Tafl

Tafl!

 

During our last session we played a game of Tablut (tafl). There are two players involved in the game and each have their own corresponding pieces. One player will have eight white pieces while the other will have sixteen black pieces, all played on a 9x9 board.

The player with eight pieces will also have one other piece, a king that must escape to either the edge of the screen (as Murray specifies) or to one of the four markers in the corner of the playing board (others such as Schmittberger 1992; Helmfrid 2005 had suggested that the escaping to the edge was unbalanced)

The attacker had to ensure that the player with the king failed in reaching the edge, or corner, of the playing board. Each player had the opportunity to take out an opponent’s piece by surrounding it on two sides (adjacent to it). The attacking player, however, had to completely surround the king (again, depending on who is correct, on both sides or completely surrounded) in order for them to win. It is noted that a piece can move between two others and not be captured.

Players can move their pieces as they would a Rook in a game of chess: any number of squares in an orthogonal direction.

My opponent and I had two incredibly close games, once we had understood how to play of course. In the first game I had managed to get myself in a difficult position, and, only down to less than 5 pieces, I had managed to avoid being completely surrounded and I was able to get my King to the corner of the board.

I was then on the attack in round two and by this time we were making split second decisions, something I went to later regret as I had opened up an opportunity for Will to secure his King and win the game.