Pachisi is played on a cloth shaped like a cross and is documented across the Indian subcontinent for centuries; Akbar is said to have played it on a life-sized courtyard board. Movement is decided by throwing cowrie shells rather than dice, which gives it a very distinctive rhythm.
Variant implemented
Traditional Pachisi with six cowrie shells (0 shells up = 25, 1 = 10, 2..5 = face count, 6 = 6); grace throws of 6, 10 and 25 grant an extra throw and allow entry; castle squares are safe; exact count to finish.
Board and pieces
A cross-shaped cloth. A circuit of 64 squares plus a private seven-cell home column for each player, leading to the central charkoni.
Setup
Four tokens each, all in the yard. Two to four players.
Turn
Throw six cowrie shells and move one token by the value thrown.
Capture and scoring
Landing on an opponent's token sends it home, unless the square is a castle. A capture grants another throw.
Win condition
The first player to bring all four tokens home wins.
Draw condition
None.
Special rules
Cowrie values: no shells mouth-up scores 25, one scores 10, and two to six score their face count. There is no throw of 1. Throws of 6, 10 and 25 are graces: they grant an extra throw and allow a token to enter play. Two of your own tokens on one square form a block that opponents may not pass. Finishing requires an exact count — and because 1 cannot be thrown, the engine will not let you move a token to a square one step short of home, since it could never come in from there.
Computer opponent
Greedy evaluation at Easy and Medium; flat Monte-Carlo at Hard.