Drakkar set

I'd seen this 'Drakkar' hnefatafl set pop up on eBay several times, but always shied away from clicking the 'buy-it-now' button, because they all appeared to be located in Russia, and who knows where your money then goes and whether you'll ever see what you ordered .... But then, it wasn't very expensive, so the worst that could happen is me losing the money. So I bought a set in the end, and, even though it took a long time to arrive, it did eventually!

The set itself is made from wood, and a model of a Viking longboat serves both as a place to store the pieces, as well as for a board for another Nordic game, Daldos.

Of course, my interest was in the hnefatafl aspect of the set, and a cardboard board allows playing of a 9 x 9 version of the game.

The pieces are pretty rough and simple, but smell quite nice, of burnt wood!

Unique addition to the collection, this Drakkar set!

'Tyr' hnefatafl

 'Tyr' hnefatafl is a modern hnefatafl variant, inspired by some ambiguities in the 11th century manuscript portraying Alea Evangelii. Both sides have a extra piece type called a 'commander', and in addition, a piece type called 'vanguard', can switch sides. All this makes for faster and more exciting game, especially on larger boards. 

Clearly, I wanted to add a 'tyr' hnefatafl set to my collection, and opted for the 17 x 17 version, simply because that size isn't yet part of any set in the collection. Plywood and self-adhesive 'tiled' plastic were to be the main ingredients of the board, whereas the pieces are those from two identical cheap chess sets.

Step one was to cut the self-adhesive plastic to size (17 x 17 'tiles') and add finishing strips to the edges.

Then, remove the excess plywood, and sand down the edges.

Turn the board around to add finishing strips to the underside as well.

Final step in creating the board is to add multiple layers of mahogany wood stain.

Board done! So all remains doing now is to put the pieces on the board in their starting position. Obviously, a white king is used for the white king, and pawns for the soldiers on both sides.

Knights are used for white 'commanders' ...

... whereas rooks are used for black 'commanders'. Finally, bishops are used for 'vanguards'.

I give you a set for 'tyr' hnefatafl!

heXentafl

People have repeatedly changed the squares in chess to hexagons, as this changes the moves of the pieces in interesting ways. Guess it's no surprise that someone has also done this with hnefatafl! Say hello to heXentafl, designed and marketed by NXSgame.com.

The board is made of a tough sort of plastic, featuring hexagonal 'squares'.

The pieces are 3D-printed; a king plus three defenders pitted against six attackers. Note that the game retains the 'n + 1 vs 2n' ratio of pieces.

Even though the moves of the pieces are still like those of a rook in chess, i.e. in straight lines, due to the hexagons, each piece now has three directions of movement rather than two ...

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.

'Trondheim' hnefatafl

In several of the old sagas, pieces for playing hnefatafl, fidchell or gwyddbwyll are said to be gold and silver. Given that, I was keen to create a sparkling gold and silver set myself. At the same time, I like to create sets which are somehow a bit different from other created sets. Looking for a different version of hnefatafl I remembered part of a hnefatafl board found at Trondheim in Norway:

Besides the central square, several other squares, in a radially symmetrical pattern, are highlighted by a cross. What the function of these additional crossed squares is is anything but clear. They could simply have been decorative, playing no role in the game. They could have indicated the edges of a smaller board, allowing players to use the same board for playing 11 x 11, 9 x 9 and 7 x 7 versions of hnefatafl. Or they could indicate 'safe squares' for the king. I opted for the latter hypothesis for my 'Trondheim' set.

I wanted metal pieces, and decided on using screws and nail on metal washers, painted gold (for the attackers) and silver (for the king and his defenders).

As to the board, I wanted something to really set off the gold and silver pieces, make it sparkle as much as possible, so I thought of using a mirror. The gold and silver pieces reflecting in the mirror could make the set quite spectacular. And to increase this 'mirror effect', I ordered small mirror tiles to use for the squares themselves, with gold mirror tiles for the crossed squares of the Trondheim board.

So that's the board done!

I really like how the mirror tiles appear to be almost floating on the mirror.

How does it look with the pieces? Judge for yourself. I took one set of pictures in the garden ...

... and one set of pictures in the dining room.

I feel it came out even better than I envisioned at the start, and I feel this is by far the best hnefatafl set I made myself.