Hyena chase (or Hyena game, or Hyena) is a simple

race game Race game is a large category of board games, in which the object is to be the first to move all one's pieces to the end of a track. This is both the earliest type of board game known, with implements and representations dating back to at least t ...

originating in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. It features a spiral track, and players race their pieces along the spiral from the outside to the centre and back. The first player to finish wins the hyena, which also travels along the spiral. On the return journey to the outside, the hyena eats any of the players it passes.

Overview

The playing area is traditionally marked on the ground, but may be drawn on paper. It has a sequence of many circles arranged in a spiral, each representing a camp and the end of a day's journey. The first circle at the outside of the spiral is larger and represents a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

, and the final circle at the centre of the spiral represents a

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

at an oasis. Each player owns a piece, representing a

mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

. The objective of the game is to travel from the village to the well, then be the first player to return to the village. There is also a piece to represent the hyena, which is unleashed by the winning player to jeopardise the return of the other mothers.

Gameplay

All pieces start at the village. The players move their mothers according to the roll of a dice, die (traditionally pieces of stick were used). A player must throw a six to get their mother from the village onto the first circle. A player must throw the exact number to reach the well; if the number thrown is higher than the number of days to the well they must try again on their next turn. Once they reach the well the mother washes her clothes until the player rolls a six again. Then the mother starts the return journey to the village. The first player to get their mother back to the village (an exact throw is not required) wins the game. For added entertainment, the winner is allowed to play the hyena. Again, a six must be thrown to release it from the village. The hyena moves at twice the speed of the mothers (double the score of the die), and any mothers the hyena passes on the return journey are eaten and removed from the game.

External links

*{{bgg, 13726, Hyena
Li'b El Merafib
at the Elliot Avedon Virtual Museum of Games Racing board games Roll-and-move board games African games Traditional board games

Overview

Gameplay

See also

Further reading

External links