Board games are tabletop games that typically use pieces moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Most feature a competition between two or more players. In checkers, a player wins by capturing all opposing pieces, while Eurogames often end with a calculation of final scores. Pandemic is a cooperative game where players all win or lose as a team, and peg solitaire is a puzzle for one person.
There are many varieties of board games. Their representation of real-life situations can range from having no inherent theme, such as checkers, to having a specific theme and narrative, such as Cluedo. Rules can range from the very simple, such as in Snakes and Ladders; to deeply complex, as in Advanced Squad Leader.
The time required to learn to play or master a game varies greatly from game to game, but is not necessarily correlated with the number or complexity of rules; games like chess or Go possess relatively simple rulesets, but have great strategic depth.
Classical board games are divided into four categories of game: race games (such as Pachisi), space games (such as Noughts and Crosses), chase games (such as Hnefatafl), and games of displacement (such as chess).
Board games have been played, traveled, and evolved in most cultures and societies throughout history. A number of important historical sites, artifacts and documents shed light on early board games such as Jiroft civilization gameboards in Iran. Senet, found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c. 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively, is the oldest board game known to have existed. Senet was pictured in a fresco found in Merknera's tomb (3300–2700 BC). Also from predynastic Egypt is Mehen.
Hounds and Jackals, another ancient Egyptian board game, appeared around 2000 BC. The first complete set of this game was discovered from a Theban tomb that dates to the 13th dynasty. This game was also popular in Mesopotamia and the Caucasus.
Backgammon originated in ancient Mesopotamia over 5,000 years ago. Ashtapada, Chess, Pachisi and Chaupar originated in India. Go and Liubo originated in China. Patolli originated in Mesoamerica played by the ancient Aztecs and The Royal Game of Ur was found in the Royal Tombs of Ur, dating to Mesopotamia 4,600 years ago. The earliest known games list is the Buddha games list.
oard games have a long tradition in Europe. The oldest records of board gaming in Europe date back to Homer's Iliad (written in the 8th century BC), in which he mentions the Ancient Greek game of Petteia.This game of petteia would later evolve into the Roman Ludus Latrunculorum. Board gaming in ancient Europe was not unique to the Greco-Roman world, with records estimating that the ancient Norse game of Hnefatafl was developed sometime before 400AD. In ancient Ireland, the game of Fidchell or Ficheall, is said to date back to at least 144 AD, though this is likely an anachronism. A fidchell board dating from the 10th century has been uncovered in Co. Westmeath, Ireland.
The association of dice and cards with gambling led to all dice games except backgammon being treated as lotteries by dice in the gaming acts of 1710 and 1845. Early board game producers in the second half of the eighteenth century were mapmakers. The global popularization of Board Games, with special themes and branding, coincided with the formation of the global dominance of the British Empire.John Wallis was an English board game publisher, bookseller, map/chart seller, printseller, music seller, and cartographer. With his sons John Wallis Jr. and Edward Wallis, he was one of the most prolific publishers of board games of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.[citation needed] John Betts' A Tour of the British Colonies and Foreign Possessions and William Spooner's A Voyage of Discovery were popular in the British empire. Kriegsspiel is a genre of wargaming developed in 19th century Prussia to teach battle tactics to officers
