How to Play Latrunculi

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Latrunculi is a two-player abstract strategy game played on a grid board, in which each player manoeuvres a set of pieces to surround and capture the other's. It rewards patient, geometric thinking: every move either tightens your grip on the board or hands the initiative to your opponent. There are no dice and no luck, which means the better tactician wins every time.

The game is typically played on a board of eight by eight squares, though smaller grids suit younger or newer players well. It works equally well on a dedicated board or on any squared surface with distinguishable pieces for each side. Players who enjoy Chess or Draughts generally take to Latrunculi immediately, while finding it a distinct enough puzzle to keep them engaged for years.

A little history

Latrunculi is referred to in several Roman texts, including works attributed to Ovid, Martial, and Varro, who describe it as a popular pastime in Roman society around the first century BC to first century AD. The word itself derives from the Latin for 'little soldiers' or 'mercenaries', which reflects the game's military flavour. Its exact rules were never codified in surviving ancient sources, so modern reconstructions are scholarly interpretations based on textual clues and comparison with other ancient grid games; its precise origins and full original rule set remain unclear.

Setting up

1. Place the board between the two players so each has a long edge nearest to them.
2. Each player takes 16 pieces of their colour plus one dux piece.
3. Arrange all pieces along the two rows nearest each player: fill the back row completely with ordinary pieces, then place the dux somewhere in the second row among the remaining pieces. The exact starting positions of individual pieces within those rows can be chosen freely by each player before play begins.
4. Decide who moves first, traditionally by agreement or by lot.

How to play

1. Players alternate turns. On your turn you must move exactly one of your pieces.
2. Ordinary pieces move any number of vacant squares in a straight line, horizontally or vertically only. They cannot move diagonally and cannot jump over any other piece.
3. The dux moves exactly as ordinary pieces do but is the priority target for your opponent: losing your dux is significant (see Winning).
4. You may not move a piece onto a square already occupied by any piece, your own or your opponent's.
5. Capture is by custodianship: if, after your move, one of your opponent's pieces sits between two of your pieces on the same row or column with no gap, that opponent's piece is immediately removed from the board.
6. Custodian capture requires exactly two of your pieces flanking exactly one enemy piece. Flanking two or more enemy pieces in a row does not capture them unless each individual enemy piece is separately flanked.
7. A piece is safe if it moves into a square that is already flanked by two enemy pieces: moving into a sandwich does not cause self-capture. Capture only occurs as a result of the moving player's own move.
8. The dux may be captured by custodianship in exactly the same way as any other piece.
9. A player who has no legal move available on their turn loses the game immediately.
10. Play continues until one player captures all of the other's pieces, captures the opponent's dux (triggering an instant win in some rulesets, see Fine Points), or leaves the opponent with no legal move.

Winning and scoring

The primary win condition is to leave your opponent with no legal moves on their turn, or to capture every one of their pieces. In rulesets that use the dux as a special piece, capturing the opponent's dux is treated as an instant win regardless of remaining pieces on the board, mirroring the checkmate principle. If no instant win occurs, the game may also be decided by piece count when both players agree the position is blocked: the player with more pieces remaining on the board wins. In the event of equal piece counts in a blocked position, the game is a draw.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns simultaneous custodianship: if a single move results in two of your opponent's pieces being captured at the same time because each is separately flanked, both are removed. However, if your move creates a line where three or more enemy pieces sit between your two pieces, none of those central pieces are captured; only a single isolated enemy piece caught between exactly two of yours is taken. Players should agree before the game starts whether they are using the dux-capture instant-win rule or the piece-count tiebreak rule, as both are in common circulation.

A piece may move into a square that is flanked on both sides by enemy pieces without being captured: this self-entry-into-sandwich rule is standard and prevents deadlock. The capture must result from the moving player's action, not the stationary piece's position. Edge and corner squares count as closed ends for custodianship only if both players have agreed a 'wall assist' variant before play; in standard play, the board edge does not act as a capturing partner.

How to win more often

• Control the centre early: pieces near the middle of the board command more lines and can threaten captures in multiple directions simultaneously.
• Keep your pieces connected in loose pairs so you can complete a custodian capture the moment an opponent's piece steps into range.
• Watch your own flanks constantly. A piece you move forward can easily become the victim of a flanking response if you leave it isolated.
• Use your dux actively. Its mobility is identical to other pieces but its loss (in dux-capture rulesets) ends the game instantly, so keep it in play as a threat while protecting it with neighbouring pieces.
• Push your opponent toward the edges and corners. Pieces near the rim have fewer escape routes and are much easier to trap between two of yours.

Variations

Small Board (6x6)

Played on a six-by-six grid with ten pieces per side and one dux each. The reduced space forces confrontations earlier and suits younger players or those new to the game. Opening choices matter less; tactical reading of the mid-game matters more. Sessions typically run fifteen to twenty minutes.

Wall-Assist Capture

In this variant the edge of the board counts as one of the two custodians needed for a capture. A single piece of yours positioned adjacent to an enemy piece that is already touching the board edge captures that enemy piece immediately. This opens up new attacking lines along the perimeter and changes the strategic value of the corners significantly.

No-Dux (Equal Pieces)

Both players use sixteen identical pieces with no dux designation. The game ends only when one player has no pieces left or no legal move. This version removes the instant-win condition and produces longer, more attrition-focused games, often decided by a careful piece-count endgame.

Timed Play

Each player is given a fixed time budget (commonly five minutes total per player) using any standard chess clock or timer. A player who runs out of time loses immediately. Timed Latrunculi rewards players who have internalised the capture patterns and can recognise threats quickly, and it suits club or tournament settings where session length must be controlled.

Latrunculi: frequently asked questions