Hnefatafl (11x11)
Tafl games (pronounced [tavl]), also known as hnefatafl games, are a family of ancient Northern European strategy board games played on a checkered or latticed gameboard with two armies of uneven numbers.
How to Play Hnefatafl (11x11)
Copenhagen Rules
Objective
Hnefatafl is an ancient Viking strategy game where one player controls the defending king and his guards, while the other controls the attacking forces. The defender's goal is to help the king escape to one of the board’s corner squares. The attacker’s goal is to capture the king before he escapes.
Setup
- The game is played on a grid board, typically 11×11 squares, but variations exist (e.g., 9×9, 13×13).
- Two unequal forces:
- Defender (white pieces): The king starts in the center with guards around him.
- Attacker (black pieces): Arranged symmetrically along the board’s edges.
- Special squares:
- Throne (center square): Only the king may occupy this space, but others can pass through it.
- Corner squares: The king must reach one to win the game.
Playing The Game
Start
- The games starts with the black pieces, the attackers, executing the first moviment.
Movement
- All pieces move like a rook in chess—any number of squares horizontally or vertically (no diagonal movement).
- Pieces cannot jump over others.
- Only the king can stop on the throne or corner squares.
Capturing Pieces
- A piece is captured when surrounded on two opposite sides (sandwiched vertically or horizontally but not diagonally) be it by two enemy pieces or by an enemy piece and a empty restricted square (like the corners or the throne squares).
- If a piece moves between two enemy pieces voluntarily, it is not captured.
- The king is captured if surrounded on all four sides (or three if next to the throne).
- The king cannot be captured on the board edge.
- The king may also be captured by surrounding him on three sides, if the fourth side is the throne square.
Special Rules
- Shieldwall capture
- A row of two or more pieces along the board edge may be captured together, by bracketing the whole group at both ends, as long as every member of the row has an enemy pience directly in front of him. A corner square may stand in for one of the bracketing pieces at one end of the row.
- The king may take part in the capture, either as part of the shieldwall or as a bracketing piece.
- If the king plus one or more defenders are attacked with a shieldwall, the attack will capture the defenders but not the king.
- Surrounded forces
- If the attackers surround the king and ALL remaining defenders with an unbroken ring, then they win, as that will prevent the king from escaping.
Winning The Game
- If a player cannot move, he loses the game.
- If a player repeat the same move 3 times he loses the game.
- Defender wins if the king reaches any corner square.
- Defender will also win the game by constructing an "edge fort": a layout of defenders at the edge of the board which cannot be captured, and which allows the king free moviment inside.
- Attacker wins if the king is captured before escaping.
- Attacker also win if they surround all of the kings forces, so that none can reach the board edges.
- Attacker and Defender draw if it is not possible to end the game, fx. because both sides have too few pieces left.
More
Hnefatafl is a game of asymmetry, where strategy changes based on whether you're attacking or defending!
You can check this video on YouTube to leran how to play Hnefatafl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lseS0ThfWN8
You can also check this webpage to know more about the rules.
This game was developed using PlayingCards.io virtual tabletop, an online play space where you can play tabletop and card games directly in your browser, multiplayer with your friends.
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