Draughts

Draughts (or Checkers) is a war game derived from Alquerque. As such, its history goes back to the 10th century, with Draughts itself coming into being a few centuries later when Alquerque was transferred to a chess board. 

Draughts comes in many, mostly local, versions, which mainly differ in the size of the board (8 x 8, 10 x 10, etc), number of pieces, and rules regarding movement, capturing and promotion. It's not my intention to collect multiple variants, as they all look pretty much the same. So to add Draughts to the 'traditional board games' collection, I simply got myself a set of wooden pieces and placed them on a chess board of the right size.

Here it is!

Boter, kaas, en eieren

Boter, Kaas en Eieren ("Butter, Cheese and Eggs") is the Dutch name for a game known in the English-speaking world as 'Tic-tac-toe' or 'Noughts and Crosses'.

It is the simplest of a family of positional games, where the game is won by being the first to get his or her pieces in a line. As a family, its history goes back to at least ancient Egypt. The family is known as 'mills' or 'merels', and includes Three Men's Morris, Five/Six Men's Morris, and Nine Men's Morris.

As the simplest game of the family, playing it hardly needs any equipment: a piece of paper and a pen or other writing utensil is enough!

But I was keen to add a slightly more substantial version of the game to the collection, and saw this small wooden board plus playing pieces for a few quid on eBay.

By the way the origin of the Dutch name is truly hidden in the mists of time ...

Mens Erger Je Niet!

Mens Erger Je Niet! is the Dutch name for the game also known as Ludo, which itself is a commercial version of the traditional Indian board game Pachisi. The Dutch name of the game loosely translates as "Man, don't get bothered!", and, as Ludo, it dates back to the late 19th century. The game is a race game, in which each of up to six players has four pieces to get from the start, around the board, and then to home. Capturing is by displacement and captured pieces don't disappear, but have to start again (the Dutch title warns you not to get bothered, irritating though it is to have to start again!). Due to each player having a few pieces, rather than one, the game is a complex race game, with play a mixture between chance and strategy. 

My copy of Mens Erger Je Niet!, even though new when I got it, has the exact layout of what the game looked like when I was a kid in the Netherlands, both in terms of design of the board and pieces, and the artwork on the box.

Childhood memories, for sure!