How to Play Mehen (Ancient Egyptian Game)

Now available again as a limited edition fabric version during this Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
This is a quick, simple how-to-play for the ancient Egyptian game of the snake. The rules have been reconstructed by Zach Horton for Pandora Games. www.pandora-games.com

[@corbinbarron8772]

Very confusing, but also very cool

[@danab172]

I like it!

[@pandora-games]

For anyone interested in playing this amazing game, we are releasing a new, limited edition fabric version as part of our current Kickstarter (the "Past and Future Spirals" reward): www.kickstarter.com/projects/pandoragames/supernova-1?ref=16jaog

[@TungDV173]

Does anyone know that this game was played by Yugi's grandpa on the Yu-Gi-Oh comic?

[@maszkalman3676]

I loved the part where you explained what is the pawn and the lion :D

[@ravenshadowz2343]

Thank you for this tutorial, do you have a PDF of these instructions?

[@ravenshadowz2343]

I need some rule clarifications, to make sure I get the rules. To get piece on to the board do you roll any number, is there a certain number that will not allow the piece on the board? When placing the piece on the board for the very first time, does that piece start on the first space or does to move the total that the dice sticks show? Also When you want your lion to sprint do you announce that it will sprint this turn for double the spaces to move?

[@ONeilYu]

Interesting that the mayan game Bul has throwing sticks too

[@pandora-games]

Yes, very interesting!

[@arjunarya2658]

Personally, I've noticed that many games around the world used throwing sticks before dice for random numbers. For example Pachisi(Indian, also called ludo), used to use shells as throwing sticks, and Yut(Korean) also uses throwing sticks. I guess they're just really easy to make and find.

[@franciscohidalgo2992]

what if one player has pawns left on the board while the rest lost already?

[@pandora-games]

If only one player remains, that player wins! Sometimes survival is the best you can hope for...

[@megaman1on1]

So at one point, you said "If you have 5 movement points"... But I only saw 4 sticks? And all four sticks equal a mehen move? How would you earn 5 movement points to be able to jump to the next coil over? You said you only receive 1 movement point per stick flat-side down, so wouldn't you only at best get 3 movement points? Or did I mishear the video?

[@pandora-games]

Good question! Each stick that lands flat side up is worth 2 movement points, not 1. So the maximum number a player can receive is 6 movement points (3 of the 4 sticks thrown flat). If you throw all 4 sticks flat, that's a Mehen move.

[@kaijulover8094]

So the main objective of the game is to get The Pawns and The Lions to the head and then into the Bark Of Ra?

[@pandora-games]

Yes, pretty close! Your objective is to get at least 3 of your pawns to the head, and thereby to the Bark (boat) of Ra (Egyptian sun god). When this happens, though, pawns are replaced with lions. The lions move in the other direction, can be controlled by any player, and can devour the remaining pawns.

[@melkhiordarkfell4354]

Is this a real game from Ancient Egypt? Where were the rules recorded?

[@pandora-games]

Yes, it was played in Egypt from about 3,000 BCE to 2,000 BCE. Archaeologists have found a number of boards and sets of playing pieces, as well as a tomb painting depicting a full game set. The game is also mentioned in some ancient texts. Unfortunately, though, no record of the rules has ever been found. We reconstructed the game based upon all of the existing evidence, including its cultural context (the meaning and significance of "Mehen" etc.). No one knows exactly how it was played or how many different rules variations existed throughout its 1,000 years of popularity. Our version is only one possible way that it could have been played, but one that is true to what we know and also plays really well as a game. That was one of our criteria: we began with the assumption that any decent reconstruction should be fun to play. This ruleset was the outcome, and has resulted in many enjoyable games!

[@melkhiordarkfell4354]

@@pandora-games interesting. I did forget that Egyptians had full sets of games and stuff in tombs. So yeah I can see were you would know exactly how many dice and pawns it had.

[@pandora-games]

@@melkhiordarkfell4354 Yes, exactly!

[@Spiderblaze-pw7bz]

Where do you get that game

[@pandora-games]

www.pandora-unboxed.com The wooden versions are long sold out, but much more affordable cloth versions are available now!

[@RoninAquila]

Who is also here because of the Sea-Captain playing this game in Arya’s first Memory-Sequence of “Assassin’s Creed Origins”? 😉🎲🎲

[@artistpoet5253]

These are far more complex than the rules I have learned. Also, this board is as well more complex in the inclusion of the holding area by the head and the number of coils. Interesting. Which scroll did you reference for these rules? Or are they variant?

[@Vlow52]

This game has an unnecessary complicated rules, totally in ancient Egyptian style.