Timeless Games: Royal Ur

The Royal Game of Ur is the world's oldest known board game — a 4,500-year-old race of strategy and dice that was played in the palaces of ancient Sumer. Excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s and decoded from a Babylonian tablet by British Museum curator Irving Finkel, it's now beautifully reimagined for iPhone and iPad.

Free. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking.

Just the game.

— FEATURES —

• 14 progressive levels of difficulty, from Apprentice to King
• AI opponent that grows from forgiving to formidable
• Two-player Pass-and-Play mode
• Lush 3D Mesopotamian setting — lamassu statues, ziggurat horizon, hand-procedural temple-stone board
• 2D mode for quick play
• Tap to move; rosettes are safe; capture in the shared lane
• Authentic binary-tetrahedral dice — four pyramids with two marked corners each, just like the originals dug up in the Royal Tombs of Ur

— THE RULES —

Each player races seven soldiers from home to the bear-off lane. Roll the dice (the sum of marked corners, 0–4) and choose which soldier to advance. Land on a rosette to earn an extra roll. Central rosette provides shield. Land on an opponent's piece in the shared lane to capture it back to their home. First to bear off all their soldiers wins.

— LEVELS —

Each level changes the AI's strategy, the noise it makes ("mistakes"), and the soldier count, so the game grows with you:

Level 1 — Apprentice (3 soldiers, very forgiving)
Level 4 — Soldier
Level 7 — Vizier
Level 10 — High Priest
Level 14 — King (full 7 soldiers, no mistakes)

Win to progress. Lose to stay. Reset progress any time from Settings.

— ABOUT THE GAME —

The original board was discovered in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, in modern-day Iraq, dating to approximately 2600 BCE. The British Museum hosts the most famous reconstructed board, which inspired this app's tile patterns and rosettes.

A perfect quick-strategy game for board game lovers, history enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to play something that humans have been playing for longer than recorded history.

— COMING SOON —

Timeless Games: Royal Ur is the first in a planned series of ancient classics. Future updates will add more Mesopotamian games.

— SUPPORT —

This is a small indie project. Bug reports, suggestions, and notes from the past 4,500 years of Royal Ur enjoyers all welcome at https://dilmungames.com/support.