Block Like an Egyptian

Predating Daedalus and surpassing his famous labyrinth in size, was an amazing Egyptian complex comprised of many chambers and corridors. The first female pharaoh, SobekNeferu, expanded this ancient attraction during its heyday. Block Like an Egyptian imagines what it may have been like for visitors from foreign lands navigating this monumental site. Players take on the role of visiting parties from distant lands, experiencing the wonder and adventure of the place, entertaining the pharaoh and her people as they compete with other teams to manipulate and navigate the maze.

How to Play

Goal – Complete your obelisk

Impress the pharaoh by winning the labyrinthine challenge of reuniting your 3 meeples in the maze. Each round of competition that you win adds another disc to your obelisk. The game ends when a player completes their obelisk (6 discs high).

Set Up

Initialize the maze by setting up the blocks as obstacles in specified chambers, matching the barrier with the color indicated. Note: dice and block colors are not related to players meeple and disc colors.

Each player takes meeples and discs of their chosen color. Place 3 meeples in their indicated starting positions in the underground chambers of the maze. Place 3 discs to represent your team’s unfinished obelisk at the top right.

One player takes the remaining meeple for each player in their hand, shakes and “rolls” the meeples in front of the turn/action area of the board. Player order proceeds from left to right.

Note: you can agree to have a longer or shorter game by adjusting the number of discs on the obelisk at the start. You may also agree to a different initial maze set up.

Turns

The player whose turn is first rolls all the dice.

Each player then places their action meeple standing up on the action space that they would like to play for their turn (proceeding left to right based on meeple order).

After all action meeples have been placed, the player whose meeple is on the furthest left action space performs their action(s) then puts the meeple into a position lying down below the action space to indicate that they have taken their turn. This position is used to determine the order in which players will choose their next action. Players cannot play the same action two turns in a row so must move meeple to a different available action space.

Actions

Players select dice (if available) matching the colors indicated on the action space. For each of these dice the player may either BLOCK - move blocks of the same color as the die or WALK -move one of their meeples regardless of dice color. Note, the first die must be completely used before the second die is used. Once you start using the second die you can no longer do any further moves with the first die.

Block

(Move blocks of specific dice color)

Move any number of blocks (of the same color as the selected die) to adjacent spaces. The maximum total number of moves is the number of the selected die. (May move multiple blocks)

Walk

(Move 1 meeple - dice color not relevant)

Move one of your meeples in the labyrinth as many spaces as you want up to the number on the selected die. You may only move one meeple per die. (Move only one Meeple)