Re: Internationally agreed 11x11 tournament rules - poll
Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:10 pm
Hello fellow players. The idea for this thread, as suggested by Aage on the game page forum, is to gather opinions and ultimately vote on what the international tournament rules should be for the 11x11 board. We can set up another for 9x9 to keep things simple. I think we should start by using this thread to air opinions and experiences regarding what makes the most balanced and functional rule set for experienced players. So if you are new to this site, PLEASE try out the variations yourself first. Playing two games is not enough! After twenty years of playing I am still being surprised by new strategies. Many opinions one reads online about hnefetafl rule reconstruction get bogged down in archeological source arguments. Those arguments are important, but in short, the existing sources are too vague to be sure about the rule details, so unless a glacier melts to reveal a viking rule book, we are stuck with playing the game in its many reconstructed variants and using experience and discussion to decide what seems to work best as an enthralling and complex strategy game. Aage's site has given us that possibility, and it is a goldmine of data. This thread is of course open to thoughts on the original sources, but as the experts haven't come to a solid conclusion our focus should be on quality of reconstructed gameplay.
One might fairly ask, why choose one rule set for tournaments if we can't know for sure? Simply because this game is likely to remain a curiosity as long as we can't agree on the rules, much as football matches often descended into chaos prior to the founding of the football association http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Footba ... on#History
I look forward to the day we can all sit around a table (no doubt virtual) and draft the official international rules. But before that we need to vote between the variations, and before that, lets have some focused debate. Pole now added! I have included only the basic rule sets from the gaming page. All rule sets assume that all pieces can move any number of squares available to them (not one step at a time), that the throne is passable by all pieces but only the king can stop on it, that the corners are hostile to all pieces, that the king can participate in capture both as anvil and hammer, and that the throne is hostile to the king (e.g. 3 pieces can capture a king next to the throne.) We assume the starting position is with black forming a diamond. All these details will need to be confirmed through a second pole once we have a clear favorite from the basic rule sets
One might fairly ask, why choose one rule set for tournaments if we can't know for sure? Simply because this game is likely to remain a curiosity as long as we can't agree on the rules, much as football matches often descended into chaos prior to the founding of the football association http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Footba ... on#History
I look forward to the day we can all sit around a table (no doubt virtual) and draft the official international rules. But before that we need to vote between the variations, and before that, lets have some focused debate. Pole now added! I have included only the basic rule sets from the gaming page. All rule sets assume that all pieces can move any number of squares available to them (not one step at a time), that the throne is passable by all pieces but only the king can stop on it, that the corners are hostile to all pieces, that the king can participate in capture both as anvil and hammer, and that the throne is hostile to the king (e.g. 3 pieces can capture a king next to the throne.) We assume the starting position is with black forming a diamond. All these details will need to be confirmed through a second pole once we have a clear favorite from the basic rule sets