The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
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The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
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Re: The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
#2It's an interesting game, mostly because unlike most modern games it's massively asymmetrical. Goals, strategies and attitudes are very different for the two players, and despite the numerical lopsidedness in pieces it's much easier to win as the defender, and a slow cautious style is much more important for the attacker.
See Fetlar Hnefatafl for a modern codification of the (very vague) historical rules:
Re: The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
#3It's an interesting game, mostly because unlike most modern games it's massively asymmetrical. Goals, strategies and attitudes are very different for the two players, and despite the numerical lopsidedness in pieces it's much easier to win as the defender, and a slow cautious style is much more important for the attacker. See Fetlar Hnefatafl for a modern codification of the (very vague) historical rules: http://tafl…
Sounds a bit like Thud in which each player has to take a turn playing each side. See https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Thud.
Re: The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
#4How many modern games are two-player asymmetrical? I only know of Android: Netrunner.
I hope we can continue learning more concrete rules for the ancient version of this game. It would be nice to have its history understood like chess'.
Re: The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
#5It's an interesting game, mostly because unlike most modern games it's massively asymmetrical. Goals, strategies and attitudes are very different for the two players, and despite the numerical lopsidedness in pieces it's much easier to win as the defender, and a slow cautious style is much more important for the attacker. See Fetlar Hnefatafl for a modern codification of the (very vague) historical rules: http://tafl…
I actually wrote a toy app recently following the Fetlar rules as a React exercise:
Not sure how it renders across machines but it looks ok on my Mac.
Re: The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
#6It's an interesting game, mostly because unlike most modern games it's massively asymmetrical. Goals, strategies and attitudes are very different for the two players, and despite the numerical lopsidedness in pieces it's much easier to win as the defender, and a slow cautious style is much more important for the attacker. See Fetlar Hnefatafl for a modern codification of the (very vague) historical rules: http://tafl…
I've played it a few times with friends and I have to agree the defenders have an easier time (although it certainly feels more intimidating to play the defender). I think defenders heavily benefit from most people's familiarity with chess. It's very easy to distract someone with pieces they can capture, then sneak your king out the side.
Re: The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
#7How many modern games are two-player asymmetrical? I only know of Android: Netrunner. I hope we can continue learning more concrete rules for the ancient version of this game. It would be nice to have its history understood like chess'.
Steve Jackson Games first title was _Ogre_, a tactics game that pit an entire army against a single super unit.
Mr. Jack is another reasonably popular modern one.
The asymmetric tag on Board Game Geek is probably a good place to start. https://boardgamegeek.com/tag/asymmetric/page/1
Re: The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
#8It's an interesting game, mostly because unlike most modern games it's massively asymmetrical. Goals, strategies and attitudes are very different for the two players, and despite the numerical lopsidedness in pieces it's much easier to win as the defender, and a slow cautious style is much more important for the attacker. See Fetlar Hnefatafl for a modern codification of the (very vague) historical rules: http://tafl…
I actually wrote a toy app recently following the Fetlar rules as a React exercise: https://htafl.herokuapp.com/ Not sure how it renders across machines but it looks ok on my Mac.
Yeah, I did the same (VanillaJS) a couple of years back, and started thinking about implementing a computer opponent, but it's really not clear what the evaluation function should be.
Re: The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
#9It's an interesting game, mostly because unlike most modern games it's massively asymmetrical. Goals, strategies and attitudes are very different for the two players, and despite the numerical lopsidedness in pieces it's much easier to win as the defender, and a slow cautious style is much more important for the attacker. See Fetlar Hnefatafl for a modern codification of the (very vague) historical rules: http://tafl…
Sounds a bit like Thud in which each player has to take a turn playing each side. See https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Thud .
It does sound a bit like Thud, doesn't it? From your link:
Thud is a board game based on the earlier dwarfish game of Hnaflbaflsniflwhifltafl. It is played mainly by Dwarfs and Trolls... The game itself echos the game played by Vikings and Anglo-Saxons "Hnafletafle"- which literally means "Kings Table". Hnafletafle echos go beyond just the name. Like 'Thud' it is unusual in that it is an 'asymmetrical' game...
In that Thud is a parody of it.
Re: The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture
#10How many modern games are two-player asymmetrical? I only know of Android: Netrunner. I hope we can continue learning more concrete rules for the ancient version of this game. It would be nice to have its history understood like chess'.
Wargames come to mind, both in board game and miniatures/tabletop form. There are loads, but here's an example: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/62222/commands-colors-na...