players would take it in turns placing their counters on the intersections or points, aiming to get three in a row. Once all the pieces had been placed, players took turns sliding their pieces along the lines, still trying to make a row of three.

When one player had only three pieces left, that player could move a counter from any intersection to another one, in an attempt to either make three in a row or to prevent the other player doing so. Play would continue until one player was left with only two pieces in play. The other player would be declared the winner. Fox and Geese was another popular board game. It was a two-player game played on a cross-shaped board made up of thirty-three points, all connected by vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines.

One player would be the fox with only one piece , and the other player would control the geese. You can find out how to make a board and pieces, and learn how to play here. Port and King was another game played in Tudor times.

It is not clear whether he was playing with the sergeant, or whether the money was to be distributed to courtiers who had won. As part of the festivities celebrating the betrothal of his daughter, Mary, in , large bowls of money and dice were placed on the tables for guests to play. Mary, like her father, grew up to be a frequent and unlucky gambler.

There are numerous references in her accounts to losses at cards and bowls. It is reminiscent of snakes and ladders in that the players unlimited in number had to advance around a spiral of 63 squares, in accordance with the roll of the dice. Seven others require moves back or forward, or missing turns — such as The Tavern miss 2 turns ; The Maze go back to Square 30 ; or The Grave — back to the beginning.

To win, the player had to land on the 63 square with an exact roll. Players wagered by putting in a stake in at the start, which the winner would collect. The game finished when one player was down to two men. Fox and geese was not dissimilar to merrels, but was played with 15, 17 or 18 people, with the central piece being the fox. The object of the game was to move the geese around the board to trap the fox. Cards were perennially popular at all levels of Tudor society.

The game finished when one player was down to two men. Fox and geese was not dissimilar to merrels, but was played with seventeen men, with the central piece being the fox. The object of the game was to move the geese around theboard to trap the fox. Cards were perennially popular at all levels of society. The cards themselves were a bit longer and narrower than today, with blank backs and were often imported from France. It has been said that Queen Elizabeth of York is the model for the queen of hearts in the pack.

Popular games were Imperial, Primero, and Pope Joan. Imperial is rather like Picquet — a game for two players which involves taking tricks. Primero was played all over Europe in a number of variants, usually with forty cards.

It is similar to Poker in that the aim is to achieve groups of cards — four of a kind etc. The Primero hand was one of each suit. Players drew and discarded in different ways, and bet both at the start and during the game. There is a story that Katharine was playing the game with her rival, Anne Boleyn , and seeing Anne winning the hand, said:.

But you are not like the others, you will have all, or none. British History Online [accessed 7 September ]. Search for something.