SENET
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.
Leaving the Board
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.
Northwest Corner
1011 92nd Avenue NE
Bellevue, WA 98004
(206)451-3292
1977 & 1987 (c)
Print Run information and price unavailable
Senet copyrights by Northwest Corner 1987
winsenet game copyright Daniel U. Thibault 1996
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