Re: Sea Battle Tafl
Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2013 7:50 am
Hello!
Since I've just joined I thought it would be polite to bring something to the party. A couple of days ago I stumbled upon the rules to Imperial Contest. This is probably the first commercial tafl game; Jaques of London (of Staunton chess piece fame, and still going) must have found the rules from Linnaeus' 1732 diary, as translated by J. E. Smith in 1811, and turned them into a commercial game in about 1855. They had their own ideas of how to balance things.
The image scans I found are copyright (which I respect) and heavily watermarked (which I do not, as it has made difficult reading). But the text is long out of copyright, so I've transcribed it and put it on my tafl site [link not working], along with a diagram that I've redrawn from the scan.
Some other interesting things, though: as well as their attempts at balance, some of which are still used and some not, there are some press reviews (favourable, as these are their printed rules). They and the press recognised back in 1855 that the apparent imbalance lessens as the players become more experienced, a theory we've picked up again in the last decade or so. And be sure to read the amusing Spectator review which comments on the originality of the game.
[link not working]
Since I've just joined I thought it would be polite to bring something to the party. A couple of days ago I stumbled upon the rules to Imperial Contest. This is probably the first commercial tafl game; Jaques of London (of Staunton chess piece fame, and still going) must have found the rules from Linnaeus' 1732 diary, as translated by J. E. Smith in 1811, and turned them into a commercial game in about 1855. They had their own ideas of how to balance things.
The image scans I found are copyright (which I respect) and heavily watermarked (which I do not, as it has made difficult reading). But the text is long out of copyright, so I've transcribed it and put it on my tafl site [link not working], along with a diagram that I've redrawn from the scan.
Some other interesting things, though: as well as their attempts at balance, some of which are still used and some not, there are some press reviews (favourable, as these are their printed rules). They and the press recognised back in 1855 that the apparent imbalance lessens as the players become more experienced, a theory we've picked up again in the last decade or so. And be sure to read the amusing Spectator review which comments on the originality of the game.
[link not working]