Mensch ärgere dich nicht

How to play Mensch ärgere dich nicht online

Choose 2, 3 or 4 players, type your name and press Play vs computer. Each player has four pieces waiting in the house, the coloured corner of the board. On your turn you roll the die by tapping your dice box in your corner (or pressing Space). The pieces you can move glow, and you tap one to move it. With one die and a single useful move the game plays it for you if Auto-move is on.

The aim is to bring all four of your pieces once around the 40-square board and into your four home squares, the coloured lane that points at the centre. The first player to fill all four home squares wins. You can also play on for second and third place by switching Quick game off.

• Roll a 6 to bring a piece out onto your start square, then roll again.
• Move one piece clockwise by the number rolled. You may jump over other pieces.
• Land exactly on an opponent to send that piece back to its house.
• Capturing is compulsory when you can, and you must clear your start square before anything else.
• Enter your home squares with the exact number and fill all four to win.

Mensch ärgere dich nicht rules: the board and the goal

The board is a cross. Around the outside runs a ring of 40 squares that every colour shares. Each player owns one corner (the house, where the pieces start), one start square on the ring, and a coloured lane of four home squares leading from the edge of the ring toward the middle. In our game the player at the bottom is red, then green, yellow and blue go round the table clockwise.

A piece travels clockwise from its start square all the way round the ring, which is 40 squares in all counting the start square, and then turns off into its own home squares instead of going past the start square again. The four home squares are filled from the back: the first piece to get in can go to the deepest square, and the others stop in front of it. All four pieces must end up inside the lane. There is no centre square to reach and nothing to roll for once your pieces are packed in.

How do you get a piece out? The 6 and the three tries

A piece can only leave the house with a 6. It comes out onto your start square, and because every 6 gives another roll you immediately roll again. When all four of your pieces are in the house you do not have to wait a whole round for a 6: you get up to three rolls in a row to throw one. After three misses the turn passes to the next player. The same three tries apply when your pieces are not in the house but are parked at the very back of your home squares and cannot move, because from outside the table that looks exactly the same as having nothing to play.

As soon as one of your pieces is on the board, the three tries stop. With a piece to move, a roll that is not a 6 is simply used by that piece, and the turn passes when you have moved. You can switch three tries off in the house rules if your family plays one roll per turn.

What are the forced moves in Mensch ärgere dich nicht?

This is the part that gives the game its name. Several moves are compulsory, and when more than one rule applies they are checked in this order of priority.

• First, clear your start square. If you still have pieces in the house and one of your own pieces is standing on your start square, that piece must move, because otherwise nobody could come out. If it cannot move (for example it would land on another piece of yours) the next rule applies.
• Second, leave the house on a 6. If you roll a 6 and there is a piece in the house and the start square is free, you must bring a piece out.
• Third, capture if you can. If any legal move lands on an opponent's piece, you must make a capturing move. This is called Schlagzwang, the compulsory hit, and it is why the game is famously annoying: you cannot keep a piece safe by simply not hitting.
• Otherwise you may choose any legal move.

Can you capture, and are there safe squares?

Yes, and there are no safe squares at all, not even the coloured start squares. If your piece ends its move exactly on a square where an opponent's piece stands, that piece goes back to its owner's house and your piece takes its place. There are no bonus rolls for capturing in the usual German rules, so the only reward is the setback you cause. A piece coming out of the house with a 6 captures an opponent standing on your start square in the same way, which makes hovering on someone else's start square a risky habit.

You may never land on a square occupied by one of your own pieces. You can jump over any piece, yours or an opponent's, on the ring, so pieces never block each other. Inside your home squares you can only move forward into free squares and you may not jump over your own pieces there.

How do the home squares work? Exact entry

After a full lap a piece turns into your home squares. You need an exact count: the lane has four squares, and a roll that would take a piece past the last one cannot be used by that piece. A piece standing at the last ring square before the lane can use a 1 to step into the first home square, a 4 to reach the deepest one, and nothing higher. Pieces that are already inside can still step forward if the square ahead is free, so a 1 can shuffle a piece from the second square to the third.

This is why the end of the game is slow and tense: you often need a specific number, and with three pieces parked and one outside you can wait many turns. It also explains the three tries. If every piece you own is in the house or parked at the back of the lane, you are effectively waiting for a 6 or a lucky small number, so the game lets you roll again.

How many people can play Mensch ärgere dich nicht?

The board is made for four, and we let 2, 3 or 4 sit down. With two players you can choose opposite corners or side-by-side corners. Empty seats are played by the computer. Online, up to three friends can join your room with a link or a room code, and any seats they do not take are still computers. The voice chat button and emoji chat are there for the shouting that this game always produces.

Playing with friends: press Invite friends, send the link on WhatsApp or copy it, and wait for everyone to appear in the lobby. You can also play quick match with strangers from the setup screen. Hosts choose the house rules, and joiners see them in the lobby before the game starts.

Mensch ärgere dich nicht strategy: how to win

Do not rush pieces onto the board without a plan. Because there are no safe squares, a lone piece is always in danger from any opponent up to six squares behind it. Before you move, count the pieces behind each of your pieces and ask how many numbers would hit you. A piece with an opponent one to six squares behind is in danger, and your risk on a single roll is about one in six for each opponent piece that is in range.

Use the forced capture to your advantage. If you know an opponent must capture you, you can leave a piece as bait to drag their piece into the open where your next piece can recapture. Keep your own start square clear before you are forced to, and try not to put two pieces where a capture will always be available to somebody else.

Get home squares filled in the right order. Move the first piece to the deepest home square, not the first one you reach, if the choice exists, because pieces parked at the front of the lane block those behind them from using small numbers. And do not leave your last piece waiting on the ring: the exact count means it may need several turns, so start the final approach early when the lane is free.

Against the Hard computer, expect it to take every capture and to avoid squares just in front of your pieces. It looks one move ahead at what the next player could roll, so playing safe and waiting for a good roll is often better than running.

House rules and variants of Mensch ärgere dich nicht

Families have always argued about the details, so we let you switch the main ones. In the House rules button you can turn the three tries on or off, make clearing the start square, leaving on a 6 and capturing compulsory or optional, play on for places or end the game at the first winner, pick who starts, and add a turn timer of 15 or 30 seconds. The how to play button always shows the rules exactly as they are set.

Other versions you may know: in Ludo you need a 6 as well but there are safe squares and capturing is not forced. In Parchís two dice are used and there are barriers. In Petits chevaux the board has 56 squares and a central square at the end. The Swedish game Fia med knuff and the American Sorry follow the same idea. All of them descend from the Indian race game Pachisi. See our comparison of Ludo, Mensch ärgere dich nicht, Parchís and Petits chevaux for the differences.

A short history of Mensch ärgere dich nicht

The game is traditionally credited to Josef Friedrich Schmidt, a Munich teacher who made it for his children in the first years of the twentieth century and began selling it around 1910. During the First World War large numbers of copies were sent to soldiers as a way of passing time, which helped it spread across Germany and beyond. Today it is played in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and under other names in many other countries. The name means roughly Man, don't get angry, which is good advice that nobody follows.

Mensch ärgere dich nicht online spielen: Hinweise auf Deutsch

Mensch ärgere dich nicht kostenlos online spielen: Hier spielst du Mensch ärgere dich nicht gegen den Computer oder mit Freunden per Link, ohne Download und ohne Anmeldung. Es gelten die bekannten Regeln: Man braucht eine Sechs, um eine Figur aus dem Haus zu setzen, bei jeder Sechs darf man nochmal würfeln, und wer mit seinem Zug eine fremde Figur schlagen kann, muss das tun (Schlagzwang). Das Startfeld muss geräumt werden, sobald noch Figuren im Haus stehen. Wenn alle Figuren im Haus sind, hat man bis zu drei Versuche, eine Sechs zu würfeln. Es gibt keine sicheren Felder, und in das Zielhaus kommt man nur mit der genauen Augenzahl. Wer zuerst alle vier Figuren im Ziel hat, gewinnt. Mit den Hausregeln kannst du Schlagzwang, drei Würfe und Startzwang einzeln ein- und ausschalten. Die Regeln findest du jederzeit unter So wird gespielt.