Pharaoh

Pharaoh
Andrew Looney
Players roll dice to claim the title of the King of The Pyramids
:Players	Players:	2 - 4
:Time	Length:	Fast
:Complexity	Complexity:	Low
Trios per color:		1
Number of colors:		1 per player
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		1 per player
Five-color sets:		1
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
Volcano Board, six-sided die
Setup time:		1 minute
Playing time:		1 minute - 15 minutes
Strategy depth:		Medium
Random chance:		Medium
Game mechanics:		Dice, King of the Mountain
Theme:		Egypt
BGG Link:		Pharaoh
Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2010

Pharaoh is an Icehouse game designed by Andrew Looney.

Pharaoh uses 1 Treehouse set (Rainbow or Xeno but not Pink), plus a regular D6, and a slightly modified Volcano board. Pharaoh is a very easy, quick-playing positional strategy board game. It can be played with 2-4 players.

The rules for Pharaoh were released in late November 2010 as a file download from the Looney Labs web site. It is the Looneys' 2010 Holiday Gift.

The 2012 reissue of Treehouse includes printed Pharaoh rules and a nice cloth Pharaoh board.

Rules Summary

Each player gets a small, medium, and large pyramid of one color. They may only move their own pieces.

The board is a 5x5 grid with the corner squares blocked off. A Volcano Board with 4 little black squares would be ideal for this, but any old grid scribbled on a piece of paper should work just as well.

Players setup their pieces on opposite sides of the board, and then roll a 6-sided die to see how many "actions points" they get. Small pyramids need 1 action point to move, mediums need 2 action points, and larges need 3 action points.

Pieces start the game off the board, taking the correct number of action points to move onto the board from the player's side. Pieces can move in any direction once they are on the board, although diagonal moves require twice as many action points. Pieces may never stack, however a larger piece can always bump a smaller piece off the board entirely, by landing on it.

Game End

The Goal of the game is to land all 3 of your pieces (in any order) on the 3 goal spots on the center of the board. The location and quantity of goal locations varies depending on the number of players. Pictured above is the configuration for 2 players.

If one player is very lucky, the game might last a minute or less. More likely is that the game will last about 5 or 10 minutes. Aggressive game play (in which players bump each other off the board actively and often) will probably make the game run a little longer.

External Links

• Looney Labs Pharaoh page with rules PDF at [1]
• Original directions at Wunderland
• Sample game on YouTube