Solo: Imhotep
Men-Nefer’s official solo mode: setting up Imhotep, how his Action Tiles drive his turns, how he does each action, his scoring and the difficulty options.
Imhotep, the architect of the Step Pyramid, is your opponent. He follows the normal rules except where the official solo rulebook says otherwise; this page lists those exceptions.
Setup
Set up a 2-player game on the solo side of the Main Board (Setup). Imhotep gets a Personal Board and all its pieces except the Fish and the Ankh — he never gains or spends Food or Heka. He is the starting player and starts on 10 PP. Shuffle his 9 Action Tiles face down next to his board, with the die.
Imhotep turns
- Flood — as normal, but Imhotep takes no resources. In Eras II and III reshuffle his 9 Action Tiles into a new pile.
- Sowing — you alternate turns as usual. On his turn reveal the top Action Tile and do the option it shows, then discard it face up. If he can’t do that option, put the tile at the bottom of the pile and reveal the next. He plays all 9 tiles each Era, 9 turns like you.
- Harvest — as normal, with the scoring changes below.
Visit a House
Imhotep takes his leftmost Apprentice and its Tablet. He never visits a House where he already has an Apprentice (Sun or Moon), so his three go to three different Houses.
- If you have Apprentices on Sun spaces, he joins one of those, choosing the House where his Scarab is highest (ties: the topmost House).
- Otherwise he takes an empty Sun space where his Scarab is highest (ties: topmost); if none is empty, an occupied one by the same rule.
He then does the Tablet’s actions — always the top one of a 
choice — and
discards it.
Specialise
He moves an Apprentice from Sun to Moon, advances that Scarab and does the actions of the space reached. Which one: an Apprentice sharing a Sun space with yours first; among those, or among the rest, the House where his Scarab is highest (ties: topmost).
Take an Action Tablet
He takes the cheapest Tablet (in Food) whose hieroglyph advances his counter; if none, the
cheapest that would advance yours; if none, the cheapest. It goes in his leftmost empty space.
Instead of the board action beside the Tablet, he does the action shown on his Action Tile for the
row he took. When that action is a 
Scarab step, he moves his lowest Scarab (ties: topmost).
Action priorities
Imhotep does every action as normal except:
| Action | What Imhotep does |
|---|---|
 Favour of Khufu | Always his Feather 1 step. |
 Transport Limestone | Queens’ track if he has a Permission available, otherwise the Great Pyramid track; leftover steps at the end of the Queens’ track go to the Great track. |
 Great Pyramid piece | Levels I–III: the top-right corner, else the next free corner clockwise; he gains both Favours. Pyramidion: Feather 2 steps. |
 Queens’ Pyramid | His Permission goes on the topmost unfinished pyramid where you have one; if you have none, the topmost unfinished pyramid. |
 Embalm | If he already has a Sarcophagus available, he does a Funerary Rite instead. |
 Funerary Rite | Roll the die for a Mastaba (results on the Necropolis sides); place in its empty space of the current Era’s level, else the next lower level, else reroll. Take the space’s Benefit; no Mastaba activations. Without a Sarcophagus he Embalms instead. |
 Obtain a Papyrus | The cheapest that completes one of his Drawings; else the cheapest that completes one of yours; else the cheapest. |
 Obtain a Craft | The cheapest of a type he lacks, placed as high as possible; if he has every type, the cheapest of a type you lack; else the cheapest. |
 Advance Priestesses | His most advanced Priestess that can enter a new Room goes as high as possible; leftover steps to the next one. |
 Make an Offering | After all movement: his highest, leftmost Craft with a Basket; then roll the die for the space in the Room of his most advanced standing Priestess with a free space (reroll if taken). He ignores Deity actions. With no Offering available he takes a Craft instead (see the note). |
 Advance Boats | His most advanced river Boat goes to the first City it can enter; leftover steps to the next Boat. A Boat that can’t reach a City still moves. |
 Activate Boats | After all movement: his most advanced Boats in Cities with Contracts; he takes the Benefit and the highest-value, leftmost Contract. With no such Boat, he activates river Boats for 1 PP each. |
 Carve a Sphinx | If he already has a Sphinx available, he erects it instead. |
 Erect a Sphinx | Roll the die for an Avenue (results at the top of the Avenues); place on its empty Pedestal of the current Era’s level, else lower, else reroll. Benefits, except Mastaba activations from the Pedestals before the Necropolis. Without a Sphinx he carves instead. |
Harvest and scoring
- Imhotep turns his face-up Contracts over automatically: value 1 in Era I, values 1–2 in Era II, all in Era III. Then he scores them as usual.
- He scores 4 PP per Permission he has placed, ignoring the Queens’ Pyramids Tiles.
- Everything else scores normally; win and tie-break as in the normal game.
Difficulty
For a harder game, use either or both:
- Imhotep starts with more than 10 PP, up to 15.
- He scores 5 PP instead of 4 for each Permission on the Queens’ Pyramids.