How to play Hail Victor

Hail Victor is a staking game with roots in antiquity, originally played with astragali: small bones from sheep or goats used as dice. The original rules are only partly known, so the rules below are a modern reconstruction adapted for ordinary six-sided dice. The name salutes the winner, as the Romans saluted the victor.

The game suits two to eight players and is played with two dice and chips. Each player starts with ten chips. This is traditionally a gambling game, so stick to chips and let honour be the prize.

Everyone antes one chip into the pot, and each player then rolls both dice in turn, once each. Your throw is the sum of the dice.

• Double six (the victor's throw): wins the round immediately, whatever the others have rolled or are yet to roll.
• Double one: the throw of misfortune. You are out of the round and pay an extra chip to the pot.
• Otherwise the highest sum wins once everyone has rolled.

On a tied highest sum, the players involved roll again for the pot.

The round's winner calls out hail victor and takes the pot. Play continues round by round until someone runs out of chips, or until an agreed number of rounds is done. The player with the most chips then wins.

To get closer to antiquity, play with four dice where a throw of four different values (the Venus throw) beats everything, as the astragali players counted it. A gentler house rule drops the penalty for double ones.

More historical games: Jactus and Hazard.

Astragali are small ankle bones from sheep or goats, used as dice for thousands of years around the Mediterranean. They land on one of four sides, each with its own value. Ordinary dice do the job today, but the bones are why many ancient games count their throws so differently from us.