Blog

Len Choa is a two player game from Thailand. It’s an asymmetric game, which means the two players have different rules to follow. In this game, one player controls a pack of six leopards, and their opponent controls one scary lion!

You will need

• Six counters of the same colour to represent leopards
• One different counter to represent the lion
• A printed copy of the Len Choa board
• Someone to play with

What to do

1. Work out who is going to play as the leopards (six counters) and who will play as the lion (one different counter).
2. The leopards’ goal is to trap the lion so it can’t move. The lion’s goal is to capture at least three leopards.
3. Look at the board. There are 10 circles where counters can be placed. Put the lion counter at the top of the triangle.
4. The leopards go first. They take a move by placing one of their counters on an empty circle.
5. On the lion’s go, they can move their counter one space along a straight line to an empty circle.
6. Sometimes, the lion can instead do a capture move. To do this, the lion jumps over an adjacent leopard into an empty circle. All three (lion, leopard, empty circle) must be adjacent, along the same straight line. The lion player then removes the leopard from the board.
7. When all six of the leopards are on the board, the leopard player no longer has counters to put down. On their turn, they instead slide a leopard from one circle along a line to an adjacent, empty circle.
8. If it’s the lion’s turn and they can’t move, the leopards win.
9. If the lion captures three leopards, the lion wins.

What’s happening?

As an asymmetric game, with different rules for each player, there are different strategies for the lion than the leopards.

If you’re having difficulty playing as the lion, keep an eye on all the spots you can move to. It takes six leopards to trap a lion at the top of the triangle, but only four to block one on the bottom row!

If you’re having difficulty as the leopards, remember to check if any of your pieces can be captured before you make your move. You can protect them by moving them out of the way, or by moving another piece behind them, so the lion can’t land after the jump.

If you still find the lion player wins too much, you can try playing with seven leopard counters. This makes the game a lot harder for the lion!

If you’re after more hands-on activities for kids, subscribe to Double Helix magazine!