Nuts

A number of years ago, a group of hnefatafl enthusiasts in Formby created a hnefatafl variant called "Nuts". The 'story' in Nuts is that eight red squirrels must get their acorn to the forest on the edge of the board, while 24 grey squirrels attempt to steal their acorn. That immediately makes it different from the traditional 2:1 ratio, but to make up for that, the red squirrels are protected on the 9-square centre of the board.

In making my own Nuts set, I wanted to stick largely to the original design, but make it a bit fancier, and add a bit more 'squirrel'. 

Judging from the only picture I managed to find of an original Nuts set, glass pebbles were used for the pieces. I used red pebbles for the red squirrels, and grey pebbles for the grey squirrels; three green pebbles on top of each other represent the acorn.

For the board, I took a piece of plywood, painted brown, and used glass mosaic tiles, left over from making board for Rebel Fury, for the squares. 

Here's the completed board; looks pretty neat, I think!

But .... it isn't yet very squirrel-y .... In order to add a squirrel dimension, I searched for small squirrel figurines, and found these, dirt cheap, on eBay. Four wee squirrels, one on each of the four corners of the board.

That's already a step up from the original cardboard (I assume) Nuts board, and with the glass pebble pieces it ends up looking like this:

And because they're cute, close-ups of the four squirrels ...

I'm really pleased with how my Nuts set came out; actually even better than I thought it would!

Surprise Attack!

Surprise Attack! is a commercial game dating back to 1976, and one which is clearly inspired by hnefatafl

The (cardboard) board has 11 x 11 squares, and also has several landscape features: a defenders' camp, a lake, and anti-tank obstacles.

The pieces are plastic squares, triangles and cylinders, representing infantry units, tank units, and air support or command units. The exact set-up for attackers and defenders is determined by the throw of a die.

The aim of the game is different for the two sides, as in traditional hnefatafl. The defenders win by getting two of their three command units to the forest at the edge of the board. The attackers win by capturing two of the defenders' three command units.

Surprise Attack! is hnefatafl-inspired as is obvious from the asymmetrical aims of the game, and the key to winning being the escape or capture of command units. At the same time, there are clear differences. First of all, both sides have (almost) equal numbers of pieces rather than the normal 'n + 1 vs 2n' numbers (the attackers can bring in air support during the game, giving them slightly more pieces than the defenders). Both sides have several different pieces, unlike traditional hnefatafl, and the throw of a die determines the exact configuration at the start of the game. And, finally, whereas in hnefatafl there is a single king piece, here we have three, and the capture or escape of two of these three determine the winner.

'Berserk' hnefatafl

Among the many archaeological finds of hnefatafl pieces are the Storhaug pieces. These are usually considered as belonging to two different, incomplete, sets.

However, it has been suggested that they might actually all belong to a single set. And if that was indeed the case, there were essentially four different types of pieces .....

This possibility of there having been more than the normal two types of pieces in the game inspired a modern hnefatafl variant, called 'berserk' hnefatafl. Four of the attackers are 'commanders' (which, like the king, can move by jumping over an enemy piece), and one of the defenders is a 'knight' (which can move as well as capture a piece by jumping over it). In addition, the 'berserk rule' states that when a piece captures an enemy piece, it can move again, as long as it makes another capture. The starting line-up of 'berserk' hnefatafl looks like this:

Clearly, I had to make a 'berserk' hnefatafl set for my collection. As to what material to use, it's pretty obvious I really like shells for creating chess sets: the very first chess set I ever made, a chess set I made for a friend more recently, and a Tamerlane chess set I made last year. From the trips I made to collect the shells for the last two of these sets, I still had a box full of mussel shells. So why not use these to make a set for berserk hnefatafl? I decided on using wooden hearts as bases, as their shape nicely fits the shape of the mussels.

One piddock serving as the king, twelve defenders and 24 attackers were quickly made, using some modelling clay to fix the mussels to their bases.

When thinking of what to use to make the board, I stumbled across an Etsy site selling adhesive bathroom tile 'stickers', and I felt the colours would go well with the colours of the mussels.

Defenders were painted white, with the sole knight painted silver ...

... and attackers were painted red, with the four commanders painted gold.

I deliberately did not paint the insides of the mussels, for two reasons. One reason is that the colours of the insides of the mussels match the bathroom tile stickers. And, also, I felt leaving the insides unpainted gives them a bit more depth.

On to making the board! Square of plywood, painted white, and groups of four mini-tiles each serving as the squares.

Works pretty well, I think!

Putting the pieces on the board results in my home-made set for berserk hnefatafl.

I'm glad I decided not to paint the insides of the mussels. It really gives them a bit more character.

What do you think of my 'berserk' hnefatafl set?

The Game Ned Kelly

The basic concept of hnefatafl, a small group trying to escape from the clutches of a larger group, lends itself well to the game being marketed as an 'escape story'; see for instance Magpie and Papillon's Escape. This Australian commercial game centres around the outlaw Ned Kelly, being helped by his gang members in trying to escape from the police at the Siege of Glentowan.

Unlike any other commercial hnefatafl sets I have, The 'Game Ned Kelly' comes in a cardboard tube, study enough to survive the journey from Latvia, where I finally found my cope of the game for a reasonable price (prior to that, I had seen several eBay listings originating from Australia, but the shipping costs were just prohibitive, and customs charges would have come on top of that).

The 11 x 11 board is made of cloth, not unlike the one that came with my very first hnefatafl set, but not as elaborately decorated.

The pieces are made of plastic; 12 bronze-coloured pieces around a bronze-coloured Ned/king, all 'iron-clad', against 24 blue-coloured pieces in the shape of 'police helmets'.

The pieces are quite simple, but they certainly do the job.

The rules for 'The Game Ned Kelly' are pretty much those for traditional hnefatafl (same movement of the pieces, same method of capturing, Ned/king escaping in the 'shamrock' corners), but there is one important difference: when capturing a piece, the capturing side can choose to either remove the captured piece from the board, or leave it on the board and reintroduce one of their own previously-captured pieces on one of the relevant starting squares. I'm not aware of any other game derived from hnefatafl to have this particular rule, which is reminiscent of the drop rule in Shogi (Japanese chess).

Hnefatafl World Championship 2020

You may well be familiar with the fact that chess has its regular world championships, with Magnus Carlsen the reigning men's world champion, and Ju Wenjun the reigning women's world champion.

Hnefatafl also has a regular world championship. Unlike for chess, the hnefatafl tournament is organised as an on-line tournament. 

The 2020 hnefatafl world championship started in September 2020 and was completed last month. Actually, there were two tournaments running side-by-side: 'historical hnefatafl', on a 9x9 board, and according to tablut rules, and 'modern hnefatafl, on a 11x11 board, and according to Copenhagen rules. 

The tournament ran over three different rounds, with the best players in each round continuing to the next round. A total of 16 players registered for the 9x9 tournament, and 28 players for the 11x11 tournament. Quite a few players participated in both tournaments. 

Mario Aluizo was victorious in both tournaments, and unbeaten in the final rounds of both. He can therefore rightly be called the undisputed 2020 Hnefatafl World Champion. 

Rules, scores, the moves of all games, and much more can be found here. Congratulations to Mario!

Tawlbwrdd, with a twist

Only a handful of medieval manuscripts give us information on 'tawlbwrdd', but it is very clear from those manuscripts that tawlbwrdd was a Welsh version of hnefatafl, played on either a 9 x 9 or an 11 x 11 board. Tawlbwrdd as marketed under the title 'The Celtic Game' is a very basic 11 x 11 version. To fit in the small box, the board comes as four 'jigsaw' cardboard pieces which interlock to create the full board. The pieces are simply plastic (black and red) discs, with a black cube representing the king.

There is some controversy regarding whether or not tawlbwrdd was played with dice. According to some, the word 'tawlbwrdd' translates as 'throw-board', suggesting the use of dice. This would make tawlbwrdd unique among hnefatafl variants. However, none of the manuscripts mentioning tawlbwrdd specifically talk about dice, or suggest they played a role in the game.

Nevertheless, 'The Celtic Game' is marketed as a game played with dice. Or rather, with a die, as one is included.

And, in case you're wondering, the die determines how many squares a piece can move every time. Remember, this is not based on any historical evidence ....

Replica hnefatafl set

There are quite a few archaeological finds of glass hnefatafl pieces, often in Viking graves, and I personally feel the 'swirly' design is particularly nice.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to add a genuine old hnefatafl set to my collection? Well, no chance of me ever finding one in my garden, which leaves the next best thing: a replica set. I came across this very nice looking replica set, and ordered one.

The board is simple in design (as it would have been in Viking times, judging from the few archaeological finds of hnefatafl boards), and made using a very nice piece of wood.

The glass pieces are the 'swirly' type as shown in the first picture in this post. They are hand-made, so they're all slightly different (again, as they would have been in Viking times). The pieces are nearly spherical (with flattened bases), with the king being taller.

The set looks really nice together!

While looking for replica glass hnefatafl sets, I stumbled across a replica of a king from the Birka grave, and felt that king would also go well with the replica set.

So here's the same set, but with the original king replaced by the 'Birka king'.

Original king obviously matches better with the other pieces, being in the same style and colours. Birka king stands out more. What's your favourite?

By the way, is it just me, or does the Birka king have a hint of Dalek?