Uckers is a board game for two to four players traditionally played in the Royal Navy. It has spread to many of the other arms of the UK Armed Forces as well, including the Commonwealth Forces. It can now commonly be found in the Royal Marines, Army Air Corps, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal New Zealand Navy, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal Dutch Navy, and the Royal Air Force (RAF). It is similar to the board game Ludo and is based on the same principles: getting four pieces around the board before the opposition. The goal of Uckers is to get all player pieces home before the opponent does. Even greater glory is attached to achieving all pieces home without the opponent getting any home at all—this is known as an 8 piecer. The ultimate win is when the player gets all their pieces home and the opponent has all their pieces still in the base—this is called an 8 piece in harbour, or an eight-piece dicking and merits the unfortunate player's name to be recorded on the reverse of the board. History Although its first official print reference does not appear until 1946, Uckers is believed to derive from the Indian game Pachisi in the 18th or 19th century. It is mentioned in a diary of EJF Records (served 1928–1950) in 1937 as Huckers. Uckers is generally played using the rules stated below, but these will vary from one branch of the Royal Navy to another, most famously with the WAFU Rules of the Fleet Air Arm. Where those branches of the RN have worked with the other Armed Forces usually has dictated what rules the new playing Service use; why fellow aviators tend to play under WAFU Rules for example. It is also played in units of the Army Air Corps (United Kingdom) where it was introduced by aircraft technicians on loan from the Fleet Air Arm in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Uckers was also played by units in the Royal Artillery, particularly meteorologists and LifeFlight Toowoomba Rescue Helicopter crews. Rules Although Uckers is often played on a Ludo board a true Uckers board is a mirror image so the red and green squares are presented to the player facing them in the correct Naval manner, i.e. red to port and green to starboard. The game is played by either two or four