Mehen - How to play & history of the game

[@rrothen]

I just found your channel, and I am fascinated with these ancient games. Thank you so much for sharing your research and knowledge about these games. I appreciate your insight and your channel very much!👨🏻‍🦳

[@Schlachtschule]

I experimented with a rule system very similar to this a few years ago using rules developed by Thibault from the papers by Kendall (2007) and Piccione (1990), but discovered that it was unworkable. Even with only two players a game can last for, literally, days. Also, the recording of ones has no Egyptian provenance, the person who created this rule literally made it up from the Hyena game, but that game doesn't seem as similar as Kendall claimed it to be. We then redesigned the rules using Senet as the basis since that game is so close temporally and in structure. We now play it so that the pawns go in to the head, and the lion comes out after a player gets his first piece into the head (i.e., only one transit of the snake). We experimented with a rule which says that if a player has two of his pieces on adjacent squares they are are from being knocked back (but not from being eaten by lions) as in Senet, but gave up that rule because we found that a player could block the first square with two if his pieces on the first and second squares so the other player could never get out, so we eliminated that rule. The game ends when the first player gets his lion off of the board, and the winner at that point is the one who has eaten the most pawns with his lion. The player who got the first lion off the board gets to add two to his count, and he also wins if there's a tie. Even so the game takes a *long* time, so we reduced the number of snake squares and the number of pawns. These rules are simpler and faster, and are as valid as anything else anyone has come up with.

[@Vgarou]

Hi, french here, so apologies for my bad english. I use to play mehen based on mechanism from Senet too, I also try to tell story with it, specialy the egyptian's version of myth of Flood who nearly destroy humanitie when Râ send his daugther Sekhmet to punish impudents. Pawns are proto-egyptian tribes who discovery the tail of Mehen, the god, on earth, and who try to reach the Râ kingdom through it. Each square can receive two paws, of any tribe but two of one tribe protect themselve from switch position when an other pawn come to the square. With stick dice you can make 1,2, 3 or 5 and when it's 2 throw again, so you can have a big amount you can split as you want in one or more pawns. When the first pawn reach the head, one lion, Sekhmet, enter the game, slot into players' turn, and go down, score of stick dices multiply by two, without throw again when 2. She eat single paws on her path, two of them (same tribe or not) protect them form her, except if it's her arrival square, She have time to eat both during players' turns. When She reach the tail, she turn on berserk and go back on the head whith slaugther all paws on her path, regardeless of they are one or both, also her score is multiply by 3. Game stop when no more paws are on the board, winner is the one who have save the most of his paws by reach Râ's kingdom. For the story, Râ, with pity, throw back survivor on earth whith the protection of Sekhmet who become Bastet, ask Mehen of not leave his tail lying around and try to learn human nosiness is bad :) Actyally I use this version to introduce interest of Egypt and games on a group activity i work, after that, I suggest playing again, without me but with several lions and choose if we want move our pawns or use our lion for more stratégical game. I hope I was understandable. thank for reading (or trying it^^)

[@TheRavensTable]

I like your ruleset! I will give them a shot the next time I play, as they do seem like they would accelerate things. The board I use in the video does make for a longer game, the next one I make will have around half as many play spaces.

[@Maninawig]

I have just found your channel a couple of hours ago, and do not know this game (making this purely conjecture) but I did think of a small variation that might change the dynamic of phase two with a bit more strategy: "When any of your pieces land on your opponent's lion, that piece can 'bounce' (double it's movement). However, when a human 'bounces' on a lion, they are able to free one of their eaten allies, which appears on the snake's head." As you described it, the second phase has the strategies of the lion chasing and the humans fleeing. But with this new element added, the dynamic shifts to both the lions and the humans able to chase and flee much like in the game of checkers... albet at the cost of the game growing longer.

[@davidagiel8130]

I'm really enjoying playing these old games like game of Ur and senet, so I'll have to check this out.

[@TheRavensTable]

I hope you enjoy this one too!

[@YuriDeLaPena]

Thank you! This is great!

[@ferretfather2000]

fascinating

[@74123zac]

So, "Sorry" is kind of like American Mehen? That's the vibe I got from this

[@TheRavensTable]

You know, I hadn't thought of it like that before but they do share a number of characteristics. I wonder if the inventors of Sorry knew of Mehen, or was this an example of independent invention? Thanks for watching and for the thought-provoking question!

[@alexwelts2553]

Do you think it's like Jumanji?

[@spicytunarolls777]

Where did you get this board? Those sticks rolling onto the board makes a very satisfying sound!

[@TheRavensTable]

I made all the boards in my videos. And I agree, there is something about the sound that dice make when cast onto wood that is incredibly satisfying. Thanks for watching!

[@spicytunarolls777]

@@TheRavensTable do you happen to make and sell your game boards? 😆

[@TheRavensTable]

@@spicytunarolls777 I've considered opening an Etsy shop or something. Life just hasn't slowed down enough yet for me to spend the time crafting enough boards to sell.

[@spicytunarolls777]

@@TheRavensTable I’ll be waiting till the time comes 😆👍

[@Lebronjamesbouttacum]

Hi just wanted to ask is the points from the score sheet for reducing points only or it can also add

[@TheRavensTable]

Good question! According to the standard rules that I've run across, the saved ones can only be used for reducing your roll. But if you want to change things up and allow folks to add or subtract, go ahead! That's one of the cool things about historical games - rules aren't always standardized like we do today. There were usually regional variations of how a game was played. Thanks for watching!

[@Lebronjamesbouttacum]

@@TheRavensTable Thank u so much

[@TheRavensTable]

@@Lebronjamesbouttacum No worries! If you try that rule change out, I'd love to hear how it worked for you.

[@ravenshadowz2343]

Thank you for this tutorial I just found out about this ancient game, I have watched a few different versions. Here is one you may have not seen before. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqCUc3Wnedh0kJo

[@DevinDTV]

there's no way they actually played it like this, it's way too tedious lol

[@TheRavensTable]

Why not? Games of chess can last quite a long time. The game can also be shortened by reducing the # of spaces on the board. That's the problem with historical games, we often do not have a complete instruction manual.

[@beetlejuss]

That is why this game evolved into "UR" I think.