Scarab Sands 2026

Scarab Sands is a highly competitive, fast paced, area control game with almost no down time. Players compete as dead souls inside a pyramid, sending their scarab troops to fight for control over sacred rooms. Only the one with the lightest heart will make it to the Afterlife.

Each round starts with determining movement for scarab troops. This happens simultaneously for all players, by using command arrows on player mats hidden by screens. Movement is resolved in turn for 1) basic units,2) flying units and 3) armored units; Therefore, moving basic units happens almost blindly, guessing the moves of the opponents, while armored troops move when most of the stage is set. After movement, combat is resolved through dice rolls in every room where two or more players' troops are present, until a single player (or none) controls it. Each room offers rewards for controlling it, such as upgrading troops or getting an obelisk die.

Player starts with 7 heart tokens, and the first one to free all of them, wins the game. There are multiple ways to free a heart, such as (1) controlling the pharaoh room, (2) simultaneously owning the three obelisk dice or (3) spending Ma'at influence points (mostly gained when losing a battle).

Whenever a scarab dies in combat, heart tokens are flipped to their "larvae" side. These tokens are flipped back to hearts in the last chamber of the pyramid, spawning one basic unit for each larvae flipped. Therefore the closer a player is to victory, the less basic units they are going to be able to spawn.

—description from the designer