Jeu Royal d’Ur
The Royal Game of Ur is an ancient race and strategy game for two players, born in Mesopotamia. Each side guides its pieces along a path mixing safe squares, s…
📜 History
The Royal Game of Ur is one of the oldest known board games in the world. Discovered on archaeological sites of ancient Mesopotamia, it dates back nearly 4,500 years. Its richly decorated boards have crossed the centuries and testify to a very ancient taste for race, chance, and strategy games.
🧾 Description
The Royal Game of Ur is an ancient race and strategy game for two players, born in Mesopotamia. Each side guides its pieces along a path mixing safe squares, shared zones, and direct confrontation. The dice open possibilities, but only a sharp reading of the board can give you the advantage.
📖 Rules
The Royal Game of Ur is a race and confrontation game for two players. Each player has at least 7 pieces. The goal is to move all your pieces along their full path and off the board before your opponent.
Turn sequence
On your turn, roll the 4 binary dice. Each die is worth 0 or 1. The total result is between 0 and 4.
- If the result is 0, no move is possible and the turn immediately passes to the opponent.
- If the result is greater than 0, you must choose a piece that can legally move according to the rules below.
- If no legal move is possible with the rolled result, the turn passes.
Entering the board
A piece still in stock may enter the board if the roll allows it to reach a valid square on its path.
A piece cannot enter a square already occupied by an allied piece.
If it enters a square occupied by a capturable enemy piece, that enemy piece is captured.
Movement
A piece already on the board moves exactly the number of squares shown by the roll.
Movement follows the player’s own path, then the shared zones, then the final exit squares.
A piece can never end its move on a square already occupied by an allied piece.
Exiting the board
To exit a piece, it must reach the exact final step of its path.
A result that is too high cannot be played: exact exit is mandatory.
Private and shared squares
Some squares belong exclusively to one player: these are private squares.
The squares in the central row form the shared zone: these are the only squares where capture can occur in this version.
Capture
When a piece ends its move on a shared square occupied by an enemy piece, the enemy piece is captured.
The captured piece immediately returns to stock and must enter again later.
Capture is only possible on shared squares.
Capture is never possible on a protected rosette.
Rosettes
Some squares are rosettes.
In this version, a rosette is a protected square: a piece on it cannot be captured.
Also, when a player ends a move on a rosette, they immediately play again.
Shared rosettes remain protected as well.
Square occupation
Two allied pieces cannot occupy the same square.
Stacking is not allowed in this version.
End of the game
As soon as a player has exited all their pieces, they immediately win the game.
Summary of this version
- 7 pieces maximum per player
- 4 binary dice
- result from 0 to 4
- exact exit mandatory
- capture enabled
- capture only on shared squares
- protected rosettes
- landing on a rosette = extra turn
- no stacking
- if no legal move is possible, the turn passes