My 5th grade son is studying Vikings and planning a Viking Feast at school. I plan to show them the instructional portion of this video so they can play! Thanks so much for sharing the instructions so clearly!
Came upon this video again and I wanted to stop and let you know that my since the first time I saw this video, my friends and I have played this game a million times. We've gotten quite good, and had many hours of fun playing. I wanted to thank you for introducing me to this.
Great instructions, thank you. My husband made a beautiful board from faux leather, complete with draw strings to turn it into a sack he can carry the game pieces in. He made the pieces from clay and after they were fired, he painted them with Testor enamel paint. The King and his defenders are white and the attackers are red. This is an easy to learn game! Always had trouble with chess, this is more my style.
I watched your intro and how-to-play section at the end. Very thankful for your colleague who did the research for how to play for your version. I love the concept for this game. It was jaw dropping to listen and watch to how you explained it. Especially because it is an ancient game from the vikings.
What a great and simple game. I have to play it now. Not only because I think it will be a lot of fun, but because I am of Viking heritage. Anyway, thanks for making the video and showing how to play Hnefatafl. Capture the King!
This is pretty cool. If I can find time over the next couple of weeks I think I might make one of these for a friend for a Christmas gift. I know he'd love it.
Having recently discovered your channel as my hobbies are similar to yours I'd like to say that I appreciate your enthusiasm toward these pass-times. I've recently moved and have shown some new friends the things I've made (some from your tutorials actually) and my favorite response was "People do this and no one told me?" Keep being awesome!
The game uses custodian capture, with the king requiring four spaces to be occupied rather than two. The throne may count as one of those spaces, I.e. One custodian set, one lone piece opposite the throne, and the king at the center. There's more, but I'd suggest the Copenhagen rules, as they fix a few imbalances in the Fetlar rules, which are pretty good.
I've heard of this game, seen pictures of it, even decided that my Norwegian airship pirate navigator, Kristina Erickson, plays it. But I haven't played it myself. I might try it out, though.
That's pretty awesome. The next board game you should make is Ludus Latrunculorum, the Roman version of chess/checkers, played by Roman soldiers, typically on an 12x8 sized board, but the size varied from place to place (8x8 and 8x7 were commonly found in archaeological digs). Similar manner of capturing in Hnefatafl, but both sides have the same number of pieces. Though taking the "Leader" or "Dux" piece, has to be surrounded.
Love love that you shared this. I am going to make this for sure. Seems the pieces need a large base to enable stability. Thank you for putting this together!
Hi Epic: This is great! I was looking for a present to make for my nephew and this fits the bill perfectly. I love games like chess and I'm trying to see if I can get him interested. He likes the unique things and this is not very common here in the US. I think I'm going to try to make a wooden board w/ metal inlay and field minitures as the pieces. Thanks for an awesome idea.
Thumbs up on your method of making the set and board,very good.But I believe you should have said the king needs to be surounded on 4 sides.the most common variation☺
I'm so glad I stumbled on this. I'm going to make it, and carve the pieces out of foam or clay or wood the way I would make miniatures terrain. Might even make the board with Hirst Arts tiles if I'm feeling up to it. Thank you for this.
I got a game like this as a kid. maybe the same. It was about 1971 it was called Swords and Shields. and the kings pieces were shields and the attacker were swords I think it was a Milton Bradly production. loved it. the swords won about 70 %
Amazing, yesterday i went to a viking museum (in Holland) and there you could learn and play this game. It was tablut thoug the 9X9 version but still cool. So i thought i can make that myself. Today i start up youtube and i see you have uploaded this. wow.
the literal translation of hnefatafl from icelandic to english is "fist chess". If you are interested in the pronauntion the first word hnefa has a strong "e". also the "fl" in tafl is more of a "bl".
YEs, red and green can both be flanked. this is two player game only. and in this variation of the game red squares are not a threat.... but,... it can be played that way to make it more challenging. There are variations of how the game is played.
This was a very good presentation, as well as first (but surely not last) I’ve seen of your channel. Please do a showon the logistics of chance games: (Do deck features like 52 cards of 4 suites & 13 faces factor in playability? How many varieties of chance exists & in what ways are these elements leveraged in games? A little more history would have tickled my anthropologic pickle, but I’m probably being greedy. Either way, that detail to use (presumed) proper runic labels per/piece was magnificent! I personally suggest when making pieces opposed in color, go for a 2-hue pallet. Red&white vs Green&black would have been my choice, but the gold was a nice touch. Naturalistic, or period-feasible is always my go-to; this doesn’t exclude going a bit over on execution. Like a neo-paleo rendition... I might send a picture of the set I’ve started (This was a good layout resource) from wood on a leather-worker & dyed rawhide. Each piece is going to be hand made, and furthermore, the dyes and pigments will all be natural home-made ash-oils, flower mashes, etc. Probably one Indian paintbrush-red on natural wood background, and the other bonemeal-lightened bluebonnet-blue on black ash paste soaked charcoal background. The board is a medium warm brown rawhide 12x24x1.5” sheet. Just henna type dye and a glossy selant finish thing (leatherworking virgin...)
I subscribed about a week ago. Best decision ever! Keep up the awesome work! In a few days, I may post a video with either stop motion or the assassins creed chestpiece! Thanks alot!
found your channel by looking how to make chainmail and I love it!!! all my subscriptions are dying off so I needed new ones to take there place. and your stuff is what I want to see. thank you :)
Thanks so much for this. I have made a few traditional board games before. This was new to me, and is next on the list. Great job with the paints - it looks fantastic. Love your site/channel. Keep the inspiration coming!
You totally missed covering how to capture the king (surrounding on all 4 sides), and not being able to use the edge of the board to capture (have to capture with a piece or a wall), and about the attacking team not being able to re-enter their base camps after leaving and that they are treated as walls once you exit.
I vouch for Will everyone! This man is always uploading awesome projects that expand your historical knowledge and help you learn a variety of skills. One of the most creative men on RU-vid, if you aren't a subscriber then you are missing out on all of the fun shenanigans going down on this channel! SUBSCRIBE NOW!
Its actually interesting that the Dwarven language of Khazad-Dum from Lord of the Rings, well, the writing at least, was created from these ancient languages. :D
I sometimes make cool board games and sometimes show my friends. They loved one that if found where you shoot and move by flicking a pencil across paper. This one will get them syked
Wow, Really kind of neat to hear this! thanks. And well..youre welcome! Got another ancient board game coming. Ludus Latronculum.... Think I spelled that wrong.
I made this game and played in many times with people. I love it, but one problem. The game is lopsided. The siege pieces have the advantage. Has anyone modified the rules to make the game more balanced?
Great Stuff, The norse made my city Dublin over a thousand years ago, this game looks cool, i will make one, but i think i will use wargames factory 28mm vikings figs for the pices
I have now finally released my App version for this game 'The Viking Game' (can also be found searching by Hnefatafl). I believe I have created the strongest A.I.Player yet developed to play this. Now available for iPad and iPhone.
Very cool. I'd imagine you could use the egg yolk paint to paint the pieces, right? I think it would be cool to use old school paints to craft an old school game.
Not just to the edge of the board, but move the king all the way off the board. Also keep in mind that the king (in this version at least) cannot move into or through any of the home squares of the attacker. ie. the red squares on epicfantasy's board.
I have a question about capturing; What happens if I move a piece into a position where I can capture an opponents piece, but am also "framed" but my opponents pieces? Here is an example of what I am talking about: X O X O (Imagine the second 'X' was just moved into that position.) In this case, both the middle 'X' and the middle 'O' are in "captured" positions.
