The Royal Game of UR Rules
Object of the Game:
The Game of Ur is a race. The object is to move all 7 of your game pieces around the track before your opponent.
Set Up:
Place the gameboard between two players with the long side of the game board facing each player.
Each player receives 7 game pieces. One player uses the light game pieces and the other uses the dark game pieces.
Game Play:
Choose a player to go first. The player rolls the dice to determine the number of squares their game piece will move.
Dice:
The Royal Game of Ur uses replicas of the historical dice that are different than the dice you typically use for a board game. The four dice are tetrahedrons with two of the four ends colored white. A player rolls the dice and counts the number of white ends that are up. This can range from 0 (no white ends) to 4 (all white ends). If a player has no white ends up on the dice roll, they lose their turns as they rolled a 0. The player moves the number of spaces shown on the dice. For example: if three white ends are up, the player moves three spaces.
Moving Game Pieces:
On your turn, you may move your game piece the number of squares shown on the dice. You may either add a game piece to the board or move one of your game pieces already on the board. If you can’t move a game piece, you lose your turn. Only one game piece may occupy a square.
Route:
The gameboard has three main areas.
The first area is the 6 squares closest to you. These 6 squares are the first 4 spaces on the board and the last two. These are safe squares as your opponent can’t get into these. Your game pieces can move in these squares without the risk of your opponent knocking them off.
The next area is the 8 squares that go down the middle of the gameboard. This is the combat area where you can battle your opponent.
The last area is the 6 squares closest to your opponent. This is their safe zone. You can’t move your pieces into these squares.
Your pieces will follow the route below. Your opponent will follow the same route on their side of the board.
You want to get all your pieces on the board, around the track, and off the before your opponent.
To exit the gameboard, you must throw an exact number.
Center Squares:
The 8 squares in the center of the game board are the combat area where you and your opponent can battle. Only one game piece can occupy a square. If you move your game piece to a square occupied by your opponent, you knock their game piece off the board, and they need to start that game piece over again. The only exception is the Rosette Square as you can’t knock your opponent off a Rosette Square (see below).
Rosette Squares:
Rosettes are the squares with the red and blue stars. There are five of them on the game board. Two on each player’s side and one in the middle area. The rosette squares are special since if your game piece lands on one you get to roll again. Additionally, your opponent can’t knock your game piece off the rosette square in the middle. This makes that square very strategic as you can keep your game piece there and wait until your opponent moves their game piece in front of it so that you can attempt to knock their game piece off the game board.
Strategy:
The following statistics can help you with your strategy. Throwing a 1 or a 3 is 4 times more likely than throwing a 0 or a 4. Rolling a 2 is more than 6 times likely than rolling a 0 or a 4. Knowing this, a player knows to avoid placing his game piece two squares in front of their opponent’s game piece because it’s highly likely they will roll a 2 and knock your game piece off the game board. Equally, you want to maneuver your game pieces whenever possible to be 2 squares behind your opponent.