Ramses
Ramses Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preliminary Remarks
Inspired by Ancient Egypt, RAMSES is an elaborate tactical game for two players. Although the rules are extremely simple and quickly learnt, there are an almost infinite variety of possible moves.
The RAMSES game is comprised of:
- 1 board divided into 22 squares
- 4 clear pawns and 4 dark pawns
The board has five squares marked with hieroglyphs (1, 9, 13, 17 and 18) and two oblong squares (5 and 22).
Object of the Game
The object of the game is:
- To occupy 3 hieroglyph squares with one's own pawns, or
- To immobilise the opponent. He loses if he is unable to complete a turn.
Set-Up
To begin the game, place the clear pawns on squares 2, 3, 4 and 5 (beside square 10) and the dark pawns on squares 19, 20, 21 and 22 (beside square 10). One can just as well swap the dark and clear pawns.
The starting position has the clear pawns on the top row and the dark pawns on the lower row, or vice versa.
The two players decide which set of pawns each will use.
The players then randomly determine who goes first: One player holds in one closed hand a clear pawn and in the other a dark pawn. The other player points to one hand and thus picks which player will go first.
When playing several games, the players can keep the pawns assigned at the outset, but the beginning player should alternate with each game.
Turns
The player designated by the luck of the draw begins. A turn is always resolved in two moves:
- The player moves one of his own pawns, then
- He moves one of his opponent's pawns.
Each turn must be fully completed. You can move your own pawns off of the hieroglyph squares but you cannot move the opponent's pawns off of them. If you are unable to complete both moves, you lose.
Moves
The pawn, yours or the opponent's, must be moved by as many squares as there are pawns (clear and dark) on the pawn's starting row or column (counting itself). When they differ, the greater count is used.
A pawn on an oblong square (5 or 22) is considered to be in the column of the middle square (10 to 17) that it is lined up with.
Obviously, an isolated pawn moves just one square. Moves of up to eight squares are possible.
Examples of move distances:
- Pawn on square 2: moves 3 squares
- Pawn on square 5: moves 2 squares
- Pawn on square 7: moves 4 squares
- Pawn on square 10: moves 4 squares
- Pawn on square 11: moves 4 squares
- Pawn on square 16: moves 4 squares
- Pawn on square 19: moves 3 squares
- Pawn on square 22: moves 2 squares
How to Move
Pawns move in any direction, horizontally or vertically, through unoccupied squares. No pawn may move diagonally, and a pawn may not move through the same square twice during a move.
Examples of moves: Orthogonal moves, through free squares. The pawn on square 8 could end up on squares 5, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18 or 22.
By judiciously placing one's own pawns during the first move of a turn, one can often modify the possible opponent pawn moves, as the illustration above shows for the dark player. (The printed sentence shows a dark-pawn symbol where the colour word belongs; "dark" is supplied from the pawn symbol in the illustration.)
- By moving his own pawn from square 5 to square 17, he can then move the opponent pawns on squares 10, 14 and 15 six squares.
- By moving his own pawn from square 8 to square 18, he can then move the opponent pawns on squares 10, 14 and 15 four squares.
- By moving his own pawn from square 11 to square 9, he can then move the opponent pawns on squares 10, 14 and 15 five squares.
On the first turn, the player who moves first cannot place one of his own pawns on a hieroglyph square.
Oblong Squares
The oblong squares 5 and 22 allow variable moves.
- When a pawn is brought (printed as "his brought") to oblong square 5 or 22 through square 4 or 21, one gets to choose through or onto which of the eight middle squares (10 through 17) the pawn moves next.
Oblong squares: Variable movement of pawns, by going through or stopping on one of the eight possible squares.
Otherwise, an oblong square is treated as a single square.
- When a pawn is on an oblong square, the entire square is occupied, which is to say one cannot move another pawn onto or through that square. The pawn must be placed beside a specific middle square (10 to 17); it is considered to be in that column. A pawn on an oblong square cannot move to "another spot" within that oblong square.
- When a pawn enters an oblong square from one of the squares running from 10 to 17, the pawn must next move onto the square beside the oblong square, 4 or 21.
- When one wants to move a pawn out of an oblong square, it can only go to two squares: the square beside the oblong (4 or 21) or the square beside the pawn (10 to 17).