Modern canonical Tafl variants

[ypaul]

Hi! I’m started digging around for Tafl resources recently and I’ve been incredibly amazed at how much modern history there is with regards to the development of this game in the last two decades or so—from the rediscovery, the innovation and all the play testing that has been done.

I’ve been thinking of implementing Tafl games on another free correspondence game platform, and I wanted to introduce all the important competitive variants that this community has discovered. It won't be in competition to this site of course, since I intend to only bring the stable variants there for the wider abstract strategy games players to enjoy, while I'm sure that this community will continue to experiment, innovate, and push the boundaries of this genre of games. I will of course point to this site for the rules, and perhaps there may be new people that could be interested in joining the tournaments here as well!

What I need is a good "default" variant (it's hard to change this later, so I have to make sure that it is completely stable), and a good sample of the various variants.

I'm currently leaning on having Historical Hnefatafl 9x9 (Saami Tablut-w) as the default because it seems to be the more elegant and balanced version and it's been used in the 2022 and 2023 WTF tournaments. I understand that Copenhagen has been the dominant variant for a long time, but it's difficult for beginners and the trend seems to be that more people are liking the historical variants recently. Let me know if you feel otherwise, but I think that using Saami Tablut-w would be better in the long term.

As for the variants, these are the ones that I'm thinking of supporting:

• Historical Hnefatafl 11x11 (Welsh Tawlbwrdd-w)
• Historical Tawlbwrdd Lewis cross-w 11x11
• Sea battle-2526 9x9 -> Should we go with the w version?
• Sea battle tafl 11x11 [Sea battle T cross 11x11 (Dardell setup)] -> Should we go with the w version?
• Copenhagen Hnefatafl 11x11
• Berserk Hnefatafl 11x11
• Tyr 15x15
• Tyr 11x11
• Magpie 7x7 [cross]

I'm also thinking if I should include some 7x7 variants.

I would appreciate some opinions on the choice of the default variant and the selection of variants. Thanks!

[Draganov]

In my opinion it is good to start supporting no more than 3 maximum 5 variants in the beginning. At first, we need to teach new playes how to play tafl and some well-known, well-balanced and easy to learn variants should work best.
I think there are three board sizes which are good (7x7, 9x9 and 11x11). These are also the most prefered board sizes by the notable players. Choose one main variant for each of these boards.
My suggestion for the main variants will be:
7x7 => Historical Hnefatafl 7x7 (Irish Brandubh 2)
9x9 => Historical Hnefatafl 9x9 (Saami Tablut-w)
11x11 => Historical Hnefatafl 11x11 (Welsh Tawlbwrdd-w)
In my opinion Tawlbwrdd Lewis cross-w 11x11 is more dynamic, more interesting and better variant than Historical Hnefatafl 11x11 (Welsh Tawlbwrdd-w) but the former is better-known and much more popular.

For strong king variants I would suggest Copenhagen Hnefatafl 11x11 and Berserk Hnefatafl 11x11.
Sea Battles are not popular at all. They are some sort of niche variants. If you ask if the whites should start in Sea battle-2526 9x9, then my answer is 'yes'. The same is with Sea battle T cross 11x11. Always make whites start first in Sea Battle games.

As a default variant I would recommend to see what the players will play most. Then, you can decide the default variant.

[ypaul]

Wow I really appreciate this response. Thank you!

In my opinion it is good to start supporting no more than 3 maximum 5 variants in the beginning. At first, we need to teach new playes how to play tafl and some well-known, well-balanced and easy to learn variants should work best.

I agree that this would be best for the game in the long run, but this requires very careful planning and execution. It worked extremely well with this site because there is a fervent Tafl community here, but it may be a bit harder to get the commitment of players on a generic platform, especially since the time controls there is also a lot looser, so I'm not that hopeful about controlling this temporal element. There is, however, a very casual tournament system there (single round robins), so hopefully it would be sufficient to start tournaments one-at-a-time and give focus to variants in that way.

7x7 => Historical Hnefatafl 7x7 (Irish Brandubh 2)

This comes as a surprise! According to the statistics, it seems to be the least balanced (although still relatively balanced) 7x7 variant currently on the site, with Brandubh 7x7 (Walker) being the most balanced, and Historical Hnefatafl 7x7 (Scottish Ard Ri) Ard Ri-39 throneless 7x7 next. Is there any reason why the Irish Brandubh 2 version should be preferred? Is it because it's the one that happens to be in the same family of the rest of the historical variants?

For strong king variants I would suggest Copenhagen Hnefatafl 11x11 and Berserk Hnefatafl 11x11.

That's great. I was originally thinking of having Old Hnefatafl because it seemed like it's a decent solution to the tendency of players playing for a draw in Fetlar, but then I read that strong players find that the game is very imbalanced in favour of the attackers, and my understanding is that it basically just converts what would usually be a draw in Fetlar to a win for the attackers, which makes Old Hnefatafl not a very great solution after all.

Sea Battles are not popular at all. They are some sort of niche variants. If you ask if the whites should start in Sea battle-2526 9x9, then my answer is 'yes'. The same is with Sea battle T cross 11x11. Always make whites start first in Sea Battle games.

I didn't know! I most definitely take note that white should start. The person on the server that was very keen on seeing Tafl games implemented was a fan of the BrainKing implementation, so I think he would be looking forward to the sea battle games the most actually.

As a default variant I would recommend to see what the players will play most. Then, you can decide the default variant.

Sadly, the way the framework works is that the default variant is the variant that is unnamed. This means that other variants can be added and removed over time, but the default will remain the default unnamed variant forever, which is why I wanted one that will most likely continue to be respected over time. I don't really like how the framework is like this, but for now, it's what I have to work with.

[Draganov]

Well, regarding Historical Hnefatafl 7x7 (Irish Brandubh 2) I think that all of the players who regularly play on 7x7 board will agree that this variant is the most interesting, deep and well-balanced. Walker and Scottish Ard-Ri are not so well-tested and from my personal experience they are more strategically limited. They are also niche variants and there is no a single player who play them often.

Old Hnefatafl is a terrible variant because it allows the king to be captured on the edge. So, the blacks are too strong in this variant.

As a default variant, I think you should go with Historical Hnefatafl 9x9 (Saami Tablut-w). It is very popular, very well historically documented and has a deep strategy.

[ypaul]

Wonderful. I'll definitely look into Irish Brandubh 2 then.

In the meantime, I've written a short summary of my research and findings from various discussions and materials on this site and Damian Walker's Cyningstan Tafl. There's been so much history, and this is my attempt at compiling it all into one place. I would appreciate it if you or anyone here could look through it and maybe give some feedback if you have some time!

https://abstractplay.com/wiki/doku.php?id=hnefatafl

[ypaul]

Just as a quick update, the ten variants I mentioned are now live on the Abstract Play platform. Thanks for all the research and testing that you guys have put into this! I hope more people will discover this game!