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Brandubh at Dublin(Ohio) Irish Festival

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 8:36 am
by Tuireann
Went to Dublin Irish Festival in Dublin, Ohio. Saw they were teaching Brandubh through a couple reenactment groups so when I arrived I got in touch with the teacher; Father Stephen Hayes. He is an avid archaeology/history fanatic so we got to talking about the origin of the game and it was very interesting. He was very knowledgeable when it came to the Irish and Latin used in various correspondence regarding the game. He was however unaware of the recent retranslations of the Linneaus diary and his rule set for Brandubh was a little different than what we play here in that it was lacking a few details and had a strong king. He played a throne that was not hostile and was blocked to all except the King including the ability to move through. The corners were not hostile in spite of being the objective. I did give him my copy of the Brandubh rules from my 'Brandubh by Cyningstan' set and told him about both of Damian's books. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my spare copies of his books in my rush this morning. He invited me to help teach and we had about a dozen people interested in learning.

I told him about Cyningstan's site and this site(sorry Aage my closest language to the Norse derived languages is Dutch so i suspect I butchered your name; Oh-guh).

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Father Hayes teaching Ludus and Brandubh and showing off some Lewis Chessman clones.

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Father Hayes a wee bit smug after beating me in his test game! It favored the defender I swear!!

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Spot the 'Brandbubh by Cyningstan'

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Had the opportunity to get my board signed by both headliners and even had an opportunity to teach them a bit about the game. McLeod from Seven Nations was more interested than Twigger from Gaelic Storm who was more busy since he had quite a long line when I got to him.

If you don't know why Americans would have a huge Irish Festival. We are big into our heritages so we love throwing these big to-dos about our cultures. The Dublin Irish Festival sees about 250k people on its 3 days. It is an opportune time to teach Brandubh and I am glad I had the chance to help teach the game.

Also I want to show off the board I commissioned by Jack Windsor. I don't see a lot of his stuff around but he makes Tafl Boards of all sorts and he could give Brokkr a run for his money.
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https://www.etsy.com/shop/IGNITEDArtsDe ... eader-name

Re: Brandubh at Dublin(Ohio) Irish Festival

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 9:33 am
by Hagbard
Tuireann wrote:Went to Dublin Irish Festival in Dublin, Ohio.
Thanks!!! A most interesting report.
Tuireann wrote:the teacher; Father Stephen Hayes. ... his rule set for Brandubh was a little different than what we play here in that it was lacking a few details and had a strong king. He played a throne that was not hostile and was blocked to all except the King including the ability to move through. The corners were not hostile in spite of being the objective.
I'd like to set this game of Brandubh up here for a test tournament.
When we transfer the Hist. Hnef. from Linné diary 9x9 board directly to the 7x7 board, just adding the corners, we find at the moment a game balance +1.43. To ascertain whether this balance can be bettered or not by small means, two more setups of pieces were tried and rejected. And right now the game is tried without a throne.

A problem with friendly corner squares has been that they can be blocked by just eight attackers (besides that the Linné diary forbidden square is hostile). But the 7x7 board only has in all eight attackers, so they might be too few to do such a blocking.
Tuireann wrote:Also I want to show off the board I commissioned by Jack Windsor. I don't see a lot of his stuff around but he makes Tafl Boards of all sorts and he could give Brokkr a run for his money.
Fine shop!

Re: Brandubh at Dublin(Ohio) Irish Festival

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 10:03 am
by Tuireann
The rules he posited were very interesting though I don't know how well they would work in serious play. In the students games White won almost every game(which quite frankly could be due to the way new players play) except where we helped to teach strategy with a bit more depth. I am curious how this would play out with more skilled players however as I am more of a edge escape player than anything corner escape.

Also, how the hell is your name pronounced, Aage :P???

Edit:
I also wanted to note that everyone who attended was offered the opportunity to keep the 'board'(a piece of paper) and their stones(fish aquarium ornaments) and all did take them.

Re: Brandubh at Dublin(Ohio) Irish Festival

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 11:08 am
by Hagbard
Tuireann wrote:Also, how the hell is your name pronounced, Aage :P???
The name does not exist in any other language. Pronounced as three vowels and no consonants.
Tuireann wrote:their stones(fish aquarium ornaments)
Good idea! Those look like fine board pieces.

Re: Brandubh at Dublin(Ohio) Irish Festival

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 12:04 pm
by Tuireann
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About as close as I can get leveraging my Dutch gutterals :P

Re: Brandubh at Dublin(Ohio) Irish Festival

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 12:57 pm
by Hagbard
Tuireann wrote:[About as close as I can get leveraging my Dutch gutterals :P
Very good! I'm sure not many Americans could've said this. The family name is correct, and the Dutch pronounciation perfect; I know Dutch from an exchange student job in Delft once, and you must have Dutch roots.

Re: Brandubh at Dublin(Ohio) Irish Festival

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2016 1:25 am
by Tuireann
Ik heb twee Nederlandse vrienden and zij me leerde een beetje Nederlands een jaar geleden dus ik spreek genoeg voor meest simpel dingetjes. :P

Re: Brandubh at Dublin(Ohio) Irish Festival

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2016 9:46 am
by Hagbard
Tuireann wrote:Ik heb twee Nederlandse vrienden and zij me leerde een beetje Nederlands een jaar geleden dus ik spreek genoeg voor meest simpel dingetjes. :P
I understood that. Netherlands is a strange place to a Dane, because the language is like some kind of Danish written and spoken in a very strange way. After a week there I could easily read their newspapers, TV subtexts, signs etc. A Dutch colleague told me that he'd been in Copenhagen with his Frisian wife (northern Netherlands), and she understood Danish without problems. The summer before, a Dutch exchange student stayed in our dormitory, and he too read the Danish newspapers.

Re: Brandubh at Dublin(Ohio) Irish Festival

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2016 8:07 pm
by Tuireann
Funny you should say that, one of my Dutch friends has family living in Denmark and he understands a lot of Danish and has no idea where he learned it. I believe Danish is also the only language with a direct translation of the Dutch word 'Gezellig'. 'Hyggeligt' I think.

Re: Brandubh at Dublin(Ohio) Irish Festival

Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 12:49 am
by Hagbard
Tuireann wrote:the Dutch word 'Gezellig'. 'Hyggeligt' I think.
Quite right.