From what I have gathered, when you reach the end of the first lane, you start going the other direction back down the board on the middle lane and then back up the third. Like a serpentine pattern.
This is how Ancient Greek was written. (Or at least original Homeric stuff). It was written "in the way of the plow" going back and forth on the "field" of parchment. Now when you look at the evolution of the Alphabet from Phoenician to Latin you can see why some letters were "flipped". It's the plow/serpentine writing.
I don't know how the ancient players would have understood probability, but the difference between playing with a six sided dice vs four two sided sticks is enormous. If for the sake of our math, we assume either the sticks landing on their side is a reroll (or made impossible by their geometry), landing on a six (or a five depending on your variant) is (.5)^4 which is .0625 or six and a quarter percent. meanwhile with a d6, every possible outcome is equally probable at 16%. With four d2's, the most common expected rolls with be two and three, which makes sense with the rules as most commonly supposed because they confer no bonuses. I think the reason this game flied by so quickly as mostly to do with the use of the dice.
This game is SO MUCH fun, I have my own Senet board @ home! Thank you for this video, I haven't played in a while; so thanks for the refresher. All hail Ra (XD)!
The four sticks produce different odds than the knuckle bone. The 4 sticks are like flipping 4 coins. There are 16 different ways the coins can turn out. So there is only a 1 in 16 chance that they could all be heads (4) or all tails (6). But the knuckle bone will have 1 in 6 chance of a rolling a 4 or a 6. There are 4 ways to throw a 1. There are 4 ways to throw a 3. This leaves throwing a 2 which would be the way not to throw any of the other ways so 1- 4/16 - 4/16 -1/16 -1/16 = 6/16 or 37.5%. So the most common throw is 2 followed by 1 and 3.
At 1:40 you said the movement snakes like a river down the middle row and back up the last row, but when you played you jumped the pieces from the far right to the far left again (7:03).
Far as I understood, you MUST land on the space before the water space before continuing. All peices must land there, before continuing down the Nile or past it. If one is in water they roll for 1 or 4, if neither they remain stuck, if 1, they go to house of life 15, if 4 they are free off the board. If someone, is in the house of life 15, and you roll a 1, you do not switch, but need to backtrack behind to an available space behind it. That water is supposed to be the real challenge despite the strategy. It's risky, but some can pull off Nat 4's. Lol. Also, the last 4 spaces cannot be attacked, it's houses of God's after all. Only thing id add, which may be what they call house rules or whatever, but it's how my Egyptian buddy and I played
@Foxx Siker you right. First Field is the Field of Blessing, and Reburn. ( This is the Field, you need to get the Blessing of the Gods, to enter the Hall of Eternal Maat). After this you are hitting the River of the Death ( that s the Place you meet the Ferryman, and you need to get trugth the River). After this you meet the 3 Birds ( mostly Ibis ) maybe: it s a Symbol of Thoth. The next Field is a Symbol of the Maat, and the Proof of the Truth ( Anubis counter of the Heart). Last field is Horus, who brings you to Osiris, to the Final jurney). To the last 4 Fields of the Board: 1. - you need to get blessed,to countinue. 2. - you can fall into the Field of the Middle of the Board (like shown here). 3. - you cant be Hit, and you have to hit a 4 Exactly, to exit the Board. 4. - you cant be hit, and you need to count a 2 to exit. 5. - you can exit if you have a 5 or a 1. the Siderules: there is no "Blocking denied" in the corners of the Field, everytime you have 3 Row, other Player can not skip or throw over you.
There is no set rule for this. In fact a pawn will rarely ever have to go into the House of Waters if forced to land on space #26 before proceeding. If any piece but a player's very last pawn has to go there it is a very unusual game.
I just got into backgammon , I see similarities. I love the ancient games because they are a mix of racing , and strategy . Impressive board you created now I want one lol
I was looking for a box to make one of these, never thought of a wine bottle box so two thumbs up for that piece of info. Your tutorial was both entertaining and easy to follow. Thanks *****
Just goes to show that board games are as old as human civilization itself... My curiosity about Senet was piqued years ago by a Tomb Raider game of all things, which featured a playable in-game Senet match, only with a different board layout and different rules (I'm no expert, maybe it was based on an alternate version). I saw something recently which reminded me of that, and being fascinated by all things Egyptian, I got curious all over again. So thanks for this! Now I want to make my own Senet set. I know you can buy them, but I'm okay at woodwork and I enjoy a project. I love the way you made your set, btw. Nice work!
Some rule variations I thought I'd post here that I've played, in case you want to try them: 1) There are no safety squares, you can be taken anywhere if unprotected (so when you're down to your last pieces at the end of the board it's tense as you trade places trying to get off the board, and making the other player have to traverse the House of Happiness again because you've kicked them back.) 2) The decorated squares negate protection. So if you've got 4 pieces aligned with the 4th piece on the Ankh, House of Happiness, etc. that 4th piece can still be taken regardless of the piece alignment (it's as though you had 3 pieces aligned rather than 4 basically.) 3) If you land on the Water square, rather than going straight back to the Ankh... Instead, before your turn ends, you are given another bonus roll. If you roll a 4 (1 in 16 chance), you get to leave the board. If you fail, you go back to the Ankh square as per usual. So you can intentionally take a risk and try to cross the Water, but you're more likely to drown than not (metaphorically speaking.) Given it is 4 squares from the end of the board, and 4 is a rare dice roll, I could imagine this being a genuine rule back then potentially. And those who take the risk and get lucky are smiled upon by the god etc. 4) You can't jump over a piece that's on the Ankh square. They block the passage (but again, as it's a special, decorated square you can't be protected while sitting on it, the opposing player can supplant you and then start blocking your pieces.) Btw I am making my own Senet board out of wood (which is how I found this), can you recommend me one of your videos for a good Heiroglyph message I can paint onto the side of my board, I'd love to have a genuine egyptian message on my board. Yours looks epic btw. Similar to what I had in mind.
Just to add, are you sure the game isn't played in an Z shape? So rather than teleport across to the other side of the board, you instead follow the squares around in a Z shape? I would assume the Z shape is the correct path because of how the board is laid out... Suppose the original rules required 7 pieces. The starting configuration would work out perfectly to where all 7 pieces are lined up and fit on the board perfectly just behind the Ankh, and thus the Ankh would be de facto "Square 1". That IMO would make sense, since the Water Square sends you back to that "Square 1." It seems odd to me that the place of rebirth would be in the middle of the board, but it makes a lot more sense if the Ankh is Square 1 and all squares preceding it are initial Starting Squares. From a game design perspective I also think that's sensible since the board seems a little too large and the length makes the earlier part of the game a little tedious compared to other ancient games like the Royal Game of Ur. I wouldn't be surprised if the Egyptians didn't actually start at the top left square, but rather started at the first square behind the Ankh (and the top left square is only used if you're using the maximum amount of pieces, 7). The reason I think it's a Z shape rather than E shape path across the board is because there are an odd number of spaces before the Ankh if you play it that way, and I don't think that'll be right. All of this is just my thoughts from studying the way the board is set up, and trying to get in the mind of ancient game designers, would welcome any thoughts if you vehemently disagree etc.
5:30 Actually I'm pretty sure that IS a rule, that none of your pieces are allowed to leave if even one of them are present on the first row. 7:10 Also I thought you moved in a zigzag pattern like Snakes n Ladders?
@@EgyptologyLessons True. That's kinda crazy to think about too. That there are things we'll never know because it was so long ago, and just further puts into perspective, in modern day, how important the preservation of information is. Anyway, thanks for the video, even if it was years ago. Appreciate you still responding to comments. Btw I took an interest in this game because its cousin 'Aseb' appeared in the game Tintin Reporter: Cigars of the Pharaoh, although in that game they incorrectly call it Senet. I too was confused until I learned they are two different games albeit with similar rules. Personally I like Senet more as it feels more unique, whereas Aseb is just 2-player Ludo.
@@PikaLink91 my pleasure enjoy replying back to my followers… Especially when they have great questions and information to share. Yes I remember that Tintin story. There’s also a game called Men which is usually duplicated on the back of Senate.
I still am not 100% clear on how u add up what score u get if the are using the sticks for dice, could u go over that plz?, thanks for uploading a video about this game, i really want to gice this one a try.👍👍👍👍
The game is versatile, you can adjust the game play as you see fit. Since we never found anything to explain the rules. We made up the rules based on current games. So you can implement your own rules or modify.
1, 4, and 6 goes again. How do you roll a 6, with the sticks? ruclips.net/video/__DoZXO-seM/видео.html Directions of moving. S pattern going through the House of Life (middle tile) to finish with the ascension tiles at the end. Rolling the sticks (dice). Flat up is a 1. 0 is a 5. Ascension tiles. House of rejuvenation (safe, extra roll). Waters, back to life, Three truths (only 3 can move you), Two (only 2 can move you), last needs a 1. Higher and you just go the other direction. Only ascend if there are none of your pieces in the first row. Swaps - landing on another piece swaps them. 2 adjecent pieces or pieces in a house are protected from swaps. 3 adjacent is a blockade. Starting and ending the game. Rolling 1 starts the game, moves you one and gives you another roll. 1,4, 6 lets you move and roll again. All pieces off wins.
Keep in mind that the rules vary depending on who creates them… We don’t have any source material regarding how it’s played… We’re only guessing and extrapolating. There is no six with the sticks, All black sticks is a 5. You would have to use the knucklebone or die to get a six.
Hey dude, I just did a little more thinking and I have concocted another potential interpretation of the rules (and I'll provide logic behind it.) But it's very different from the common rules purported (which I don't think are actually very accurate to what the Egyptians played.) RULE CHANGE ONE: You don't actually bear off the board, you bear ONTO the board (like Royal Game of Ur.) IIRC... if heiroglyph pictures are facing to their right, that means you read the script from right to left. So why would the board's last row run from left to right on King Tut's board (which has the heiros facing right)?? So for this reason (among others, such as Senet being related Aseb / Ur where you also bear onto the board) I was thinking that the number heiroglyphs are just your starting position for rolling that number. If you roll a 4, you go into the Water, you fail to enter the Afterlife, your piece exits the board again and you lose your turn (so getting onto the board is not a sure thing.) Because you can bear onto the board, the whole swapping places thing I think probably should be ditched in favour of knocking pieces off (like Aseb / Ur.) I also think the idea of the Water being at the end of the board in the other rules doesn't make sense... because there is rarely ever a time where you will need to move into the Water with so many other pieces to move. So if you are bearing on with your first piece at the beginning (or your higher up pieces can't move any further forward), I think that makes more sense, because that means your piece has no other option BUT to fall into the Water, RULE CHANGE TWO: This rule ties into the winning scenario and I think it makes a lot of sense because of how it plays into the mathematics... Entire Phalanxes (regions of linked pieces) can be moved like individual pieces with a single roll. If you roll any number, you can move any single piece. But if you roll a 2, and you have a Double Phalanx, you can move that whole Phalanx two spaces (moving two pieces at once)... and critically, you can land on another Double Phalanx and knock it off the board... but NOT a Triple Phalanx. A Quad Phalanx is protected from a Triple Phalanx, which is protected from a Double Phalanx, which is protected from a single piece. This I think makes the game waaaaaaaay more strategic because the larger your phalanx, the safer you are, BUT the more immobile your phalanx becomes. If you have a Triple Phalanx, rolling a 3 is a lower probability than rolling a 2 so you will be unable to move it as often (although you will be able to move it more spaces when you finally do roll a 3.) And if you have a Quad Phalanx, rolling a 4 is a 1 in 16 chance. For clarity, to move a Phalanx, you need a dice roll equal to the size of your Phalanx. So a 2 to move a Double Phalanx, a 3 to move a Triple etc. You can't move a Quintuple Phalanx (you have to move each piece individually), however you are protected from capture. Alternative way of handling this... You can subdivide your "flatsides" between all your pieces. Say you roll 2 flatsides, you can move two pieces once, or you can move one piece twice. Essentially this means you can move a double phalanx one space up with a roll of 2. You can move a triple phalanx one space up with a roll of 3 etc. And if you have moved 3 pieces together, you can chip off an opponent's piece in a triple phalanx using the might of your own triple phalanx. I think this makes things much simpler, and more mathematically elegant because moving a triple phalanx like: _ O X X _ to _ _ O X X is exactly the same as moving the one O piece to the end with a roll of 3 like _ _ X X O (No idea if that made sense writing it out it would be easier to show you with a board what I mean.) RULE CHANGE THREE: The winning condition is to make a Quintuple Phalanx (5 pieces in a row) in the top left. If you have a Quad Phalanx in the top left, that's not good enough, your opponent can technically still knock you off the board by building a Quad Phalanx underneath you and rolling a 4. The only way to be mathematically secure the top of the board is to build a Quintuple Phalanx because there aren't enough dice rolls to either MOVE a Quintuple Phalanx, or to KILL a Quintuple Phalanx. This could match the illustrations on several tombs, where I think the illustration demonstrates how great the depicted person is at Senet that they've created 5 pieces in a row to the Left of the board, while the opponent's 5 pieces are powerless to do anything. RULE CHANGE FOUR: Landing on the House of Happiness (Nefer) promotes you to the House of Rebirth (Ankh.) It always seemed strange that you would land on the Water and then be given life backwards in the middle of the board, in a square diagonal to it. But I think it makes a lot more sense if the Nefer is linked with the Ankh rather than the Water. It's directly above it. The path you take is one of ascendency into the sky from the bottom of the board to the top, like ascending into the heavens from the Earth. CLARIFICATIONS: No double rolls. No "4 Black sides up = 6" rule. You can only get a 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4. It's a game about moving your phalanxes, but under this ruleset, you don't just make a traffic jam, you can be taken even while in a phalanx, and your phalanx is less mobile the bigger it grows. Senet always seemed not quite right, whereas the Game of Ur rules make perfect sense to me from a game design point of view. I think these rules fit the board layout, they fit the tomb depiction illustrations and the mathematics of how phalanxes and dice roll probabilities synergise works out too. So while I have no idea whether these are the actual rules the Egyptians played, I think it's worth exploring, and I left this here since you are soooo much more knowledgable about the Egyptians than I.
Can you post the rules that you have on the bottom of the board in the description? Just cuz I want to make my own board and it would be nice to have it. Thx! Edit: also if it could be in txt format so I can edit the rules a bit that would be wonderful. Also your vid’s are awesome keep it up!
@@EgyptologyLessons I have a question: what happens if you land on the house of the Nile and go to the power of life but an opposing piece is already on the power of life?
It's all great. But when you read hieroglyphs, they have to be reading from main hieroglyph. You can't " jump" from the middle to the right/ left ??? You have to start from "main" and follow "face" direction pointed... Hieroglyph is has to be reading from left to right, or right to left. Depending on main. ...if you know what I mean ;)
My name is Matt, I'm a filmmaker from a production company called Chocolate Films. As part of an exhibition display for a children's museum in London, we're currently creating a silent montage of various different types of game play including board games, video games, etc. We would love to use this video. I'm just wondering if your material is copyright free, or if you would grant us a licence to use this clip for this purpose? Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks in advance, Matthew Gibb
Well the rules differ, we don’t have the actual rules… So there are many ways to move around the board, but yes the most accepted version is the snake like pattern
nice bro ur explaining a game while missing two pieces cool dude also tf is this always keep going red dice literally no other set has it that ive seen and its a bad game mechanic i just love sitting at a board while my friend gets 18 turns in a row on a racing game like what dude
How did you end the game with a red 6, when there were 4 tiles left? You need two dice points for the last tile, but that adds up to 5. What did I miss? Can someone explain?
With 4 tiles left, any number greater then 4 would have finished the game, this is done to finish the game faster. The rules are not set in stone, and there are many variations
The four symbols are: 1. wAs ankh (power life house) - Row 2 l, center tile 2. neferu (beauty house) - Row 3, from left. 3. mu (water house) 4. baku (spirit house) 5. iy (house of the twins)
2:40 am learning ancient board games, thank you for the knowledge
My pleasure
lmao it's literally when I am watching this too
From what I have gathered, when you reach the end of the first lane, you start going the other direction back down the board on the middle lane and then back up the third. Like a serpentine pattern.
This is how Ancient Greek was written. (Or at least original Homeric stuff). It was written "in the way of the plow" going back and forth on the "field" of parchment. Now when you look at the evolution of the Alphabet from Phoenician to Latin you can see why some letters were "flipped". It's the plow/serpentine writing.
Ancient Egyptians *did* love their snakes
I don't know how the ancient players would have understood probability, but the difference between playing with a six sided dice vs four two sided sticks is enormous. If for the sake of our math, we assume either the sticks landing on their side is a reroll (or made impossible by their geometry), landing on a six (or a five depending on your variant) is (.5)^4 which is .0625 or six and a quarter percent. meanwhile with a d6, every possible outcome is equally probable at 16%. With four d2's, the most common expected rolls with be two and three, which makes sense with the rules as most commonly supposed because they confer no bonuses.
I think the reason this game flied by so quickly as mostly to do with the use of the dice.
This game is SO MUCH fun, I have my own Senet board @ home! Thank you for this video, I haven't played in a while; so thanks for the refresher.
All hail Ra (XD)!
My pleasure! Hail be to Ra!
I am trying to use this game for a dnd campaign and part of a tomb dungeon crawl so thank you
My pleasure, that sounds interesting. I hope it works out.
@EgyptologyLessons I've been building around Egyptian mythology for awhile now and I believe players will love this
you murdered this game :))
The four sticks produce different odds than the knuckle bone. The 4 sticks are like flipping 4 coins. There are 16 different ways the coins can turn out. So there is only a 1 in 16 chance that they could all be heads (4) or all tails (6). But the knuckle bone will have 1 in 6 chance of a rolling a 4 or a 6. There are 4 ways to throw a 1. There are 4 ways to throw a 3. This leaves throwing a 2 which would be the way not to throw any of the other ways so 1- 4/16 - 4/16 -1/16 -1/16 = 6/16 or 37.5%. So the most common throw is 2 followed by 1 and 3.
At 1:40 you said the movement snakes like a river down the middle row and back up the last row, but when you played you jumped the pieces from the far right to the far left again (7:03).
I did comment and said I made some mistake
thia video should have 2 million views. just fantastic
Thank you, but unfortunately it’s RUclips and they limit algorithms if you don’t pay
I understand the original rules aren't known, but the rules shown here are vastly different than any other ruleset I've seen for this game
Because there aren’t any rules from the Egyptians, we create our own/variations
Far as I understood, you MUST land on the space before the water space before continuing. All peices must land there, before continuing down the Nile or past it. If one is in water they roll for 1 or 4, if neither they remain stuck, if 1, they go to house of life 15, if 4 they are free off the board. If someone, is in the house of life 15, and you roll a 1, you do not switch, but need to backtrack behind to an available space behind it. That water is supposed to be the real challenge despite the strategy. It's risky, but some can pull off Nat 4's. Lol. Also, the last 4 spaces cannot be attacked, it's houses of God's after all. Only thing id add, which may be what they call house rules or whatever, but it's how my Egyptian buddy and I played
@Foxx Siker you right.
First Field is the Field of Blessing, and Reburn. ( This is the Field, you need to get the Blessing of the Gods, to enter the Hall of Eternal Maat).
After this you are hitting the River of the Death ( that s the Place you meet the Ferryman, and you need to get trugth the River).
After this you meet the 3 Birds ( mostly Ibis ) maybe: it s a Symbol of Thoth.
The next Field is a Symbol of the Maat, and the Proof of the Truth ( Anubis counter of the Heart).
Last field is Horus, who brings you to Osiris, to the Final jurney).
To the last 4 Fields of the Board:
1. - you need to get blessed,to countinue.
2. - you can fall into the Field of the Middle of the Board (like shown here).
3. - you cant be Hit, and you have to hit a 4 Exactly, to exit the Board.
4. - you cant be hit, and you need to count a 2 to exit.
5. - you can exit if you have a 5 or a 1.
the Siderules: there is no "Blocking denied" in the corners of the Field, everytime you have 3 Row, other Player can not skip or throw over you.
There is no set rule for this. In fact a pawn will rarely ever have to go into the House of Waters if forced to land on space #26 before proceeding. If any piece but a player's very last pawn has to go there it is a very unusual game.
EXACTLY
I just got into backgammon , I see similarities. I love the ancient games because they are a mix of racing , and strategy . Impressive board you created now I want one lol
My pleasure 😇
I was looking for a box to make one of these, never thought of a wine bottle box so two thumbs up for that piece of info. Your tutorial was both entertaining and easy to follow. Thanks *****
Thank you
Way different than the Senet boards available on Etsy. You should consider selling these.
It’s similar on Amazon, they are $30, mine would cost more.
@@EgyptologyLessons I'd buy one!
Cool video!
Just goes to show that board games are as old as human civilization itself... My curiosity about Senet was piqued years ago by a Tomb Raider game of all things, which featured a playable in-game Senet match, only with a different board layout and different rules (I'm no expert, maybe it was based on an alternate version). I saw something recently which reminded me of that, and being fascinated by all things Egyptian, I got curious all over again.
So thanks for this! Now I want to make my own Senet set. I know you can buy them, but I'm okay at woodwork and I enjoy a project. I love the way you made your set, btw. Nice work!
That was good fun.
Nice board
Some rule variations I thought I'd post here that I've played, in case you want to try them:
1) There are no safety squares, you can be taken anywhere if unprotected (so when you're down to your last pieces at the end of the board it's tense as you trade places trying to get off the board, and making the other player have to traverse the House of Happiness again because you've kicked them back.)
2) The decorated squares negate protection. So if you've got 4 pieces aligned with the 4th piece on the Ankh, House of Happiness, etc. that 4th piece can still be taken regardless of the piece alignment (it's as though you had 3 pieces aligned rather than 4 basically.)
3) If you land on the Water square, rather than going straight back to the Ankh... Instead, before your turn ends, you are given another bonus roll. If you roll a 4 (1 in 16 chance), you get to leave the board. If you fail, you go back to the Ankh square as per usual. So you can intentionally take a risk and try to cross the Water, but you're more likely to drown than not (metaphorically speaking.) Given it is 4 squares from the end of the board, and 4 is a rare dice roll, I could imagine this being a genuine rule back then potentially. And those who take the risk and get lucky are smiled upon by the god etc.
4) You can't jump over a piece that's on the Ankh square. They block the passage (but again, as it's a special, decorated square you can't be protected while sitting on it, the opposing player can supplant you and then start blocking your pieces.)
Btw I am making my own Senet board out of wood (which is how I found this), can you recommend me one of your videos for a good Heiroglyph message I can paint onto the side of my board, I'd love to have a genuine egyptian message on my board. Yours looks epic btw. Similar to what I had in mind.
Just to add, are you sure the game isn't played in an Z shape? So rather than teleport across to the other side of the board, you instead follow the squares around in a Z shape? I would assume the Z shape is the correct path because of how the board is laid out... Suppose the original rules required 7 pieces. The starting configuration would work out perfectly to where all 7 pieces are lined up and fit on the board perfectly just behind the Ankh, and thus the Ankh would be de facto "Square 1". That IMO would make sense, since the Water Square sends you back to that "Square 1." It seems odd to me that the place of rebirth would be in the middle of the board, but it makes a lot more sense if the Ankh is Square 1 and all squares preceding it are initial Starting Squares. From a game design perspective I also think that's sensible since the board seems a little too large and the length makes the earlier part of the game a little tedious compared to other ancient games like the Royal Game of Ur. I wouldn't be surprised if the Egyptians didn't actually start at the top left square, but rather started at the first square behind the Ankh (and the top left square is only used if you're using the maximum amount of pieces, 7).
The reason I think it's a Z shape rather than E shape path across the board is because there are an odd number of spaces before the Ankh if you play it that way, and I don't think that'll be right. All of this is just my thoughts from studying the way the board is set up, and trying to get in the mind of ancient game designers, would welcome any thoughts if you vehemently disagree etc.
I am obsessed I want one 🥺
Amazon $20
5:30 Actually I'm pretty sure that IS a rule, that none of your pieces are allowed to leave if even one of them are present on the first row.
7:10 Also I thought you moved in a zigzag pattern like Snakes n Ladders?
Well these are made up rules. It’s all a guess
@@EgyptologyLessons True. That's kinda crazy to think about too. That there are things we'll never know because it was so long ago, and just further puts into perspective, in modern day, how important the preservation of information is.
Anyway, thanks for the video, even if it was years ago. Appreciate you still responding to comments.
Btw I took an interest in this game because its cousin 'Aseb' appeared in the game Tintin Reporter: Cigars of the Pharaoh, although in that game they incorrectly call it Senet. I too was confused until I learned they are two different games albeit with similar rules.
Personally I like Senet more as it feels more unique, whereas Aseb is just 2-player Ludo.
@@PikaLink91 my pleasure enjoy replying back to my followers… Especially when they have great questions and information to share. Yes I remember that Tintin story. There’s also a game called Men which is usually duplicated on the back of Senate.
I'm doing a project and needed to know the rules of the game. This was very helpful.
Same
Can you please make a video on how to play 'Dogs and Jackals'?
If I aquire the board game, I will definitely do one
I still am not 100% clear on how u add up what score u get if the are using the sticks for dice, could u go over that plz?, thanks for uploading a video about this game, i really want to gice this one a try.👍👍👍👍
The rules are made up by scholars, so we are only inferring the rules, you can make up your own if you wish
Your rules differ to the most common. But the rules arent strictly defined, so everybody can make his own rules.
Yes it is different, and the rules do differ
If you cannot roll a 5 with the sticks, should not the samething for the dice because it should be counted as not a move?
The game is versatile, you can adjust the game play as you see fit. Since we never found anything to explain the rules. We made up the rules based on current games. So you can implement your own rules or modify.
@@EgyptologyLessons, thank. you! :)
And thank you for the tutorial!
The boys and I love Senet. And that board is amazing. Any chance making mire and selling them :)
You can find really amazing ones for under $50 on Amazon
Thank you but it was very simple to make
1, 4, and 6 goes again. How do you roll a 6, with the sticks?
ruclips.net/video/__DoZXO-seM/видео.html
Directions of moving. S pattern going through the House of Life (middle tile) to finish with the ascension tiles at the end.
Rolling the sticks (dice). Flat up is a 1. 0 is a 5.
Ascension tiles. House of rejuvenation (safe, extra roll). Waters, back to life, Three truths (only 3 can move you), Two (only 2 can move you), last needs a 1. Higher and you just go the other direction. Only ascend if there are none of your pieces in the first row.
Swaps - landing on another piece swaps them. 2 adjecent pieces or pieces in a house are protected from swaps. 3 adjacent is a blockade.
Starting and ending the game. Rolling 1 starts the game, moves you one and gives you another roll. 1,4, 6 lets you move and roll again. All pieces off wins.
Keep in mind that the rules vary depending on who creates them… We don’t have any source material regarding how it’s played… We’re only guessing and extrapolating. There is no six with the sticks, All black sticks is a 5. You would have to use the knucklebone or die to get a six.
Hey dude, I just did a little more thinking and I have concocted another potential interpretation of the rules (and I'll provide logic behind it.) But it's very different from the common rules purported (which I don't think are actually very accurate to what the Egyptians played.)
RULE CHANGE ONE:
You don't actually bear off the board, you bear ONTO the board (like Royal Game of Ur.) IIRC... if heiroglyph pictures are facing to their right, that means you read the script from right to left. So why would the board's last row run from left to right on King Tut's board (which has the heiros facing right)?? So for this reason (among others, such as Senet being related Aseb / Ur where you also bear onto the board) I was thinking that the number heiroglyphs are just your starting position for rolling that number. If you roll a 4, you go into the Water, you fail to enter the Afterlife, your piece exits the board again and you lose your turn (so getting onto the board is not a sure thing.) Because you can bear onto the board, the whole swapping places thing I think probably should be ditched in favour of knocking pieces off (like Aseb / Ur.) I also think the idea of the Water being at the end of the board in the other rules doesn't make sense... because there is rarely ever a time where you will need to move into the Water with so many other pieces to move. So if you are bearing on with your first piece at the beginning (or your higher up pieces can't move any further forward), I think that makes more sense, because that means your piece has no other option BUT to fall into the Water,
RULE CHANGE TWO:
This rule ties into the winning scenario and I think it makes a lot of sense because of how it plays into the mathematics... Entire Phalanxes (regions of linked pieces) can be moved like individual pieces with a single roll. If you roll any number, you can move any single piece. But if you roll a 2, and you have a Double Phalanx, you can move that whole Phalanx two spaces (moving two pieces at once)... and critically, you can land on another Double Phalanx and knock it off the board... but NOT a Triple Phalanx. A Quad Phalanx is protected from a Triple Phalanx, which is protected from a Double Phalanx, which is protected from a single piece. This I think makes the game waaaaaaaay more strategic because the larger your phalanx, the safer you are, BUT the more immobile your phalanx becomes. If you have a Triple Phalanx, rolling a 3 is a lower probability than rolling a 2 so you will be unable to move it as often (although you will be able to move it more spaces when you finally do roll a 3.) And if you have a Quad Phalanx, rolling a 4 is a 1 in 16 chance. For clarity, to move a Phalanx, you need a dice roll equal to the size of your Phalanx. So a 2 to move a Double Phalanx, a 3 to move a Triple etc. You can't move a Quintuple Phalanx (you have to move each piece individually), however you are protected from capture.
Alternative way of handling this... You can subdivide your "flatsides" between all your pieces. Say you roll 2 flatsides, you can move two pieces once, or you can move one piece twice. Essentially this means you can move a double phalanx one space up with a roll of 2. You can move a triple phalanx one space up with a roll of 3 etc. And if you have moved 3 pieces together, you can chip off an opponent's piece in a triple phalanx using the might of your own triple phalanx. I think this makes things much simpler, and more mathematically elegant because moving a triple phalanx like: _ O X X _ to _ _ O X X is exactly the same as moving the one O piece to the end with a roll of 3 like _ _ X X O (No idea if that made sense writing it out it would be easier to show you with a board what I mean.)
RULE CHANGE THREE:
The winning condition is to make a Quintuple Phalanx (5 pieces in a row) in the top left. If you have a Quad Phalanx in the top left, that's not good enough, your opponent can technically still knock you off the board by building a Quad Phalanx underneath you and rolling a 4. The only way to be mathematically secure the top of the board is to build a Quintuple Phalanx because there aren't enough dice rolls to either MOVE a Quintuple Phalanx, or to KILL a Quintuple Phalanx. This could match the illustrations on several tombs, where I think the illustration demonstrates how great the depicted person is at Senet that they've created 5 pieces in a row to the Left of the board, while the opponent's 5 pieces are powerless to do anything.
RULE CHANGE FOUR:
Landing on the House of Happiness (Nefer) promotes you to the House of Rebirth (Ankh.) It always seemed strange that you would land on the Water and then be given life backwards in the middle of the board, in a square diagonal to it. But I think it makes a lot more sense if the Nefer is linked with the Ankh rather than the Water. It's directly above it. The path you take is one of ascendency into the sky from the bottom of the board to the top, like ascending into the heavens from the Earth.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No double rolls. No "4 Black sides up = 6" rule. You can only get a 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4. It's a game about moving your phalanxes, but under this ruleset, you don't just make a traffic jam, you can be taken even while in a phalanx, and your phalanx is less mobile the bigger it grows. Senet always seemed not quite right, whereas the Game of Ur rules make perfect sense to me from a game design point of view. I think these rules fit the board layout, they fit the tomb depiction illustrations and the mathematics of how phalanxes and dice roll probabilities synergise works out too. So while I have no idea whether these are the actual rules the Egyptians played, I think it's worth exploring, and I left this here since you are soooo much more knowledgable about the Egyptians than I.
ashGC great! People can make a lot of variations
@@AndyMossMetta I like a lot of this stuff. I definitely think the Nefer Square promotes you to the Ankh square and I could see it working like that.
Can you post the rules that you have on the bottom of the board in the description? Just cuz I want to make my own board and it would be nice to have it. Thx! Edit: also if it could be in txt format so I can edit the rules a bit that would be wonderful. Also your vid’s are awesome keep it up!
Thank you, I have to see if I can find the rules again.
8:00 "That's a FOUR!"
Uhhh I think that's a three
9.8k darn gotta return in 2 years for a chance to win lol
Where can you buy the game? It seems really interesting!
Amazing should have plenty of them if different designs
everything u do is Beautiful!
Dakonde Art thank you my friend!
@@EgyptologyLessons I have a question: what happens if you land on the house of the Nile and go to the power of life but an opposing piece is already on the power of life?
Rayden Kreps remember the are made up, there is no real standard. I would guess, take the square behind it
do you have a print-template for the rules of the game you used for your box?
Yes, find me on my IG
It's all great. But when you read hieroglyphs, they have to be reading from main hieroglyph. You can't " jump" from the middle to the right/ left ???
You have to start from "main" and follow "face" direction pointed...
Hieroglyph is has to be reading from left to right, or right to left. Depending on main.
...if you know what I mean ;)
Hieroglyphs are oriented that way with their grammatical structure. I read them in the English way...if I read them literally, it will confuse people
in the mid lane , you are moving pieces backwards, maybe there are rules for this , but i never heard of it, still a good tutorial
Yeah, unfortunately I made 2 to 3 mistakes in this video but the idea was just a show a theoretical gameplay
My name is Matt, I'm a filmmaker from a production company called Chocolate Films.
As part of an exhibition display for a children's museum in London, we're currently creating a silent montage of various different types of game play including board games, video games, etc.
We would love to use this video.
I'm just wondering if your material is copyright free, or if you would grant us a licence to use this clip for this purpose?
Let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks in advance,
Matthew Gibb
It is copyrighted, you’re welcome to use it if you’d like to donate to my PayPal?
How do you roll 5 and 6 with four bones?
The 5 are all white, the 4 all black. The 6 is only with the Die/knucklebone
@@EgyptologyLessons ah these sick ancient Egyptian maths
8:00 that's a 3 lol
I made some mistakes
I thought you moved along like a serpent, or the Nile, as you said. But you went to the end of the board and started back at the other end?
Well the rules differ, we don’t have the actual rules… So there are many ways to move around the board, but yes the most accepted version is the snake like pattern
If someone lands in the water but the opponent is already occupying the life space, what happens?
The many agreed upon rules are that you take the space behind the life symbol
i thought they go in S direction.
It can also!
Hi! Where can I read more about the symbol for the House of Three Spirits? Those look like three storks, and remind me of another ancient puzzle.
And people think chess is hard 🤣
This is much easier then chess
i have 10 peasis
nice bro ur explaining a game while missing two pieces cool dude also tf is this always keep going red dice literally no other set has it that ive seen and its a bad game mechanic i just love sitting at a board while my friend gets 18 turns in a row on a racing game like what dude
How did you end the game with a red 6, when there were 4 tiles left? You need two dice points for the last tile, but that adds up to 5. What did I miss? Can someone explain?
With 4 tiles left, any number greater then 4 would have finished the game, this is done to finish the game faster. The rules are not set in stone, and there are many variations
He fckd up mate😆✌
Ow Vandevelde?
Hij heeft t gwn na de kanker geholpe. Bij ons was da beurt voorbij en opnieuw😂
hey can you do every symbol in here? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Hieroglyphs_(Unicode_block)
(sound and what they mean)
The four symbols are:
1. wAs ankh (power life house) - Row 2 l, center tile
2. neferu (beauty house) - Row 3, from left.
3. mu (water house)
4. baku (spirit house)
5. iy (house of the twins)
There must be 5 cones and 5 spools, not 4
If you look at museums, some senet boards had four, some had five, and some had six
Hold up. @ 8:00 you rolled a 3 and called 4 and skipped over the house of Water. Amun is ashamed of you
lol
You still sell these?
No not anymore, you can find them on Amazon much cheaper
No it resembles chess
It plays like trouble or sorry, since Senet means push, that is the best conclusion
If he speaks egyptian I speak egyptian 𓊍 𓃀𓂝𓂧 𓍯𓂋 𓊃𓍯𓅓𓇋𓍯𓈖𓇋 𓇋𓂋𓋴𓇋
𓐝𓇋 𓇋 𓂧𓍯𓈖𓏏 𓎡𓈖𓍯𓅱