Gamehelptekhenuobeliskofthesun

Overview

A dice-drafting game for 2–4 players over exactly 16 rounds. Each round you take one die from around the Obelisk and either perform the God action of the section it came from, or Produce resources of the die's colour. Points come from statues, pillars, buildings, happiness, production and secret Decrees. Most VP wins.

Two things are worth understanding before your first game:

• Every die you take stays on your scales until the next Maat phase. Pure dice weigh on the left, Tainted dice on the right. Every 4 rounds the scales are judged: the closer to balanced, the earlier you go next, and a clearly negative balance costs VP.
• Over-producing hurts you. Anything you produce above your production marker is excess: you can never spend it, and it weighs on the Tainted side of your scales.

Before round 1

The board is set up for you. You then:

1. Keep 1 of 2 Decrees dealt to you. Decrees are secret end-game scoring cards.
2. Draft 2 Starting cards (snake draft). Their initiative numbers, added together, set the first turn order — highest first.
3. Pick a Destiny card in turn order, and receive the rewards of both Starting cards and the Destiny card.

Table options: the Horus Bonus tiles can be random or the pre-printed first-game layout, and the Obelisk wheel can start at a random or fixed position.

The Obelisk and the dice

The wheel around the Obelisk has six sections, one per god. Its shadow makes each section Sunny, Shaded or Dark, and that decides how each die colour counts there:

Light	White	Yellow	Black	Brown	Gray
Sunny	Pure	Tainted	Forbidden	Forbidden	Tainted
Shaded	Tainted	Pure	Tainted	Pure	Tainted
Dark	Forbidden	Forbidden	Pure	Tainted	Tainted

Gray is always Tainted and nothing is Forbidden in the shade. The wheel turns one section clockwise after every second round, and new dice are rolled into the two Shaded sections.

Your turn

1. Take a die that is Pure or Tainted — never Forbidden. Before taking it you may spend Scribes:
   • 1 Scribe: change the die's value by 1 or 2 (1–6, no wrap). Scribes stack.
   • 2 Scribes: Anubis. Take any die, even a Forbidden one, and use it for any action. It goes below your scales and does not count toward balance.
2. The die goes onto your scales: Pure left, Tainted right, at its new value.
3. Perform one action: the God action of the die's section, or Produce with the die's colour.

The die's value matters for almost every action. If you cannot pay an action's cost, you cannot take it. Gold stands in for any resource (Papyrus, Bread, Limestone, Granite); Scribes and Faith are not resources.

Cards. Blessings are one-shot; Technologies are permanent. When one of your cards applies to what you are doing, the game offers it. Every card's full text is in its tooltip.

Restart turn undoes your whole turn, until something hidden is revealed (a card or a pillar tile is drawn). A Confirm step ends each turn; the Confirm end of turn preference changes that.

Actions

Horus — build a Statue

Pay the Granite under your leftmost unbuilt statue (4 / 3 / 2 / 2 / 3 / 4). Then either:

• For a god: the die value picks a Horus slot, and the god tile on that slot says which section the statue goes in. From then on, whenever another player performs that god's action, you get the bonus printed on that slot. (See the player-count table for extra triggers.) A second statue to the same god gives no extra bonus.
• For the people: ignore the die. Build on one of the four Gold spaces (two by the Temple, two above the Osiris districts) and take the Gold. At the Temple, also score 3 VP per own Pillar in that line.

Ra — raise a Pillar

The die picks the tile: 5–6 left (3 VP), 3–4 middle (2 VP), 1–2 right (1 VP). Pay its Limestone / Granite and place it on any empty Temple space, in any rotation. Score:

• 1 VP per Building (anyone's) in its row and column;
• 1 VP per edge matching the neighbouring tile or the Temple border (2 VP per match in a corner);
• the reward on the covered space, and the slot's 1–3 VP.

If the tile's light symbol matches the light over Ra's section right now, its ability triggers too.

Hathor — build around the Temple

Build on any empty building space beside the Temple (the die does not restrict it) and pay its Bread (2–4). For each space in that row or column: your own Pillar scores 3 VP; an empty space gives 1 of the resource or Faith shown; another player's Pillar gives nothing. Then raise Population by the die value.

Bastet — festival

Pay 2 Papyrus. Raise Happiness by the die value (never above your Population). Die 1–2 also gives 2 Scribes, 3–4 gives 1. The first time your Happiness reaches 16 gain 1 Gold, 19 1 Scribe, 21 an extra action with any die value.

Thoth — take cards

Die 1–2: 1 card free. 3–4: pay 2 Papyrus for 2 cards. 5–6: pay 3 Papyrus for 3 cards. All from one Market section, and you must take the full number. Your Happiness opens the sections: 1+ section 1, 5+ section 2, 9+ section 3, 13+ section 4. Sections 3 and 4 are empty until someone's Population first reaches 9 and 13. Before choosing, you may pay 1 Papyrus to discard and refill a section.

Osiris — workshop or quarry

Lose 1 Happiness (you need at least 1). Build in the row equal to the die value, in any of the four districts:

Row	Production	Gain
1	+1 on that resource	1 of it
2	+1	1 of it, plus 1 Gold for the first builder in row 2
3	+1 on both resources of the pair	1
4	+1 on both	1, plus 1 Gold
5	+2	2
6	+2, and +1 on any track	2

Papyrus + Bread and Limestone + Granite are the pairs. Production markers stop at 6.

Produce

Any non-gray die, in any section. Gain resources of the die's colour equal to its value: yellow Papyrus, brown Bread, white Limestone, black Granite. Everything above that resource's production marker is excess.

Maat phase — after rounds 4, 8, 12 and 16

1. Balance = total of your Pure dice − total of your Tainted dice − 1 per excess resource. Anubis dice do not count.
2. Everyone holding Faith may add it to either side, ±1 each. Unused Faith is lost.
3. Penalty: balance −3 to −5 costs 1 VP, −6 to −8 costs 2 VP, −9 or worse 3 VP.
4. New turn order: closest to zero first (+1 and −1 tie). Ties go to the higher Ankh on your Destiny card.
5. After rounds 8 and 16, Scoring (below).
6. Dice, excess and Faith leave your board, and everyone picks a new Destiny card in the new turn order.

Scoring — after rounds 8 and 16

What	VP
Osiris districts	3 VP to the majority in each (Buildings and Statues; a statue counts in both districts it sits over). Tie: highest piece
Temple	1 VP per own Building and Statue around it; each own Pillar 1 VP per own Building and Statue in its row and column
Statues built	1 / 3 / 6 / 10 / 15 / 21 for 1–6
Happiness	3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15 for reaching 9 / 13 / 16 / 19 / 21
Production	2 VP per marker on 6
Building row	the VP uncovered on your player board
Bread upkeep	pay the Bread uncovered on your player board, or lose 3 VP per Bread short

Bread is paid automatically. You are only asked if paying would need Gold.

Game end

After the second Scoring:

1. Anyone holding Decree D23 may play it first, for a free action.
2. Decrees: score up to 3, at most one per symbol. The Best button picks the highest-scoring set for you.
3. Turn order: 1st gets 3 VP; with 3–4 players 2nd gets 2 VP.

Most VP wins. Ties: most Scribes, then earlier in turn order. Scores never drop below 0.

Player-count differences

	2p	3p	4p
Statue spaces per god	1	2	3
Temple building spaces	10	14	18
Horus bonus also when you take that god's action	yes	—	—
Horus bonus immediately when you build	—	yes	—
Cards removed	T16, D20	—	—
Turn-order VP at the end	1st 3	1st 3, 2nd 2	1st 3, 2nd 2

Implementation notes

• Publisher errata are applied: Decree D03 is removed from the game, and D07 scores at most 21 VP.
• Horus slot 1 ("2 Population / 3 Faith") is a choice, like every other "/" on the board.
• Happiness 16 / 19 / 21 bonuses trigger however your Happiness gets there, not only from Bastet.
• Population stops at 21, like Happiness.
• An empty Pillar stack leaves its Ra slot empty; a die pointing at it cannot take Ra.
• Discarded cards are reshuffled into their deck when it runs out.