The Test Of Heket's Rake

Heket's Rake is based on the game "Philosopher's Football" or "phutball". It now uses the new Tournament Ranking System. The skill showing your advancement is named "Heket's Rank," and has no known practical benefit.

Basic Rules

The game is played on a 15x9 board. There are two types of piece on the board: the rake, and mushrooms. The goal is to move the rake to your side of the board. The first person to sign up for a game at a rake court will play west, and the second player will play east. Play alternates with west moving first; to compensate for the first-mover advantage, the rake starts offset one square in east's direction.

On each turn, a player may either place a mushroom or move the rake. Mushrooms may be placed in any open square on the board. The rake moves by jumping over one or more mushrooms vertically, horizontally, or diagonally to an empty space. The jumped mushrooms are removed from play. It is possible to chain multiple jumps together.

For example, consider the following board ('R' indicates the rake, 'M' a mushroom):

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . M M R M . . . . .
 . . . . M . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West may jump the two mushrooms to the left of the rake, followed by a jump over the lower-left mushroom, resulting in this board:

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . M . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . R . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It is not possible to jump off the north or south edges of the board. It is possible to jump off the east or west edges, resulting in a win for that side. (Note that it is sufficient for the rake to reach the final east or west row for that side to claim a win.)

Rake Resources

There are some basic strategy guides posted on the forums here, and here

Akhet wrote a fantastic program for recording and studying rake games. It is available here. It is extremely useful for planning ahead. Most good rake players will plan at least 4 or 5 moves ahead.

As with chess, the opening is very important. A bad opening can lead to an early loss. There are some example openings here. It might be good to consolidate these into one [Rake Strategy Guide]?

(See also: tests)