Hi all!
I think that on a board 13*13 historical rules (the king is captured from 2 sides), something like Lewis cross will work well.
13x13 Tafl
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Mark Jones
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2024 1:22 pm
Re: 13x13 Tafl
If I understand the nineteenth and twentieth century evolution of various versions of Hnefatafl rules and board layouts correctly, they were driven more by attempts to remedy the problems caused by what turned out to be mistranslations of Linnaeus’ 1732 notes about the Tablut game than by any documentary history or archaeology.
Now that we have an accurate, twenty-first century translation of Linnaeus’ notes, in them we have, I think, both the only full, clear, set of Tafl rules with historical authenticity and the only board layout actually drawn as games were being played at the time.
We also now have Damian Walker’s (cyningstan.com) formula for calculating the number of pieces on different sized boards: p = 6w - 29, where p is the number of pieces and w is the width of the board in squares.
The Tablut board layout that Linnaeus drew is a simple closed serif cross. The logic of the hypothesis that that layout would have been used on all game board sizes appeals to me.
I’ve dabbled with Hnefatafl on and off for years - I bought one of the York Archaeological Trust’s 11 x 11 board sets in the 1980s. Now that I’m retired and have more time, I’ve acquired several board sizes from 9 x 9 to 19 x 19. I’m slowly experimenting with each size, using the modern translation of Linnaeus’ rules, Damian Walker’s formula and a simple closed serif cross layout for all of them.
I’m far from an experienced player (my only regular opponent is my iPad Hnefatafl App!), but so far that rules/pieces/layout combination seems to work for all board sizes.
Now that we have an accurate, twenty-first century translation of Linnaeus’ notes, in them we have, I think, both the only full, clear, set of Tafl rules with historical authenticity and the only board layout actually drawn as games were being played at the time.
We also now have Damian Walker’s (cyningstan.com) formula for calculating the number of pieces on different sized boards: p = 6w - 29, where p is the number of pieces and w is the width of the board in squares.
The Tablut board layout that Linnaeus drew is a simple closed serif cross. The logic of the hypothesis that that layout would have been used on all game board sizes appeals to me.
I’ve dabbled with Hnefatafl on and off for years - I bought one of the York Archaeological Trust’s 11 x 11 board sets in the 1980s. Now that I’m retired and have more time, I’ve acquired several board sizes from 9 x 9 to 19 x 19. I’m slowly experimenting with each size, using the modern translation of Linnaeus’ rules, Damian Walker’s formula and a simple closed serif cross layout for all of them.
I’m far from an experienced player (my only regular opponent is my iPad Hnefatafl App!), but so far that rules/pieces/layout combination seems to work for all board sizes.