Hnefatafl forum

Am I right in thinking that we now have three playable tafl forms all claiming to be the correct interpretation of Linnaeus? Swedish , Rachunek and Cartier . Maybe we should be calling them Linnaeus A, B and C. They are a diverse lot - hard to believe they all come from accidents of translation. Jus...

Sea Battle Tafl (Navytafl) could be the simplest form we have tried - it just has NO complications! As such, it could be a good way to start people off, who have never played any tafls before. Assuming of course that it turns out to be playable! Thanks Aage for making it available to try out. Hello ...

There's a paradox in the idea of a piece (king or capital ship, whatever) which has no offensive capability at all, but twice the defensive capability of an ordinary piece (because it must be attacked on 4 sides instead of 2). I can't think of a real-life situation which reflects this. Unless, if we...

I still love playing Fetlar after 20 years. I find rachuneck plays like demanding but not particularly rewarding puzzle. In agreement with this. I'm glad to have been introduced to this "Rachunek" form of tafl, and it does seem balanced and interesting enough to be worth playing. But it's somehow a...

I always thought the "hnefa" bit was a reference to knucklebones (really sheep's ankle bones) which look like human knuckles (hence the fist reference). These knucklebones would have been very common objects in a viking village, and were used in games for thousands of years (e.g. ancient greek astra...

I agree the tournament may not be a fair sample of games, as all the participants were non-beginners. I'm sure however that the complete catalogue of fetlar games contains some useless stuff too, as many games were test games or incomplete - so some editing may be needed. We might for example rule o...

It's a strange thing, if you think about it. We have chosen one of the very few board games which features complete asymmetry, both in the aims of the two players, and in the size of their forces. Then we spend the whole time trying to find the most evenly balanced variation! Well, of course an unba...

Thanks Aage for programming this version, and Hnefataflmodern for suggesting it - after four games, I see it has a lot of potential. The weaponless king is going to take a lot of getting used to. I hope we will have a tournament here using these rules!

I think it might be time to normalise our hnefatafl notation a bit - I've been using and "x" after a move to show that a warrior was captured by that move, and an "xx" if two are captured at the same time, likewise "xxx" for three simultaneous captures (more common than you might think). I don't thi...

It is official, you are as cunning as a weasel!! That is exactly the answer I was looking for. If only I had designed the position to eliminate the other possibilities. Anyway, I remember using the technique of attacking the king to force him away from a guillotine - not always possible, but definit...