DOGS & PIGS RULES – The 5000 Year Old Mystery Game

Dogs & Pigs is an abstract game designed using the components of an ancient board game.  Estimated to be 5000 years old, the game’s components are now displayed in the Batman Museum, in Batman Turkey. 

No board or rules have ever been found…

Original Story – 5000 Year Old Mystery Game

The Design Story – Solving a 5000 Year Old Mystery – Designing Dogs & Pigs

Play It On Steam TableTop Simulator – Dogs & Pigs – The 5000 Year Old Mystery Game

RULES

One player plays pigs(red), the other player plays dogs(blue).  The board is shown, as is the starting positions for all pieces.

The goal of each player is to move their four pieces onto their opponents 4 start spaces, or win by decimation of the opponents herd.  

MOVEMENT

Players follow an S pattern from their home spaces, through the center, and then down the opponent’s home row.  The goal  is to have all 4 of your tokens in the opponent’s home squares.

To move a player rolls the 4 dice. The amount of dice showing dots on the top of the pyramid determines the amount of spaces a player may move on their turn

A player must move 1 piece the full amount of spaces shown by the dice. A token that cannot move the required amount of spaces because it would land on a boulder, an opponent token in your home row, or an allied token cannot move.   Rolling all 4 dice with dots on top grants a movement of 5 & an extra roll. 

There can be times you can’t move.  If this is the case, your turn is skipped (optional add one unit to the bowl).

Players may not move pieces onto spots with boulders(black) on them.

Only one token is allowed on any square.

The board shows the starting positions & path.  The numbers 1,2,3,4 are for random boulder placement option.

CAPTURING AN OPPONENT’S TOKEN

Dogs & Pigs Tips & Strategies – Learn How To Win

A player landing on a square with an opposing piece on it, sends the opposing piece back to the starting area.  The player who’s piece was captured may decide which home square the captured piece restarts on.

Capturing an opponent token is worth 1 grey stone.  8 grey stones is equal to 1 white stone.(optional each capture worth 2 grey stones).

A player token stopping on a safe square may not be captured.

A player’s tokens can be captured while in their home row or the middle row.  

Once entering the opponent’s home row a player’s tokens are immune to capture.  To the opponent they act as boulders.  The opponent may not move onto a home row square occupied by an opponent’s token.

For example, the board shows dogs playing blue and pigs playing red.  If a dog token made it anywhere on the red row, it is immune to capture.  Likewise, if a pig token made it to anywhere on the blue row, it would be immune to capture

WAGERING & THE DOUBLING CUBE

Each player has an equal number of colored balls.  These represent the value of one unit of wager on the game.  

Each player agrees to put in an equal initial wager(5 or 10 units).

A player must ADD a unit of their color whenever they have a token captured, or roll a zero on the dice.

A player may REMOVE a unit of their color whenever they capture an opponent’s token, or roll a 5 on the dice(all 4 points on top).

The amount of opponent units in the pot when the game is over is the amount the losing player owes the winning player.

The doubling cube is used to up the stakes during the game.  The cube starts on 1 and has sides of: 1,2,4,8,16,32.  When a player makes a capture or gets a token onto an opponent home square they may turn the doubling cube.  This doubles the wager on the game.  The opponent must either accept the new wager, or forfeit the game and pay the current wager.  Multiply the number of opponent units in the bowl and the doubling cube value to get the final amount owed to the winner.

Dogs & Pigs   Batman Museum, Batman Turkey 

(Board is for display. No board was ever found)

WINNING THE GAME

Winning the game can be accomplished 2 ways:

By moving all 4 of the player tokens onto the opposing players 4 home spaces.

OR 

By acquiring 2 white stones(16 (or 8) captures).

RANDOM BOULDERS OPTION

To set random boulders for the game, roll the 4 dice and set the home row boulders on the space indicated by the number of dots shown on the dice(there is no 5 for this).  Place the 2 home row boulders by this method but DO NOT move the boulder in the center row.

By this method the boulders can be in different positions in different games lending to greater strategy.