| Other Names: | Tick-Tack |
| Genre: | Board game Dice game |
| Players: | 2 |
| Movement: | contrary |
| Random Chance: | Medium (dice rolling) |
| Skills: | Strategy, tactics, counting |
| Footnotes: | Related games: English Irish French Trictrac |
Ticktack or Tick-Tack, is an historical English tables game for two players using a board similar to that used today for Backgammon and other tables games. Like its much more elaborate French counterpart, Trictrac, it has the unusual feature that there are several different ways in which it can be won, including Toots and Rovers.
Ticktack is mentioned as early as 1586 as a game played by English country gentlemen in inclement weather along with three other games of the tables family: Lurch, Irish and Doublets.[1] The earliest and only comprehensive set of rules appeared in 1672 by Willughby.[2] However, Cotton gives an overview in The Compleat Gamester of 1674, an account which was reprinted until 1754, after which the game faded from view, being reported in Halliwell-Phillips (1881) as archaic.[3]
Willughby says that the name Ticktack came from the rule that if a man is touched, it must be played.[2] Cotton agrees and likens it to "touch" and "take".[4] However, the game appears to be related to French Trictrac – there are several common features – which was commonly thought to derive from the rattling noise of the dice being thrown against the side rail of the board, however, Fiske suggests it may be "merely alliterative reduplication (having reference to the route taken by the men), signifying a forward and back movement after the manner of 'zig-zag'; or it may be the application... of an onomatopoetic word already existing (signifying any sharp, clattering sound)."[5]
Ticktack was a game for two players using two dice and 15 men apiece, and played on a tables board (see illustration) with 12 playing positions or points on each side. In Willughby's diagram of the board, the points are numbered from 1 to 12 on each side of the board, the numbers running in parallel. He refers to the board as having two tables, which are the two halves of the board – left and right.[2]
The notation used in Willughby's original MS is illustrated. In this case, Black sits at the top and assembles all 15 men on the home point: the 1 point at the top in this case. White sits at the bottom and assembles all 15 white pieces likewise on point 1 at the bottom of the board.[2]
Black's aim is to move the 15 black pieces clockwise around the board from their first point along the remaining 11 points on the home side and then in the reverse direction on the far side of the board towards the bearing table before bearing them off. Meanwhile, White moves anticlockwise from point 1 to point 12 on the home side, then around to the far side of the board to the bearing table on Black's side and bears off from there.[2]
To move their men, players roll the dice and assign each roll to one man, moving it the corresponding number of points forward. Two rolls may be combined e.g. a 4 and 3 may be used to move a man 7 points. Men may move to any point except one occupied by two or more opposing men.[2]
Willughby explains certain terms:[2]
A point may be occupied by as many men as a player desires. A man may be played to any vacant point; or to one that has men of the same colour or to one that is occupied by just one enemy man. A point occupied by two or more opposing men may not be played to nor may a man be 'played at length' (moved by the sum of two dice) if the intermediate point is so occupied.[2]
An unusual feature of Ticktack is that there are five different ways of winning:[2]
If a player fails to spot that he could win, the opponent may say "Why not?" and claim the victory. A player may also raise by saying "I vie", whereupon the opponent must concede the game or hold by saying "I see it." The first vie doubles the game, the second trebles it and so on.[2]
Cotton described a slightly different scheme. In the "plain game", players win a single game for hitting a blot or a double game either for filling up all the points in their second table or for taking the adversary's point 11. Cotton states that some play the game with Toots (= Toutes above), Boveries (= Rovers) and Flyers. Boveries means having a man on one's own and one's opponents point 11s. The last named feat is that of bringing a man around the tables before the opponent has moved out of the first table on the opponent's home side. Cotton does not mention bearing off. In summary, Cotton's scheme is:[6]
Several sources equate Ticktack to the French game of Trictrac. which, although it has similar features, is considerably more complicated. It is possible, however, that Ticktack evolved as a simplified version of Trictrac.