Quite recently, I blogged about a self-made hnefatafl game, which I called Ferengitafl. The starting array of that game was based on a commercial hnefatafl game, marketed by Shannon Board Games. At that moment in time, I only knew about this 'Shannon' hnefatafl from a picture and brief description on the internet. But lo and behold, very soon after publishing the blog post, a listing of the actual game appeared on eBay! Needless to say ...
The board in the wee box is the typical fold-up cardboard board, and the pieces are simple plastic draught stones, with what looks like a chess pawn for the king.
Note that although the attackers outnumber the defenders by the usual 2:1 ratio, the actual number of pieces on both sides is unusual: 12 vs 6 (as opposed to the more normal 8 vs 4, or 16 vs 8). Not sure what the rationale for this is, other than make the game a bit different from standard hnefatafl. Also, note that I tweaked the starting array in my
Ferengitafl game a bit from that of the Shannon Games version.
In terms of rules, there is nothing out of the ordinary: all pieces move like rooks in chess, capture is by custodianship, and the king escapes in the corners.
