Tau

Alternate Names

The Game of Twenty, Twenty Squares, Aseb (this word is possibly Babylonian)

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

This game was played on the Tau board and there is a later version which has eleven squares added, known as the Double Tau board. Many of the ancient Tau boards uncovered are in the form of a box which contains the pieces. Often the box had another gaming board on the other side, typically Senet. Most reconstructions give each player five counters although it is possible that earlier versions of the game used seven counters per player, like the Royal Game of Ur. The original dice used were four half-cylinders (sticks cut in half lengthwise and painted on one side). When tossed they would land with zero to four upturned painted sides for a total of five possible outcomes. A normal six-sided die may be substituted, by simply rolling again after an outcome of six.

History

This board is very likely derived from the much older Royal Game of Ur. The oldest example of this game comes from Enkomi, Sri Lanka and is dated to about 1580 BCE. There are also artifacts of this game from Mesopotamia and Iran, but it was most common in ancient Egypt.

Amazingly, a very similar race game has survived to modern times at an isolated Jewish enclave called Cochin (Kochi) in South India. The exact rules of this game are unknown to the author, but it is easy to notice the similarities in the board of this probably related game, called Asha.

Objective

The objective is to bear off all five of one’s counters before their opponent does so.

Play

Note that this game is indeed ancient and any reconstruction of its rules must be highly conjectural. Hardly any two reconstructions of the rules are exactly the same, although most authors agree on movement of the counters around the board and some degree of significance to the rosettes. Most reconstructions give each player five counters. The counters begin the game off-board. Alternate turns entail a throw of the single six-sided die or a throw of the four half-cylindrical dice to govern movement of a single friendly counter using the guidelines shown in the table below:

A counter may only be entered onto the board after the throw of a one or five on the cubical die (equivalently, a throw of one or zero flat sides up with the half-cylinder dice). When this happens, the player rolls again and may move a counter in by the new amount shown. A player may have any number of their own counters on the board at one time, but the forward move points given by throw of the dice may not be split between two or more counters. Counters move forward only along the route shown below:

No more than one counter may occupy any cell. When a player’s counter lands at a cell occupied by an enemy counter; that counter is captured and removed from the board. An exception is a counter at a rosette-marked cell, which may not be captured. Once captured, a counter must then be reentered by the rules described above. Captures are not compulsory if there are other moves available to a player on that turn. If the only move available to a player is to move forward to a cell occupied by a friendly counter or to a rosette-marked cell occupied by an enemy counter, that move is forfeit and the player must wait until the next turn to try and move again. If any legal move is available to a player, however, that move must be made.

When a player’s counter culminates its move by landing on a rosette-marked cell, that player is entitled to an extra move and may roll again. Counters bear off by an exact throw which moves them to an imaginary cell immediately after the last cell. If a roll does not entitle the player to bear off his counter and no other moves are available the move is forfeit.

Variations

There are countless reconstructions which may be devised using this board. The most obvious would be to make a faster game using less counters or a longer and more complex game using more counters. Another variant calls for the use of stackable counters. Here, two or more friendly counters may occupy the same square by being stacked upon one another. The rules governing this stack of counters also diverge. They may all be captured as if they were a single counter, or they may be invincible as if they were on a rosette, similar to modern backgammon.

Sources

1. Parlett, David. The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.