Game of Senet

Each player has 5 (short game) or 7 pawns (long game) on a board with 30 fields. Pieces move forward in a snake-like line. The goal is to get all your pieces off the board at the right upper corner.

To the lower right the result of throwing the "dice" is shown. The "dice" is actually 4 flattened sticks which have a black and a white side. Throwing 1, 2 or 3 black sticks means the player can mode one piece the same number of fields forward. If no black side faces upwards, the player can move 6 fields, and 4 if all black sides are up. In both cases, the player may cast the sticks a second time. Note that it is far more likely to throw a 2 than a 6.

Pieces must be moved forward. A piece can only be moved onto an empty field or a field with an enemy piece on it, in which case the enemy piece and your piece change positions. You cannot move onto a field already occupied by your own pawns. Groups of 2 pawns are safe and you cannot move onto their fields. Groups of three enemy pieces can additionally not be passed.

There are 6 special fields on the board. The three last fields and the one showing the Udjat-Eye are safe fields, where enemy pieces cannot be pushed away from. The water field makes a piece fall back to the Anch field. For a piece to leave the board it needs to reach exactly the field after the end of the board. Pieces on the three last fields can only be moved off the board, i.e. a pawn e.g. on the field with the three birds can only be moved if a 3 is thrown.

The difficulty, that is the strength of the computer, can be changed during game-play. The strength gives the number of moves the computer looks ahead and then chooses the likeliest best move for himself.