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: 3
- 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.
Re: 13x13 Tafl
The Tablut set of rules is the best documented variant of the game. In 1855 a sea battle variant called Imperial Contest was produced and sold as a commercial product. I think the vikings played something like Tablut (the Tablut ruleset) on different board sizes. The initial setup was the cross setup and the king was captured from 2 sides, whites win if the king reaches one of the edges of the board. Our experience shows that a game between two experienced players is in favour of the blacks but I don't think players in the Vikings era were strong in playing tafl. If we look at the history of chess, we can find that the players from 15th to 18th century were as strong as some of the chess amateurs and hustlers that are playing chess in the parks. Even the top players of the 19th century were not as strong as nowadays IM (international masters). That's why I think the tafl players from the past were probably also not so strong. They didn't have developed game theory, they didn't have a game archive with thousands of games to learn from and they didn't have time to focus seriously on playing board games becuase of their hard lifetime full of battles and hard labour.
So, when tafl was played in the past, the game was probably very well-balanced. This is visible even today when we see a game between weak and inexperienced players. So, the initial setup and the board size were not as important back in the vikings time since the players were probably equally weak able to lose with both colors easily.
So, when tafl was played in the past, the game was probably very well-balanced. This is visible even today when we see a game between weak and inexperienced players. So, the initial setup and the board size were not as important back in the vikings time since the players were probably equally weak able to lose with both colors easily.