Swords and Shields

Swords and Shields is a commercial version of hnefatafl, dating back to 1970. I'd been keeping my eye in eBay for quite a while, until I could pull the trigger on one in pretty good shape, given its age of half a century!

The board is the usual fold-up board made of cardboard, and depicts a 9 x 9 hnefatafl playing area. The rules are standard for hnefatafl.

The pieces are made of hard plastic: black swords for the attackers and bronze shields for the king and defenders. 

I'm glad to have been able to add Swords and Shields to the collection!

Zombies Attack

While surfing the web, looking for information on hnefatafl variants, I stumbled across an Etsy site which offered for sale a game called 'Zombies Attack'. The story of the game was that zombies attack a high school with children, and the children need to find a way to escape. The Etsy site didn't give the full rules of the game, but it was clear to me the game was loosely based on hnefatafl. So, obviously, I had to either get a copy of the game, or make a version myself. Before I had made up my mind one way or another, the Etsy listing disappeared, but fortunately, I had saved the board layout, and what little was given in terms of the rules of the game: 

Why do I, in the absence of the full rules of the game, consider 'Zombies Attack' a hnefatafl variant? First of all, there is the general layout of the game, with a larger force on the outside trying to capture a smaller force on the inside. And secondly, the asymmetry in both sides having different aims. My assumption, by the way, is that the red squares are escape squares for the children.

Making a version of the game myself meant coming up with ideas for the pieces and the board. As to the pieces, I thought one day that using minion figurines would give the game a really quirky feel. I ordered several sets of minions as well as cheap plastic discs, in different colours, on which I would place them.

Twelve minions would be the school children, on blue or yellow discs (it wasn't clear on the Etsy site what the significance of blue vs yellow squares on the board was).

Twenty-eight minions, on green discs and with their overalls painted black, were to be the zombies.

And now to the board .... I couldn't really come up with an idea for a board that would fit the quirky minions, until one day I thought "bubblewrap"! Board made from bubblewrap, with more coloured discs for the 'squares' would fit very nicely!

So then it was a matter of measuring out the board and gluing the discs in place.

And then, once the board was done, place the minions on it.

Quirky or what?

5-in-1 set

Surfing the interwebs for hnefatafl-related stuff, I stumbled across SevenOaksGrove on Etsy. Among lots of other things, it offered a very nice vinyl hnefatafl board, allowing the playing of 7 x 7, 9 x 9, and 11 x 11 versions. The price was really decent, especially given the postage from the US, so needless to say I ordered a board plus a set of playing pieces.

Because of the layout of the board, with concentric squares, it can be used to play 7 x 7 Brandubh, ...

... 7 x 7 Ard Ri, with the square starting array for the king side (unlike my Ard Banrigh version), ...

... 9 x 9 Tablut, ...

... 11 x 11 Tawlbyrdd, ...

... and 11 x 11 Hnefatafl!

The pieces are simple, turned wood, and nicely done.

Good addition to the collection!

'Ard Banrigh'

Look for information on hnefatafl variants and you'll come across the mention of a small (7 x 7) Scottish version, called Ard Ri ('High King'). But dig a bit deeper, and you'll realise that there is no historical evidence for this, and so it's likely it's a modern invention. Of course, there is historical evidence for a 7 x 7 version of hnefatafl, but Ard Ri is said to have 8 + 16 pieces rather than the 4 + 8 pieces normally associated with a 7 x 7 size. 

Historical or not, I felt I had to add Ard Ri to my collection, and decided to create a board of raised squares covered by sari fabric (of which I still had some from creating the 'board' for my Kama Sutra set).

The central square is deliberately made higher than the other squares.

The sari fabric was fastened on the board using gold-coloured drawing pins.

So now for the pieces! In the end, I decided to remain Kama Sutra-esque, and order one queen plus 24 pawns from the erotic chess set made by oggtheclever (I have ordered several chess sets from him before; see here, here and here). The queen and 8 pawns are coloured 'antique bronze', and the remaining 16 pawns 'aged pewter'. I also decided to use the alternative 'cross' formation for the starting array of the queen side rather than the more common 'square' formation. 

So this is what the board looks like with the pieces on it:

Clearly, with all the pieces being female, I felt I needed to change the name of this set slightly; 'High King' isn't quite appropriate! So I looked up what 'High Queen' would be in Scottish Gaelic: 'Ard Banrigh'.

Hnefatafl World Championship 2021

 

The 2021 Hnefatafl World Championship took place from September 15 to December 12 last year. Like last year, the tournament was conducted on-line. A total of 35 players participated, from 15 countries.

Similar to previous years, there were two tournaments happening side-by-side. One used the modern Copenhagen rules, where the other used historical tawlbwrdd rules.

Plamen Dragonov, from Bulgaria, won both tournaments, and can now call himself both the Hnefatafl World Champion and the Historical Hnefatafl World Champion.

More information, including scores and moves of all games, can be found here. 

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!