YORKTON - When it comes to games which are ancient I am a firm believer every gamer needs to give them a try.
In my mind if a game can somehow still hit a table – sometimes centuries after its creation – there has to be something to it worth at least one gaming session to explore.
So it was with a high level of anticipation Hounds and Jackals hit the table for the first time recently.
This one is most accurately an ancient game with a modern interpretation.
“In 1890, the archaeologist William Mathew Flinders Petrie published a record of an ancient game he had discovered in an Egyptian dig. A complete set of the game was discovered in 1910 by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in the Theban tomb of ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhat IV that dates to the 12th dynasty. Since then, over 60 examples of the game have been found in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, Syria, Iran, Azerbaijan, around the Levant and Mediterranean,” explains the rules booklet of the NewVenture Games version of the game. “. . . Because the actual rules to Hounds and Jackals have never been found, scholars of Egyptian history and ancient culture have proposed different ways that the game might have been played.”
The version from NewVenture provides two rule sets.
The first “developed by Dmitriy Skiryuk, Russian game historian in 2017, with some deviations as suggested by Daniel Thibault, Canadian computer scientist, author and game researcher. This form of the game is strictly a race between players based on the random results of the stick dice. There is almost no interaction between the players, and what decision-making there is pertains to how the players apply their die results.”
You will note that the stick dice mentioned is a rather fun aspect of the game. Players toss a set of four sticks, and move their pieces based on how many of a particular side of the sticks comes up.
Initially you wonder if certain combos ever toss up, but they all do, and the action is just different enough to be a sort of charming aspect of Hounds and Jackals players – especially younger ones are likely to enjoy.
The second rules “were devised by R.C. Bell and published in “The Boardgame Book” (1979 Marshall Cavendish Ltd, London). He called the game “The Palm Tree Game” and “Dogs & Jackals” in his book. Although Mr. Bell is one of the most popular and oft-quoted sources of game information, his rule reconstructions are questioned by some game historians.”
The games are similar enough players are likely to settle on a favourite and never play the other.
The game will remind of several other familiar ones, with dashes of backgammon (you toss the sticks and move pieces here), Ludo (Parchessi) and Snakes & Ladders, and that no doubt adds to the attraction here.
While some versions of this one have actual hound-and jackal-headed pieces, the NewVentures one has simpler wooden pieces which are common to many of their games. They are functional and work neatly on another of the company’s awesome wooden boards.
The Meeple Guild has suggested before how several NewVenture-produced games are great for campers and cabins, and this is another, maybe more so than most because this is one a younger player can get into with the fun stick tossing and simple moves to count.
Trevor and I were actually surprised by how much we liked this one, and that is always a good thing, so check it out at www.newventuregames.com as this one is a lot of fun.
