Senet - The Favorite Game of Egyptian Pharaohs

Senet is a two-player game in which you try to move all of your pieces off the board before your opponent. The game consists of 5 light colored pieces, 5 dark colored pieces, a senet table of 30 spaces (3 columns of 10) of which there are 5 special spaces, and four wooden "dice".

The dice to senet are rounded on one side and flat on the other. These dice could easily be constructed by taking two wooden dowels and cutting them in half along the cylindrical part of the dowel. To determine the number rolled, you throw all four dice and count the number of flat sides up. This is the number rolled. If no flat sides are up, the number is 6. It is not possible to roll a "5" with these dice. You may substitute these dice with a standard cube die, however, you must keep in mind that a "5" may not be rolled in the game.

The board is set up by placing the ten pieces on the board in the first column placing the light pieces in odd numbered positions and the dark pieces on even numbered positions. The dark player moves first by moving the piece in the 10th position one square, then throwing the dice and moving a piece the number thrown. On a players turn if the number thrown is a 2 or 3, they move a piece that number of spaces and their turn is ended after the movement. Otherwise the player continues throwing the dice and moving their pieces towards the end. When a player moves some of their pieces to the end of the board and is ready to bear them off, they may not remove them from the board until there are no more of their pieces remaining in the first column.

Attacking If a piece lands on a square occupied by an opponent's piece and there are no opponent pieces adjacent to that piece, nor is the piece on one of the special squares in the last column, it is considered under attack. The opponent's piece is moved to the position where your piece began it's move.

If there three pieces of a like color in a row, a piece of the other color may not pass them even if the roll of the dice would allow it.

If after a die roll no piece may be moved forward, it must be moved the number of spaces rolled backwards toward the start of the board. If no piece can move forward or backwards, the turn is forfeited and it is the other player's turn. A piece which lands on the water square must move to the special tile in the second column. If there is a piece already in the special tile in the second column then the piece must then be bumped to the first square or next available square. The other special squares in the third row are "safe" squares where a piece may not be attacked.

You may not land your own pieces on the same squares as your pieces.

You do not have to bear off by exact roll. If you roll higher than the amount needed to remove a piece from the board, take the leftover movement and apply it to a piece remaining on the board. A player may not bear off if they have ANY pieces in the first row for any reason.

The player to remove all of his pieces first wins.