Men – The Game of 16 Lines

ancientgames.org/men-the-game-of-16-lines/

Eli April 7, 2018

Men is an ancient Egyptian game from the Old Kingdom. Its rules are unknown, although it
appears to be a game of both luck and strategy. After the end of the Old Kingdom, Men fell
out of use, and was replaced by other, seemingly more popular games, such as Senet, Aseb,
and Mehen.

Not one whole gaming board of Men has been found archaeologically. Only a few fragments,
the largest having 13 out of 16 total lines, all from the Royal Cemetery at Qustul, Nubia,
Egypt. Besides the physical boards, there is a depiction of Men on a painting in the Tomb of
Hesy in Saqqara, which shows us an exact set of Men, with playing pieces and board, shown
next to similar sets of Senet and Mehen. From this drawing we can see that Men was played
with 5 small white square pieces and 5 larger black rectangular pieces.

3 Games – Mehen (Left Center), Senet (Upper Right), and Men (Lower Right) from The
Tomb of Hesy, Saqqara, Egypt. Drawing by James Edward Quibell, 1913. From Quibell,
James Edward. Excavations at Saqqara: 1911-1912. Institut Français d’Archéologie
Orientale, 1913. Plate XI.

Since both, the playing pieces, one side being small and one side being large, and the board
itself, one side starting with a wide line and one side starting with a narrow line, are
asymmetric, it is implied that Men was an asymmetric game, meaning that each player either

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had a different winning goal or a different method of capture. We can assume that Men
utilized 4 throwing sticks for dice, since we know that both Mehen and Senet used the same
sticks, although only 1 set of sticks is displayed on the painting, next to Senet.

Men Game Board from the Royal Cemetery Men Game Board from the Royal
at Qustul, Nubia Egypt. Tomb L-23. Drawing Cemetery at Qustul, Nubia Egypt. Tomb
from Williams, Bruce, and Keith Cedric L-23. Photo from Williams, Bruce, and
Seele. The A-Group royal cemetery at Keith Cedric Seele. The A-Group royal
Qustul: cemetery L. Vol. 3. Oriental Institute cemetery at Qustul: cemetery L. Vol. 3.
of the University of Chicago, 1986. p. 130, Oriental Institute of the University of
pl 66. Chicago, 1986. p. 130, pl 67.

The only other depiction of the game of Men, is on a model of a war boat from the Old
Kingdom, displayed in the Ashmolean Museum (E2301), where two of the sailors can be
seen sitting at a table and playing Men. The way we know that they are playing Men and not
some other game, is because on the game board there are 8 vertical lines, which seems to
be a schematic representation of the 16 vertical lines on the actual Men board. One of the
sailors is holding out his hand as if he is throwing the sticks.

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Model of a War Boat. From the Tomb of Nefwa at Beni Hasan, Egypt. IXth – XIth Dynasty (c.
2125 – c. 1940 BC). Note, two sailors are sitting at a table playing the game of Men, which
can be identified by vertical lines going across the gaming board. Ashmolean Museum,
E2301.

Closeup of two sailors playing the game of Men, which can be identified by vertical lines
going across the gaming board. From the Tomb of Nefwa at Beni Hasan, Egypt. IXth – XIth
Dynasty (c. 2125 – c. 1940 BC). Ashmolean Museum, E2301. Photo: Rex Harris, December
15, 2009.

As far as I am aware there have never been any attempts made to recreate the rules of Men
prior to this one. I have attempted to come up with a plausible set of rules based on the look
of the board and the pieces, and what we know about other similar games. I am proposing
two different sets of rules, until they are played enough by people and worked out.

My asymmetric set of rules for Men is based on a similar ancient Central American, Mayan,
game called Puluc, also known as Bul. This game is still played today by the Kekchi Mayans
in Guatemala and Belize. It has a similar board of corn stock stripes, the number of which

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varies, uses 4 throwing sticks for dice, and uses corn as playing pieces. However, Puluc is a
symmetric game, where both sides are equal.

Asymmetric Men Rules:

1. Men is a 2 player game.

2. It consists of a rectangular playing board with 16, evenly spaced, vertical narrow lines,
and 16 evenly spaced wide lines. One side of the board starts with a wide line and the
other side of the board starts with a narrow line. 4 throwing sticks with one side flat and
the other side rounded are used as dice. There are 10 playing pieces, 5 per player, 5
small square white pieces and 5 large (double in size) rectangular black pieces.
3. The white start at the end of the board which begins with the narrow line. The black
start at the end of the board which begins with the wide line.
4. The pieces move only on narrow lines, from line to line.
5. The game starts with all of the pieces located off the board.

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 6. The pieces move the number of lines according to the score of the throwing sticks. All 4
throwing sticks are thrown at the same time. The score is determined as follows:
1. If one throwing stick landed on the flat side and the other three landed on the
round side the score is 1.
2. If two throwing sticks landed on the flat side and the other two landed on the
round side the score is 2.
3. If three throwing sticks landed on the flat side and the fourth one landed on the
round side the score is 3.
4. If all four throwing sticks landed on the flat side the score is 4.
5. If all four throwing sticks landed on the rounded side the score is 5, which is the
maximum obtainable score.
7. The goals of each player are different. The white try to capture black pieces by stacking
2 small white pieces on top of 1 large black piece. The black try to capture white pieces
by stacking 1 large black piece on top of 2 small white pieces.
8. When a player’s piece moves off the board at the opposite end the player scores 1
point for every piece moved off the board.
9. When a player captures the opponent’s piece they get 2 points for every opponent’s
piece captured.
10. It is easier for white to capture 1 black piece using 2 white pieces, than it is for the
black to capture 2 white pieces using 1 black piece. For this reason, when 1 black
piece captures 2 white pieces, the black side gets 2 points, where as when the white
side captures 1 black piece using 2 white pieces, they get only 1 point.

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 11. Players can land multiple pieces, both on top of their own pieces or on top of the
opponent’s pieces on the same line and stack them. The piece at the top of the stack
controls what happens to the stack.
1. If the player lands on top of only their own pieces, they continue to move as a
stack together towards the opposite end of the board.
2. If the player lands on top of the opponent’s piece, and the opponent’s piece does
not get captured, then the stack reverses direction and continues to move
towards the opposite end of the board away from the player whose piece is on
top of the stack.
3. If 2 white pieces land directly on top of a black piece, whether it is in a stack or
not, then the black piece gets captured and removed from the game into its
captor’s scoring pile.
4. If 1 black piece lands directly on top of 2 white pieces in a stack directly on top of
each other, then both white pieces get captured and removed from the game into
their captor’s scoring pile.
5. Pieces that are separated in the stack by opponent’s pieces do not combine
together and therefore do not get captured. For example, if there is a stack of 4
pieces, white on top of black, on top of white, on top of black, and then a fifth
white piece lands on top of this stack then it will capture the black piece which is
3rd in the stack, but not the black piece which is at the bottom of the stack. The
3rd black piece will get removed from the game and the remaining 4 pieces will
stay in the stack in the same sequence, 3 white pieces on top of 1 black piece.
The stack will continue to move in the direction of the white pieces, because it is
being controlled by the white piece at the top.
6. Another example. If the black side lands on top of 4 white pieces, then the top 2
white pieces will get captured and the the bottom 2 white pieces will remain in the
stack and continue moving in the black’s direction.
12. If a player captures the opponent’s piece or pieces they get a second turn.
13. If a player’s piece reaches the opposite end of the board it exits the game and goes in
to that player’s scoring pile.
14. If a stack reaches the end of the board, then all of the player’s pieces who was
controlling that stack finish the game and go in their scoring pile, where as all of the
opponents pieces go back to the beginning of the game on their starting side.
15. The game is over when either one player captures all of their opponent’s pieces, or
removes all of their own pieces off the board. However, the winner is the one who
scores most points at the end of the game, not the one who finishes first.

On Asymmetric Game Strategy:

1. Men is a game of chance since it has dice, but still has a lot of strategy.
2. Since the players use 4 throwing sticks as their dice, instead of a single 6 sided cubic
dice, this creates some strategical options.

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 3. The throwing sticks have uneven probability for different scores, as compared to a six
sided cubical dice, which makes them more frustrating and exciting at the same time.
1. The most frequent dice score on throwing sticks is 2 (probability is 6/16).
2. The next most frequent dice scores are 1 and 3 (probability is 4/16).
3. The least frequent dice scores are 4 and 5 (probability is 1/16).
4. Due to this uneven probability of scoring it is advantageous to the player to keep
gaps between theirs and opponent’s pieces such that they can capture one or
two of the opponent’s pieces either in a single or two consecutive moves.
4. Another point to note is that it is not always advantageous for the player to move off
their own pieces off the board first, because it might not allow them to capture
subsequent opponent’s pieces since they will not have the right combination of pieces
necessary for the capture.
5. Stacking your own pieces is a double edged sword. It makes them more vulnerable to
the opponents capture or return to the beginning of the game, but at the same time it is
necessary for the white to stack two of their pieces to capture one black piece.

My symmetric set of rules is based on the rules for Senet. The game is a race game, which
is consistent with all other ancient Egyptian games, although both players are racing in the
opposite directions from each other.

Symmetric Men Rules:

1. Men is a 2 player game.

2. It consists of a rectangular playing board with 16, evenly spaced, vertical narrow lines,
and 16 evenly spaced wide lines. One side of the board starts with a wide line and the
other side of the board starts with a narrow line. 4 throwing sticks with one side flat and
the other side rounded are used as dice. There are 10 playing pieces, 5 per player, 5
small square white pieces and 5 large (double in size) rectangular black pieces.
3. The white start at the end of the board which begins with the narrow line. The black
start at the end of the board which begins with the wide line.
4. The white small pieces move only on narrow lines, and the black large pieces move
only on wide lines.
5. The game starts with all of the pieces located off the board.

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 6. The pieces move the number of lines according to the score of the throwing sticks. All 4
throwing sticks are thrown at the same time. The score is determined as follows:
1. If one throwing stick landed on the flat side and the other three landed on the
round side the score is 1.
2. If two throwing sticks landed on the flat side and the other two landed on the
round side the score is 2.
3. If three throwing sticks landed on the flat side and the fourth one landed on the
round side the score is 3.
4. If all four throwing sticks landed on the flat side the score is 4.
5. If all four throwing sticks landed on the rounded side the score is 5, which is the
maximum obtainable score.
7. The goal of the game is a race to move the player’s pieces off the board first, off the
opposite end.
8. Pieces only move one at a time and do not move as a stack.
9. Players can place multiple pieces on the same line. If a player places two or more
pieces on the same line, it blocks the opponent’s pieces from crossing that line.
10. If the opponent’s piece gets trapped between two player’s pieces on the lines before
and after then the piece gets removed off the board and goes to the beginning of the
game. Two pieces can only trap one opponent piece. So if the opponent has more than
one piece on the same line, the other pieces are free to move forward unless the player
places more of their own pieces on the lines before and after to trap them.
11. If a player captures the opponent’s piece or pieces they get a second turn.
12. The game is over when one player removes all of their own pieces off the board at the
opposite end first which makes them the winner.

On Symmetric Game Strategy:

1. Men is a game of chance since it has dice, but still has a lot of strategy.
2. Since the players use 4 throwing sticks as their dice, instead of a single 6 sided cubic
dice, this creates some strategical options.
3. The throwing sticks have uneven probability for different scores, as compared to a six
sided cubical dice, which makes them more frustrating and exciting at the same time.
1. The most frequent dice score on throwing sticks is 2 (probability is 6/16).
2. The next most frequent dice scores are 1 and 3 (probability is 4/16).
3. The least frequent dice scores are 4 and 5 (probability is 1/16).
4. Due to this uneven probability of scoring it is advantageous to the player to keep
gaps between theirs and opponent’s pieces such that they can capture one or
two of the opponent’s pieces either in a single or two consecutive moves.
4. Players can chose which pieces to move such that they can make a capture or a block.

Bibliography:

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