Khet (game)

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Khet
Khet strategy game with laser light
Khet strategy game with laser light
Game data
author Michael Larson, Del Segura, Luke Hooper
publishing company Innovention Toys, LLC
Publishing year 2005
Art Strategy game
Teammates 2
Duration 10-30 minutes
Age from 9 years

Awards

Canteen Select 2006, Årets Spel 2007

Khet (until September 2006 Deflexion ) is a chess-like strategy game with lasers ( class 2 ). Two players take turns dragging their ancient Egyptian looking figures across the playing field and activating their laser diode at the end of each turn . The playing figures have different mirrors. If the laser beam hits a pawn on a non-mirrored side, it is removed from the playing field.

The game has not yet been officially launched in German-speaking countries, but is offered by various importers (as of February 2010).

game

At the beginning each player has 14 pieces in the colors red or silver. (With Deflexion there were the colors gold / silver.) In contrast to chess, there is no predetermined starting line-up at the edges. The figures are distributed over the entire playing field from the start. There are different lineups for the beginning, but advanced players can also come up with their own starting lineups. For each player there is the forward-facing exit of the laser beam on his side on the field at the bottom right, which is switched on via a push button. There are four different pieces with and without mirrors, of which the pharaoh is comparable to the king in chess. If the pharaoh is hit by a laser beam, the player has lost.

A move consists of either moving a pawn in any direction (also diagonally) onto an immediately adjacent free space (exception: Djeds can swap places with other pawns ) or turn it by 90 degrees. The fields vertically above the opposing laser as well as certain other fields may not be entered, they are marked accordingly in color. After moving, the player activates his laser beam. Since the pieces are aligned at right angles on the playing field, the laser beam always moves horizontally and vertically within the playing area. Distracted by mirrors, he either hits the edge of the playing field or a non-mirrored side of a figure. In the latter case, this figure is removed from the game, even if it is your own. A maximum of one figure is removed. If this is the Pharaoh, the game is over.

The characters:

  • The Pharaoh is the main character. It has no mirrored sides. If the pharaoh is hit, the player has lost.
  • The two Djed figures have a diagonal mirror on both sides. In this way, they reflect rays from all sides, deflect it by 90 degrees and cannot be hit . However, they can also be useful to the enemy. The Djeds are the only ones who are allowed to swap places with certain directly adjacent figures of both colors.
  • The pyramid is only mirrored on one side of the diagonal and can therefore be hit from two of the four sides . With seven out of 14 pawns she is numerically the strongest pawn.
  • Like the Pharaoh, the four obelisks are not mirrored on either side. They serve as victims . In contrast to the original Deflexion version , two obelisks can be stacked on top of each other in Khet. These can be moved together or individually. If such a pile is hit, only one of the pieces is removed from the game.

Extensions

The first expansion Eye of Horus ( Eye of Horus ) adds the game to a new character, a beam splitter . He replaces one of the two Djeds . If this is hit, it reflects one half of the beam by 90 degrees and lets the other half pass straight ahead. It is available in red / silver for khet as well as gold / silver for deflection .

In May 2008, the expansion appeared Tower of Kadesh ( Tower of Kadesh ). It is also known as Khet 3D and brings the third dimension into play. An attached, rotatable tower guides the laser beam to a second level. Game figures can switch between the levels and as a further movement the tower can be rotated.

background

Chet / Khet variants in hieroglyphics
M3

German: Chet / English: Khet
ḫt
wood
U28

German / English: Dja
ḏ3
fire drill
M3 U28

German: Chet-dja / English: Khet-dja
ḫt-ḏ3
fire drill made of wood

The game was designed by Michael Larson, then a professor at Tulane University , and two of his students, Del Segura and Luke Hooper, as part of a study project. It was presented for the first time in spring 2005 and presented that same year at the New York Toy Fair, at that time still under the name Deflexion . The first Deflexion World Championships took place on December 10, 2005 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .

In 2006 the game was re-released under the name Khet with minor changes . The name change was necessary because the name research overlooked the fact that there was already a game called Deflexion , and the acquisition of these naming rights was too expensive.

According to the publisher, the name Khet stands for the ancient Egyptian Chet (in English transcription Khet ) and means flame . The Egyptian hieroglyph shows a lamp with a flame and well symbolizes the modern technology of playing with laser technology. But while khet is both the designation of a unit of measurement and mostly the general term for different types of wood, the hieroglyph described corresponds to the ancient Egyptian dja ( fire drill ), in combination with khet as khet-dja , an ancient Egyptian name for a medical device made of wood, the used to burn ulcers.

Awards

Still under the name Deflexion , the game won the Mensa Select award in 2006 . In 2007 it was one of the five finalists of the American Toy Industry Association's Game of the Year and received the Årets Spel ( Game of the Year ) award in the adult games category in Sweden .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry at BoardGameGeek.com
  2. ^ Stephen R. Wilk: Playing with light: A history of games that incorporate the photon. Optics and Photonics News 10, 18 (2007), p. 18
  3. ↑ Announcement of the launch of the 2nd edition of the revolutionary laser game under the name Khet ( Memento from December 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 1.00 MB) Press release from August 2006
  4. ^ Rainer Hannig: Large Concise Dictionary Egyptian-German: (2800-950 BC) . von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 3-8053-1771-9 , p. 1066.
  5. ↑ 2007 Award-Winning Products and Nominees , Prize Winner Archive of the Toy Industry Association, removed. February 16, 2010
  6. ↑ List of Årets Spel Prize winners on www.boardgamegeek.com, down. February 16, 2010

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