Rules for Hnefatafl Board Game (2024)

FAQs

How to win hnefatafl? ›

There are two ways to win: either the attackers (24 soldiers) capture the king, or the king (helped by his 12 soldiers) escapes to one of the corners.

Capturing only happens when a piece is moved so that a single opposing piece ends up trapped between two of the players pieces. A captured piece is immediately removed from the board. It is possible to capture more than one piece at once. The King is unarmed and cannot capture.

In most games, pieces can move as far as they like along a rank or file, like a chess rook. Some games restrict pieces to moving only to adjacent squares. This is most often used on the smallest boards. In some games, the king has a restricted move (typically one or four squares) while the other pieces are unimpeded.

Modern hnefatafl games tend to have nine or eleven squares on a side, with 25 or 37 pieces, but smaller and more specialist manufacturers still make games in the more extreme sizes. Many boards of seven squares by seven have been found, particularly in Ireland, and Scotland.

The king: on his throne or in his castle? People new to hnefatafl often make the same observation: "the king always seems to win!" Sometimes that's because they're playing a variant which really is unbalanced. But more often than not, nowadays, the variant is balanced.

The term Hnefatafl (pronounced "nef-ah-tah-fel") translates to "king's board" or "fist table" in Old Norse, revealing its esteemed place in Viking society.

Hnefatafl literally translates to "fist table", from the Old Norse (equivalently in modern Icelandic) hnef, 'fist', and tafl, 'table'.

From the same website, some strategy notes: The King's forces usually possess a slight advantage, despite being outnumbered. Tactically, the defender (King's men) must arrange for the King to escape the board.

Winning: Black wins by moving his king to any of the 4 corner spaces (marked with a square). White wins by surrounding the king so he can't move, either with 3 pawns and the edge of the board, or with 4 pawns.

In most games, the king can help to make captures like any other piece. There are some in which he can't, however. These are usually games in which he would otherwise be too strong: games where he wins on reaching an edge, and requires four attackers to capture him.

Who invented hnefatafl? ›

The game probably took its origin from the Roman game, Latrones, short for Ludus Latruncolorum – the game of brigands or “l*ttle soldiers” (hence perhaps: the “game of knaves”). Adopted by Germanic mercenaries in the Roman army, the game is known to have been played in Roman Iron Age Scandinavia.

From written sources we know that the Vikings played “hnefatafl” and “nitavl” (Nine Men's Morris) and chess also appeared at the end of the Viking period. Hnefatafl is a war game, in which the object is to capture the king piece – a large hostile army threaten and the king's men have to protect the king.

Any Kubbs which have been knocked down must be thrown from your own baseline. Kubbs may be spun in any direction. You can only attempt to knock down the King from your Baseline, not from the line level with a Field Kubb. If you knock down the King when Kubbs remain standing you lose the game.

The Knight moves to a square that is two squares away horizontally and one square vertically, or two squares vertically and one square horizontally. A square on the board can be occupied by one Knight only. A Knight cannot be captured by opponents within its own or opponent's camp.