Hnefatafl - Tafl - Corner Escape - Discussion and Rules (Part 1) 

I have taken the liberty of transcribing the rules for this and a few other versions of tafl from your videos. In my transcriptions I have endeavored to be Clear, Concise, Consistent and Complete. I hope you will agree. Hnefatafl - Corner Escape Setup (Sorry, I don't know how to put an appropriate image here.) The (K)ing and (D)efenders are light and the (A)ttackers are dark. Initially, the K sits on the (T)hrone, the center square. The (C)orners are marked. Movement The As move first. All pieces move orthogonally in a straight line for any distance chosen without changing direction or jumping other pieces. Only the K may land on the T or a C. All pieces may pass through the empty T. Capture A piece is captured custodially by enclosing it on opposite orthogonally adjacent sides with 2 enemy pieces. The captured piece is immediately removed from the board. The K is captured by enclosing it on all 4 orthogonally adjacent sides. The K may take part in captures. Both the empty T and the Cs may be used to capture in lieu of a piece. But the Cs may not be used to capture the K. The K on an edge may be captured by 3 As (Norse Americn rules) or just keep playing (Fetlar rules). If a piece encloses 2 or 3 enemy pieces in different orthogonal directions, all of them are captured. A piece may halt between 2 enemy pieces without harm. Winning the Game The Ds win by moving the K onto a C square. The As win by capturing the K. If either player has no legal move, his opponent wins. If the K threatens to win by repeating the same move 3 times in a row, the Ds lose. A stalemate occurs when the K is prevented from reaching any corner by the As but has not been captured. The Ds lose (Norse American rules). The game is drawn (Fetlar rules).

Found your channel to learn some henfatafl only to discover youre a composer as well. Cool!

The corner escapes represent the King’s escape through either of the four typical entrance/exits from a Viking ring fortification village. If you overlay a topographical map of a Viking ring fortification, the entrance/exits are N, S, E, W, and match perfectly over the Hnefatafl 11x11 table. Sorry, difficult to describe. But, look at aerial images of Viking ring fortifications, it then is pretty clear how the king escapes. Makes sense. The game is basically a simulated siege of a Viking ring fortification. They either get the king or he escapes through the exits in the fortified town.

Very cool mate, thanks!

Just to be clear...the Michael Sandeman article I referred to in the opening discussion challenged the widely-accepted notion that playing to the edge (edge escape) was unbalanced.

Ive been playing by myself bc i cant find anyone else to play Finally a month ago my step bro played whos a genius and I was about to bury him 3 games to zero and hubris got me and i slipped up. We are now tied 2 to 2 lol

I've never played to escape from the corner, i find it pretty balanced playing to the edge but then i find it hard to find people to play with so cant play very often

I used to have an old set of this, but I have no idea where it went to unfortunately

I thought that the squares the black or opposing team start on act as like the throne! Could you clarify? Thanks

I have now released an App version for iPad and iPhone which can play these games. Based upon your series on edge escape, and incorporating many of the strategies you present in this series. Thank you for your inspiration, I hope together we can inspire more people to play these games. My iPad version 'The Viking Game' in particular can play boards up to 15 x 15 and has the strongest A.I. Player yet developed to play these series of games.

You're very welcome!

Question I can't find an answer to: Say there's team 1 and 2, empty slot is 0. There's a situation on the board like this: ...0,1,2,0,2,0... If 1 puts his peace in the 0 between the 2's what happens? Since he's moving between the 2's, he becomes flanked himself, but he's also flanking the first 2. Are both pieces taken simultaneously? or, since 1 is making the move, does he destroy the 2 he's flanking first, therefore there isn't a 2 to flank him? Or can you move between pieces without "being flanked?"

Fast forward to 5:30.

Hi Adam! I have a question. Can a King on the edge of the board next to a corner square be captured by 2 Attackers enclosing him on the other 2 sides? Thank you.

Hello! Are King and the white pieces allowed to stand on the 24 black squares (black opponents initial positions)? Kind regards

thankyou

So, are the corners are virtual thrones from a capturing perspective?

Great job! Id found some gemes on PlayMarket. I'd test it. So I think I'm ready to play with real players on your site 😎

Can anyone answer this though: what if you double the same color on the corners? Such as, what if two black pieces are on each side of the corners? If the corners act as the color of the piece that's on the outside, with two of the same colors in those spots, would that be a draw then as the king could not escape, and the black pieces cannot be captured?

What if you double stack the same teams pieces on the corners to block the king?

I just thought, what if we replace one pawn of each attackers to their kings... and only way to remove them would be to surrender each from 4 sides. and it can give some additional variations like white king can be captured by four kings or three kings and edge and etc... or to have one black king. I just think about this game as simulation of political situation at vikings court where different clans got in clash and each clan might have a king... just thoughts...

I really think there cant be edge escape, the more I analyze is that either the king can escape to the 16 white edge squares.

got motion sickness by looking at your pen swinging around after 3min

Uhh *sigh* Hnefatafl uhh *sigh* *smacks lips*

That is one interpretation of the "Linneaus Rules" (which were originally written in Latin) for the Tafl game of "Tablut" in the 18th century, put forth by John C. Ashton. That interpretation is in dispute by other scholars and has been shown to be extremely unbalanced. A great resource for you to check further would be the Hnefatafl website run by a gentleman named Aage Nielsen (you will need to google it). He has information, statistics, and scholarly discussion about these topics.

You playin' in darkness....

do you think the game would be more balanced if the king cannot take part in captures? me and my friends play as though he can but it seems very unbalanced and who ever is playing as the kings men always seem to win

We're you having a heart attack while taping? You sound like you were dying.

Not very good at it. But I am trying to learn.

Why does every American make a fart noise when they get to the fl in tafl? It's literally table, as presently spoken in numerous European languages. There's no fart noise in it.

Sorry but I have to disagree with the statement that this game is balanced. There is only one type of move and both sides have different goals one of which must be easier than the other however slight so a computer (for example alpha zero) will find it trivial to show that with perfect play one side will lose every time via an instructive method.

'Ums' and 'ers' make your commentary quite boring and repetitious. Script what you are going to say and be more fluent.

Your presentation style is boring. Its evident you know your stuff. But you lack enthusiasm in your presentation style.