NorseAmerica Hnefatafl 11x11

Tafl rules
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Hagbard
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NorseAmerica Hnefatafl 11x11

Post by Hagbard » Thu Jul 25, 2013 1:50 pm

Chuck Ward has kindly sent me a scan of the original Norse America rules. It's a booklet of 14 pages, labeled "Researched, written, designed, illustrated and privately published by NorseAmerica, copyright 2008 NorseAmerica LLC".

The booklet reviews the history of Hnefatafl and mentions The Saga of Fridthjof the Bold, Hevar, the Alea Evangelii English manuscript and the Linnaeus diary.

The NorseAmerica rules are:
11x11 board, wins in corner, king captured from 4 sides OR by stalemating the king and rendering the game un-winnable, the starting position of pieces are diamond, attackers move first, five forbidden squares only for the king (corners and throne), everybody can move through the throne, the forbidden corner squares are hostile to everybody, also the empty throne is hostile to everybody - however when the king is on the throne it's friendly to everybody (!), king is armed,
the king must be surrounded by attackers on all four sides, or by attackers on three sides and the game board border on the fourth (and thus not captured by two attackers plus corner plus game board border).
Six attackers can surround the king on the throne plus an extra square (the king is not captured by three attackers plus the throne on the fourth side).
"If game is stalemated and rendered un-winnable, then the black hunns (attackers) win."


NorseAmerica lists these variations:
Starting position can be cross form.

The king can win by reaching any edge square, or any edge square which is not a base camp.

The king can only move a limited number of spaces at a time such as 1, 2, 3 or 4 squares.

The king is unarmed.
The king is hammer only.
The king is anvil only.

The king captured from 2 sides.
The king captured from 2 sides on the throne but from 4 sides elsewhere.
If the king is captured from 2 sides and wins on any edge square, the king still wins if he's flanked as long as he can reach an edge square in his very next move.

The throne hostile to everybody, regardless of whether the king is on it or not.
The throne is just an ordinary square.
Only the king may move through the throne.
Noone may move through the throne, not even the king. In that case the king is captured by three attackers plus the throne on the fourth side.

The attacker base camps can be forbidden squares - attackers may move within the area before they leave but cannot reenter.

In case of eternal repetitions, each player must be forced to make a different move to undo the stalemate, or the side with the least advantage to win should concede the game to the other.

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