Let us play!

After doing our presentation, we finally decided to test out our skill with the game of tafl. I (Bona) was playing the defence side (the dark pieces with the king), while Nick was the attacker. The basic rule is for the defence side to move his/her king to the 4 corners to win. The only way to win for the attacker is to capture the king with 3 of the king's sides blocked. To capture the other pieces for both sides is to sandwich the opponent's piece. (I won this round).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While researching about the tafl boards, we found this picture constantly popping up with many of the articles and blogs about medieval board games. This particular one is found in Sweden and the illustration has two men playing a board of tafl with a drinking horn in one hand. (We joked around with the idea of teaming up with the drinking horn and mead group and do a medieval reenactment).

 

Nick and Shawn played a game afterwards as well. Tafl is a strategy game, but we also noticed that 99% of the times, the defence side with the king also won.

 

 

 

We even had a little competition in Biblio with a friend of mine who joined us for a game of tafl.

 

 

That round, Nick won being an attacker side! Way to go Nick! We named him the King of Tafl.

I think out of the 5 games we played, it was the first time that an attacker side won. I was completely addicted by this new (but old) game and even joked about making a tafl club at Uvic.

 

 

 

Here's a link if you'd like to try it out youself online:

 

http://aagenielsen.dk/hnefatafl_online.php

 

There are varieties of the game formats and where to place your pieces in the beginning of the game. Here's a link if you like more information on the tafl game and the instructions on how to play.
http://www.gamecabinet.com/history/Hnef.html