Viking Chess!
- Thread starter sandbender
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Interesting, thanks, my favourite board game was the ancient Nine Men's Morris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Men's_Morris
or you can play Fox and Hounds on an ordinary chess board, another ancient game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Men's_Morris
or you can play Fox and Hounds on an ordinary chess board, another ancient game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_games
Somewhere I have a set of this. I've played it, and as it says in the article, it is quite easy for white to win in a novice game, which can be offputting. I will have to dig it out again. Good game to play.
Funny you should post this,as I saw a set for sale a couple of days ago on etsy.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/93192440/hnefatafl-viking-board-game
Interesting article. It's a good game too.
The exact rules of the original game are not really known. Reconstructions rely upon a mixture of differing boards, differing sets of pieces and surviving games of similar structure.
The game most commonly played, where the King ( Konungr ) has to be surrounded by four enemy hunns to be taken (Unless he is trapped against the board edges.) but can be part of a pair that takes an attacking hunn, does lead to a slight inbalance favouring the Konungr's men. ( We call that "Cnut Rules".)
We play another version which we refer to as "Æthelred Rules" where the king still has to be surrounded by four but is not counted as a taking piece. This produces a more balanced game usually although we sometimes give that balance away in favour of a novice player.
The exact rules of the original game are not really known. Reconstructions rely upon a mixture of differing boards, differing sets of pieces and surviving games of similar structure.
The game most commonly played, where the King ( Konungr ) has to be surrounded by four enemy hunns to be taken (Unless he is trapped against the board edges.) but can be part of a pair that takes an attacking hunn, does lead to a slight inbalance favouring the Konungr's men. ( We call that "Cnut Rules".)
We play another version which we refer to as "Æthelred Rules" where the king still has to be surrounded by four but is not counted as a taking piece. This produces a more balanced game usually although we sometimes give that balance away in favour of a novice player.
The youngest son particularly loves the game, Since it was cheap in a charity shop I got him a set that comes with a cloth board but before that we made a board from a couple of off cuts of stone the builders left after doing the new fireplace in the parlour.
We just used a ruller and scraped the lines in. After a while we got bored so I put a old bitt into the electric pencil and made the lines deeper with that!
I keep threatening to carve pieces for it but two colours of stone do the job. They picked up the white stones on some island near Glasgow and the darkest pebbles we could find but when we were in Dumfries they dragged me into a shop selling minerals and there was a fill a bag for a pound bucket of stones so they got the purple and black ones.
They play intermittently, get mildly obsessed for a few hours then not play for a few months. Once the back yard is done ill dig the boards into the the grass near the fire pit that's planned.
I'm hopeless, all three kids beat me no matter the rules, number of pieces, which side I'm playing.
ATB
Tom
We just used a ruller and scraped the lines in. After a while we got bored so I put a old bitt into the electric pencil and made the lines deeper with that!
I keep threatening to carve pieces for it but two colours of stone do the job. They picked up the white stones on some island near Glasgow and the darkest pebbles we could find but when we were in Dumfries they dragged me into a shop selling minerals and there was a fill a bag for a pound bucket of stones so they got the purple and black ones.
They play intermittently, get mildly obsessed for a few hours then not play for a few months. Once the back yard is done ill dig the boards into the the grass near the fire pit that's planned.
I'm hopeless, all three kids beat me no matter the rules, number of pieces, which side I'm playing.
ATB
Tom
Last edited:
Dreadhead
Bushcrafter through and through
quite enjoy playing that, when you can find an opponent who wont give up! There was a great exhibition on in Aberdeen when I was still living up there where they had the Lewis chessmen and a load of Hnefatafl boards to play
Interesting.
This has been on my to-do list for a while now. I've always been a fan of chess and heard of this game a few 2 or 3 years ago. May have to jump in and make one up.
Hey Wayland, any chance you could spell those out phonetically please?
Also anyone have any links to the general rules of the game?
thanks,
Ste
This has been on my to-do list for a while now. I've always been a fan of chess and heard of this game a few 2 or 3 years ago. May have to jump in and make one up.
Hey Wayland, any chance you could spell those out phonetically please?
Also anyone have any links to the general rules of the game?
thanks,
Ste
Thanks for the link. I have large enough pieces of slate to use for boards in tombear's style.
The header closeup photo in the WarisBoring website looks like a magnificent excuse to do some carving.
Mahogany and birch, I should think. I'm incompetent at fine detail carving but some ideas are fermenting.
The header closeup photo in the WarisBoring website looks like a magnificent excuse to do some carving.
Mahogany and birch, I should think. I'm incompetent at fine detail carving but some ideas are fermenting.
It's a great game though sadly I've very few folk to play it with. Years ago I got a great one with a fabric board and the pieces go in a little leather bag which is great for travelling and when off in the woods. I also got given "THUD" board game which is based heavily on it.
The game can be quite deceptive in that it seems easy, then someone comes up with a seemingly unbeatable strategy and you play for ages 'till the other figures out how to beat it. A mate and I used to loose days when we were studying at Forestry School playing; we should've been studying but hey it was good for the brain.
Cheers for posting up Sandbender, I wish more folk played as it's really a cracking game.
The game can be quite deceptive in that it seems easy, then someone comes up with a seemingly unbeatable strategy and you play for ages 'till the other figures out how to beat it. A mate and I used to loose days when we were studying at Forestry School playing; we should've been studying but hey it was good for the brain.
Cheers for posting up Sandbender, I wish more folk played as it's really a cracking game.
Just found a really good site about this game that seems to have all the information you could ever want.
Have fun.
Have fun.
Very nice indeed Gary 
How big is it, about 14" across?
How big is it, about 14" across?
Just a little teaser for my latest project.
A long way from finished yet.
Very nice indeed Gary
How big is it, about 14" across?
Just under 16" square Steve.
I picked up the pieces from Tillerman Beads yesterday so here is another shot just to show you the set.
The set is really beautiful, each piece slightly different as hand made things should be. A real work of craftsmanship. My thanks go to Mike for fitting it into his work schedule so that I could have it in time for Battle Abbey.
There is still plenty of work to do on the board. This is just the rough line work, but you can see a bit better how it should when it is finished now.
I commissioned a few spare pieces so that I would have enough to play Tabula as well. More on that later.
The set is really beautiful, each piece slightly different as hand made things should be. A real work of craftsmanship. My thanks go to Mike for fitting it into his work schedule so that I could have it in time for Battle Abbey.
There is still plenty of work to do on the board. This is just the rough line work, but you can see a bit better how it should when it is finished now.
I commissioned a few spare pieces so that I would have enough to play Tabula as well. More on that later.
