Greetings all! This post is about draws in fetlar hnefatafl. It repeats some things already discussed - apologies for that. Just summarizing my thoughts on the subject. Thanks to Chuck Ward for setting me off again.
Basically, white can in fact create a draw position in 2 moves, and there seems little black can do about it. This is what Adam calls "The Monstrosity".
mmonstrsity.JPG
How to get a draw fort in 2 moves. Black can pick off h6 and f8 but it makes no difference. White must only move the e6 piece after this - moving the king would expose g6 and f7 to capture.
But can black prevent the formation of this position, by blocking the second move?
e.g 1: h1 - h3, e5 - e4. 2: d1 - d5? This can be captured, but it disrupts the position a little. Possible continuation: 2: ...e4 - d4x. 3: e1 - e4?
I had a whole series of games like this with Adam, to test out the idea, and I think the jury?s still out. We accidentally invented a new game in the process - you could call it "draw hnefatafl" - whoever plays white has to go for a draw at the earliest possible opportunity. If white gets a draw, white wins. Sometimes white got a draw, sometimes not. Sometimes black lost so many men trying to stop the draw fort that white could easily win properly, that is, by getting the king to the corner. Anyway, even though the draw fort was sometimes stopped, neither of us could confidently assert that it could always be stopped - too many variables in the moves and responses. However, it's possible that these early draws can be stopped by black offensive countermeasures.
Another way is using points. In a tournament you can award zero points for a draw, zero for a defeat and one point for a win, so a player could not win a tournament by always playing for draws as white, against another player who risked losing in order to get an occasional win. A player with six draws would have zero points, but a player with 1 win and 5 defeats would have 1 point. A draw would still be worth fighting for though, because at least you'd be depriving the other player of a point too. I think this is an excellent idea for tournaments. However, outside of a tournament situation, (e.g. when playing a single game) it's no help.
Another possible solution is to ban centre forts, while still allowing edge forts. Then you preserve the kind of game which flips from one mode (attacking the corners) to another mode (forming a draw-fort) and back, which I think adds a fascinating dimension to the game, but you would avoid the possibility of an early centre-fort draw such as the "monstrosity".
I don't know practically how this would work, after all, white may form a centre fort "accidentally" while retreating towards the centre - would black then claim an instant win, or demand that white makes an alternative move? I see problems there. Perhaps the rules would have to be amended to say that black wins after 2 move repetitions if during those repetitions the white king is on the throne square, or moving to and from the throne square. There's probably a more logical way of putting it, but it sounds rather inelegant.
It's not a step I would take gladly, because I have had several good games featuring battles in the centre, where one player is trying to create a centre fort and the other is trying to stop it. But maybe it is a necessary adjustment, especially if we begin to find that early draws happen a lot, though actually at the moment they're pretty rare. I would say most players at some stage discover this possibility of an early draw, try it out, and quickly realise it spoils the game, so they stop doing it. The fetlar rules give white a fair chance of winning (and black too of course), but I suppose there's the chance that a weak player who knows he is up against a stronger player might be tempted to score a draw rather than play to win.
So, in conclusion, I'm not even sure if this is a real problem, or an imaginary one. (Sorry for wasting your time!) If it is real, I think there are solutions to it. I should also have mentioned Berserk Hnefatafl, which addresses the same problem in a brilliantly creative way. Another solution is to play Rachunek Tafl, or any of the 9x9 variants where draw forts don't occur. That will suit some players, but not others. I'd love to know what the Vikings did about this (assuming their rules were anything like ours...) I suspect a good old-fashioned axe in the head might have sorted it out.