Egyptian Solitaire

Egyptian Solitaire
Dallan Duggar
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:Players	Players:	1 - 4
:Time	Length:	Fast
:Complexity	Complexity:	Medium
Trios per color:		3
Number of colors:		4
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		4
Five-color sets:		3
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
3x4 grid of squares
Setup time:		1 minute
Playing time:		1 minute - 10 minutes
Strategy depth:		Medium
Random chance:		None
Game mechanics:		Stacking, Elimination
Theme:		Egyptian
BGG Link:
Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2012
One of the best solitaire games for the Looney Pyramids game system (Icehouse pieces). PDF rules and printable game boards available at: http://www.dallan.me/egyptiansolitaire

Introduction: Egyptian Solitaire is a solitaire puzzle game. Imagine a game of Peg Solitaire getting combined with a Rubik's Cube.

Number of Players: 1+

Equipment: 3 Rainbow Stashes, 3x4 grid

Nicely formatted PDF rules with included 3x4 and 4x5 game boards are available to download and print at: http://www.dallan.me/egyptiansolitaire

Setup

Place a nest, which is a large atop a medium, atop a small, on each of the 12 empty squares on a 3x4 grid (color is not important).

Goal

Remove as many pyramids as possible from the board to achieve the lowest score.

How to Play

Each turn, use the top pyramid on a square to hop over the top pyramid in an adjacent square and land in the following square. Immediately remove the top pyramid of the square that was hopped. You must always hop over a pyramid and must always remove the pyramid that is hopped. You are allowed to hop over one square in any direction, including diagonally. A pyramid is only allowed to hop another pyramid if it can land on top of and be directly touching a pyramid of its own size (large on large, medium on medium, small on small) or is able to land on an empty square. A pyramid can never land on top of a pyramid of a different size. Pyramids of any size can hop any size pyramid. For multiplayer and to avoid illegal actions, refrain from holding more than one pyramid at a time.

Scoring

When no more legal moves are possible, count the pips on all of the remaining pyramids on the board to get your final score.
Larges = 3 pts. Mediums = 2 pts. Smalls = 1 pt. It is possible to end the game with 1 point. This is considered a perfect score.

Additional Challenges

After winning the game with a single small pyramid, try finishing with only one medium pyramid or even more challenging, a single large pyramid. If you have access to more pyramids, try a 4x5 grid or even larger.

Multiplayer

Egyptian Solitaire was designed for one player; however, it is not difficult to incorporate friends. Listed below are a few multiplayer game modes.

King Tut

Players take turns playing one game at a time. Each game is timed by the other player(s). Stop the time when the active player says, “Done”, meaning they have no more legal moves or do not wish to make another move. Score the game. For each point over 1 in the player's score, add 3 seconds to the player's time to get a final time score for that player. If the player’s score is 1 point, no additional time is added. Then switch players. Play one game each or multiple rounds of games and alternate who goes first each round so there is no unfair advantage. Then add up the total time for each round and the player with the lowest overall time is the currently reigning King Tut.

Quicksand

All players play at the same time on their own 3x4 board. Set a timer for 1-5 minutes (longer or shorter depending on the skill level of the players). You may also use a randomized timer so that no one knows when the game will end. This can be a really fun addition. When the timer goes off, all of the pieces on the board and still being held in hands are all scored and the player with the lowest score wins.