Pharao
Pharao Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
The game contains:
- 41 pyramids (14 gold, 14 red, 13 blue)
- 1 playing area
- 4 push buttons
- 13 sliding tiles (with animals, secret passages and holes)
- 4 base tiles
- 5 crack tiles
- 20 search cards
- 20 mummies with transparent stands
- 20 Pharaoh seals (5 black, 5 grey, 5 white, 5 brown)
Goal of the Game
Find the mummies' pets and collect the valuable search cards. Sink the mummies into the holes to gain Pharaoh seals as bonus points. Whoever has collected the most points at the end of the game wins.
Setup
Before the first game:
Carefully punch all parts out of the punch sheet. The base tiles and crack tiles each have a hole in the middle that must be punched out. Put all mummies into their stands.
Insert the push buttons into the designated holes on the underside of the playing area so that it stands securely during play.
Before each game:
Sort the 20 search cards by the number on their back (1, 2 and 3). Shuffle each of these three piles separately and then place them face down on top of each other: the 3-pile goes at the bottom, the 2-pile goes on top of it, and the 1-pile is on top of everything. Together they form the search card deck.
Place the playing area on the table so that everyone can reach it easily.
Slide 12 sliding tiles of your choice into the playing area so that the animals and secret passages are visible. Keep the remaining sliding tile face up beside the search card deck.
Distribute the 5 crack tiles and all 4 base tiles evenly across the sliding tiles. Make sure the base tiles do not lie over holes. Fill the remaining spaces with pyramids.
Leave exactly one space empty — this is where the game will begin later. This leaves 3 pyramids over. In later games you may use them instead of crack tiles to make the game harder.
Crack tiles: Look through the cracks to see what is on the sliding tile below. You can adjust the difficulty of the game to your liking by the number of crack tiles: replace any number of crack tiles with the leftover pyramids. You must, however, use at least 2 crack tiles.
Place 4 mummies into the holes of the 4 base tiles. Set the remaining mummies and the Pharaoh seals aside next to the playing area as a supply. Now the game can begin!
Course of Play
Whoever most recently fell into a hole begins. Turn over the top search card and place it face up, visible to everyone, next to the search card pile. The revealed card shows the animal being sought and its value (2–4).
Important: Is the animal visible on the remaining sliding tile? Then put the card back under the pile and reveal a new one.
Now slide exactly one adjacent pyramid onto the free space. In the same way you may also move an adjacent crack tile or base tile (whether or not it has a mummy on it). Now there are four possibilities:
- Only sandstone or a hole is visible: You may slide one more pyramid (or a tile) into the now free space.
- A secret passage is visible: You may immediately, once, instead of a single pyramid, slide any number of pyramids (and/or tiles) in a row all at once. In this way you can cover a large distance and get from one edge of the playing area to the other more quickly.
- A different animal from the one sought is visible: Bad luck! Your turn is over. Your left-hand neighbour is next and tries to find the sought animal.
- The sought animal is visible: Well done! Take the face-up search card and place it in front of you. At the end of the game you receive the points printed on it. Your turn is over. Now your left-hand neighbour takes a turn.
Mummies and Pharaoh Seals
The base tiles can be slid exactly like the pyramids. If a mummy stands on one, you simply slide it along with the tile. If you slide a mummy over a hole in this way, it falls into the depths and the Pharaoh rewards you. Take one Pharaoh seal from the supply in the colour of the base tile the mummy was standing on, and place it in front of you. Each seal is worth exactly 1 point at the end of the game. For each set of all 4 colours you additionally receive 3 bonus points (so 7 points in total for a set). If there are no more seals of a colour left in the supply, you may instead steal a matching seal from an opponent. However, you may only do so if that seal does not belong to a complete set.
You continue to slide pyramids (and tiles) until you either reach the sought animal or a different animal. Along the way, try to sink as many mummies as possible. In this way you learn, move by move, the location of the holes and where the animals are, so you should try to remember both.
Watch out: the animals do not always stand still!
When a player wins a search card, the player to their left first looks at which symbol is on the back of the next card. They carry out the corresponding action and then reveal the search card. Then they begin their turn.
The three symbols on the back of the search cards and their actions are:
- Slide symbol (one hand pushing a sliding tile): Take the remaining sliding tile. You may now change the ground beneath the pyramids by sliding the tile into one of the 3 rows of the playing area. If you sink any mummies while doing so, you receive Pharaoh seals in the corresponding colours as usual. Hopefully you have remembered which animal has now slipped where …
- Mummy symbol (mummies): The mummies are loose! Fill all empty base tiles by placing mummies in the holes. If a mummy would fall directly into a hole, you leave that base tile out.
- Slide and mummy symbol (sliding tile followed by mummies): First slide the remaining tile into the playing area, then fill all empty base tiles.
If the animal shown on a revealed search card is already visible on the free space of the playing area, then the player whose turn it is has been lucky: they receive the card as a gift, and their left-hand neighbour is next.
As a reminder: if the animal is visible on the remaining sliding tile, you put the search card back under the pile and reveal the next one, without carrying out the instruction on its back.
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as a player has taken the last search card.
Now count the points on your search cards. To do so, add 1 point per Pharaoh seal, plus 3 bonus points for each set consisting of the 4 seals of different colours: black, grey, white and brown. Whoever has collected the most points in total is the winner!
Tips & Tricks for Sliding
- The sliding tiles can only be inserted from the side with the recesses, and in the direction of the arrow into the playing area.
- Push the tiles as far as possible into the playing area, until the tile falls out on the other side. The recesses on the insertion side help you push the sliding tile in far.
- Push the tiles slowly so that the pyramids and tiles stay standing on the tiles. The gap may possibly be shifted along with it.
- If a mummy is reluctant to fall into a hole, give it a little help.
Advanced Variant (Profi-Variante)
Are you experienced treasure hunters, pet finders and mummy hunters? Then you can make the game somewhat more difficult. To do so, you can reduce the number of crack tiles, as described in the setup. In addition, the following extra rule applies:
Each time, before you reveal a new search card, the player whose turn it is slides the remaining sliding tile into the playing area — regardless of the instruction on the card back.
- If the card back shows this symbol (mummies), then afterwards you fill the empty base tiles with mummies.
- You do not, however, slide a second tile in if the card back shows this symbol (one hand pushing a sliding tile).
Note: the German rulebook here reads "übrige Schiebekarte" ("remaining sliding card") in this sentence; it refers to the sliding tile described throughout the rules, and is translated as such.
Solo Rule
You can also play Pharao alone. To do so, set up the game as usual. The rules described above continue to apply, with the following changes:
If you find the sought animal: Take the search card and place it in front of you. Carry out the instruction on the back of the next search card and reveal it afterwards. Now you search for the animal shown on that card.
If you find an animal other than the one sought: The search card leaves the game; put it aside. You also carry out the instruction on the next card back and then search for the next animal.
If you sink a mummy: Take a Pharaoh seal in the colour of the base tile the mummy was standing on. If you have already taken all 5 seals of this colour, you come away empty-handed.
End of the game: The game ends as soon as the search card deck is used up. You receive 1 point for each of your search cards. You also receive 1 point for each of your Pharaoh seals. Each set of the 4 seals of different colours gives you 1 bonus point.
Add up your points and check the table to see how your mummy would have been buried in ancient Egypt:
| Points | Burial |
|---|---|
| 24 and more | In a gold sarcophagus |
| 22–23 | In a silver sarcophagus |
| 20–21 | In a marble sarcophagus |
| 18–19 | In a sandstone sarcophagus |
| 15–17 | In a wooden sarcophagus |
| 12–14 | Wrapped in papyrus |
| 9–11 | Squeezed into an old clay pot |
| 6–8 | Weighted down with stones and thrown into the Nile |
| 3–5 | Buried in the camel cemetery |
| 0–2 | Thrown to the beetles as food |