Hnefatafl app

If you want to learn how to play chess, there is a vast amount of books available on chess tactics and strategies, openings, end games, etc. In contrast, I am aware of just one book solely dedicated to learning how to play hnefatafl: Jonathon George's "A Kingly Pattern".

Reading about hnefatafl tactics and strategy is one thing, but the best way to learn to play the game is obviously to try and put the theory into practice and play. For this reason, I surfed the web for hnefatafl-playing software, and came across this app:

The app is able to play lots of different variants, historical as well as modern, including hnefatafl, tablut, brandubh, tawlbwrdd, alea evangelii, berserk hnefatafl, tyr hnefatafl, and even magpie. Hnefatafl with the modern Copenhagen and Fetlar rules is also included. For this reason, I picked this particular app over others. The reviews suggest it doesn't have the strongest AI, but that's fine for me for now. I may in time become too strong a player for the AI, but I'll cross that bridge if and when I get there!

Catch the King

Catch the King is a commercial hnefatafl game, released by Studio Twin Games in 2020. 

The board in the box is a cardboard 9 x 9 board.

And superficially, the game appears identical to tablut; same size, same number of pieces on both sides, same initial set-up.

But, when you look closer, you notice that there are differences among the two armies. The 16 orange attackers come in three versions: twelve vikings, two jarls and two godis. Whereas the vikings move as normal hnefatafl pieces (i.e. any number of squares orthogonally), the godis can also move diagonally, and the jarls limit the movement of a piece on an adjacent square to one square only.

The defenders also come in more than one version (besides the king, of course). Half of the eight defenders are bowmen, which can capture like a knight in chess.

A further addition to the game are the 'forest' pieces, which each player has one of, and which can be placed on the board at the start of the game to block certain lines of movement and attack. 

Of course, the game can be played as traditional tablut, without the forest pieces, and ignoring the differences among the pieces.