Articles: Bumfat — Tablet Weaving — Snodgafl — Cookbook

The Ancient Arts Fellowship

Hnefatafl

Hnefatafl is a basic form of tactical combat, where a bodyguard of men are protecting their king from a larger hostile force.
The king has half the number of pieces his opponent has, namely 12 to 24. He wins the game if he can manage to get his 'king' out into one of the corner squares. His opponent can win by trapping the king. The board is set up as shown on the right.

The king's men move first. All the pieces except the king move in the same way as rooks in chess. The king may only move one square at a time and not diagonally. Only the king is allowed to move into the centre square or the corner squares, which are usually shaded.
Ordinary pieces are captured when they are surrounded on two opposite sides by the opposing player as shown below. When the piece is taken it is removed from the board. It is possible to capture more than one piece in the same move. The corner squares count as opposing pieces (regardless of your colour), and a piece may be taken by being trapped against one. This is not the case for the centre square, and it does not affect the king, which is able to move into the corner squares (and win).
The picture on the right shows illegal captures.
If a piece is moved so that it stops in between two opposing pieces, it is not taken. This is known as a 'resting move'. One of the opposing pieces may be moved away and back again (taking two turns) to take the resting piece. Of course when the player moves one of his pieces, the resting piece will probably be moved.
Taking the king is more difficult than taking any of the pieces. The king must be surrounded on all four sides as can be seen on the left.
If he is surrounded only on three sides with the fourth side being the board edge the king is not captured. If the king is the only piece which can move and he is blocked off from any other square, the game is drawn. If the king is surrounded on three sides with the centre square being the fourth, the king is captured and the attacking player wins.
There are several variations on this game, with different numbers of pieces and innitial setups, as well as different rules concerning the movement of the king and trapping pieces against corner and center squares. All of these variations are still called Hnefatafl, and do not so much reflect a lack of current knowledge about how the game was really played, as a wide variety of rules for the game over the hundreds of years it was played, and in the many countries it spread to.

If you want some practice, using a small board, try the online version of hnefatafl, kindly provided for us by Pedro Amaro.
Articles: Bumfat — Tablet Weaving — Snodgafl — Cookbook