Tabula
Tabula, now known as "backgammon," was probably the oldest English board game. It was brought to England during the first century by Roman invaders. Tabula was played on a board marked on either side with 12 triangular spaces. Each player had 15 pieces which they attempted to move around the board and remove before his opponent removed his pieces. A die was used to determine the possible movements of the pieces, making the game partly of chance and partly of strategy. Because tabula was often associated with gambling, it was banned for a time during the late Middle Ages.
Alea Evangelii
Alea Evangelii is a Saxon variation of Talf, a board game played throughout Northern Europe as far back as A.D. 400. Alea Evangelii was played on a 19-by-19 square grid. White pieces represented the king and his guard, and began in the center of the board. Black pieces were the enemy, and were positioned around the edges of the board. White's objective was to move his king to any corner square, while black attempted to capture the king by enclosing him. All the pieces were moved orthogonally. Either player could capture and remove opposing pieces by trapping them between their own color.
Fox and Geese
Fox and Geese was another variation on Talf, the distinguishing characteristic of Talf games being that they involved unequal opponents. Fox and Geese was played on a cross shaped diagram of 33 spaces. A fox piece was placed in the center and 13 geese pieces arranged around the top half of the cross. The fox attempted to eliminate the geese by jumping over them, while the geese strove to hedge the fox until there were no moves left for him. The fox could move in any direction while the geese were restricted to moving orthogonally.
Chess
Chess was introduced to England in the 11th century by returning crusaders. It was played on an 8-by-8 checkered board. Each player had a variety of pieces representing a monarch and his army. These were arranged at either end of the board in a battle formation with the objective being to trap the opposing king and capture as many of his pieces as possible. As the popularity of chess grew into the 12th century, it began to replace Alea Evangelii.
Three Men's Morris
Three Men's Morris was a board game version of tic-tac-toe. Each player had three pieces which they moved one square at a time around a 9-square board until someone won by forming a row, called a "mill." In England this game and variations of it were called "Mill," "Morelles," "Merrills" or "Merels." The popularity of Mill is attested by game boards found carved into wooden seats in the cathedrals of Norwich, Canterbury, Gloucester, Salisbury and Westminster Abbey.
Nine Men's Morris
Nine Men's Morris was a more complex version of the basic Mill game. Each player had nine pieces; the board had 24 spaces which were arranged in a series of connecting lines rather than a simple grid. Each time a player created a mill, he got to remove one of his opponents pieces from the board. The first player to be reduced to two pieces lost the game. Game boards for Nine Men's Moriss have been found on the reverse side of Alea Evangelii boards, and Shakespeare referenced the game in "Midsummer's Night Dream."