Trouble is one of those games that has been around for many years but has maintained its popularity with families and can provide hours of fun. The rules are very simple, children of all ages can play the game making it ideal for family nights in.
Another advantage with this game is that it is self-contained, the dice are housed in a dome on the playing board so there is no setting up involved apart from placing the pegs and pieces are not lost which seems to happen to a lot of games that have lots of different pieces.
It first appeared on the market in the 1960's and was produced by a company called Milton Bradley, sales soon increased and at one stage it was one of the most popular games available before the computer consoles started to take over the games market. There are sets of this game in many homes lying in cupboards so if you possess one it is time to get it out and play the game with your family.
As mentioned above the rules are very simple so if you have lost these but want to play the game, here is a brief guideline to get you started.
The game is designed to be played by 2-4 players and each player has pegs of their own colour which they must choose at the start of the game. The coloured pegs are then placed onto the playing board in their relevant colour start positions.
To decide who will take the first turn, each player will press on the dome to pop the dice and the player with the highest number will take the first turn, the turns are then taken in a clockwise order around the board.
Once the playing order is decided, the first player pops the dice and needs to get a six to be able to move one of their pieces. If a six is not popped then the next player in the order takes their turn at popping the dice until a six is popped by one of the players.
The player that popped the six then moves one of his pieces six spaces and the next player then pops the dice hoping for a six to be able to move their pieces. The players that have pieces that are allowed to move then take their turn and move the pieces the amount of spaces as shown on the dice, if a player has already a moving piece on the board and they pop another six they are now eligible to start moving with another one of their pieces. They do not have to move another piece, they do have the option of moving any of their mobile pieces by six squares.
If you land on a square that is already occupied then you can remove the piece that is in that square and the owner of that piece has to move it back to the start position.
The game finishes when one player has moved all of their pieces to the matching coloured finishing position on the playing board, they are then declared the winner.
As you can see, there are not many rules to observe and this game is also available to play online or on your own pc where you can play against the computer. If you haven't played this game before it is worth giving it a try just for the fun factor and this game should never be taken seriously. Enjoy this game with your family on those days when you are all in the house!
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