Evaluation of Skalk Hnefatafl edge 9x9 test tournament December - January 2013.
Eight players did the tournament without timeouts and played with each other 56 games, the results being
white (defenders) 31 wins, black (attackers) 25 wins.
So, Skalk Hnefatafl edge 9x9 is well balanced and can be rated.
conanlibrarian wrote:Since Scandinavian Museums Edge is the variant closest to known historical variants
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With closest I meant in the general sense of two sided king capture, and escape to edge. Although there is no historical support for either four-sided capture, corner escape, or weaponless king, it is a fact that the two-sided king capture/edge escape combination has seen the least amount of play in modern times.
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So you are right, to say that there is no historical support for corner escape is too strong a claim. I should rather have said that historically attested rules and description give no support to corner escape.
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What about "Scandinavian Museum 9x9 Edge", or Cartier Tablut? Very little experience, but perhaps worth giving it another chance, given the tournament experience? The smaller board should give white a better chance compared to "Scandinavian Museum 11x11 Edge".
It was indeed a good idea, conanlibrarian, to give the Scandinavian Museum Edge 9x9 (now called Skalk Hnefatafl edge 9x9) another chance. The thorough test tournament approved the balance.
This result applies also to the "Cartier" variant, which differs only in that the throne is non-reenterable and non-passable, affecting the balance very little.
In 2011 Nicolas Cartier, France, took a critical look at the paper on Tablut by John C. Ashton, and Cartier arrived at a somewhat different conclusion: a Tablut rules set which is really Skalk Hnefatafl edge 9x9 with a non-reenterable and non-passable throne.
In November 2011 Nicolas Cartier sent me these emails together with his article:
Hello
I am Nicolas Cartier, I am french!
I read the work of John Ashton about the tablut's rules. His article was very interesting and your website too. I play the games on your site and the Ashton's tablut is well-balanced
but I do not agree with John Ashton's interpretation of embroidered squares.
I think that the muscovites squares are not citadels.
I send you my rules of tablut in French. Sorry, my knowledge of english and danish is not good.
Nicolas
Hello
My article was not published in a magazine and you can't find it on a website.
My rules were made from texts (Linneaus or Robert Ap Ifan) or archaeological finds.
I never test my rules in a real game. I send you this article because I want to know if my rules are well balanced.
I need your help and your opinion.
You have permission to use this article on your website.
Nicolas Cartier
Nicolas Cartier's article on Tablut:
https://aagenielsen.dk/Cartier-IterLapponicum.pdf
Nicolas Cartier's Tablut rules translated into English:
https://aagenielsen.dk/TablutrulesbyCartier.pdf
So, the test tournament came out well for the Cartier interpretation!
Test tournament:
https://aagenielsen.dk/turnering2012_tablut.php