Cast four sticks and snake five pawns down one of the oldest race-and-chase board games ever played.
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How to play
Senet is an ancient Egyptian race game on a 3x10 board that snakes back and forth (boustrophedon). Cast the sticks to learn how far you may move, then run your five pawns toward the far end and bear them all off to win. Position matters as much as luck, pawns can block, protect, and swap places along the track.
Four sticks give a value of 1 to 4, or 5 when none land face-up; throwing 1, 4, or 5 earns another cast.
You cannot land on your own pawn; landing on a lone enemy swaps the two pawns' places.
A pawn beside a friendly neighbour is protected, and three in a row block the path entirely.
You must stop on the House of Beauty (square 26) before continuing.
The House of Water (square 27) washes a pawn back to the Rebirth square; the final houses need an exact throw to bear off. First to clear all five pawns wins.
Game modes
Vs computer: easy, medium, or hard CPU, with runs ranked per difficulty.
Hot-seat: blue versus orange on one device.
Online: create an invite, join by code, or quick-match, both players share the same cast.
Controls
Desktop: click Cast the sticks, then click a highlighted pawn to move it.
Phone & tablet: tap the cast button, then tap a glowing pawn, legal moves are outlined in gold.
Tips & strategy
Keep pawns paired so they can't be swapped backward by a lone attacker.
Hold a pawn back for the exact throw the end squares demand, or you'll waste casts.
A wall of three pawns can stall an opponent for several turns, use it near the finish.
Origins
Senet is among the very oldest board games in the world, played in Egypt as far back as around 3100 BC. Boards appear in tombs across three thousand years of Egyptian history, including Tutankhamun's, and over time the 30-square game took on religious meaning, imagined as the soul's journey through the afterlife. Its exact ancient rules were never written down in full, so the version here follows the careful reconstructions Egyptologists pieced together from board markings and tomb paintings.
About Senet
Senet is one of the oldest known board games, a stick-cast race played in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. This is an original, free browser recreation with the classic hazard squares and exact bear-off, no download or account needed.
A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.
