Hello once again
Today I play even more ancient games, this time in the form of Tafl, Hnefatafl and Tablut.
All of these game is are pretty much the same, in which the idea of each game is to get the king from the middle of the board to one of the corners or edges of the board, depending on what rules you decide to play. However as the king's army, you are heavily out numbered by your opponent and must make tactical moves in order to the get to the goal. You can take each other pieces within the game by having one piece on opposite side of the piece you are wanting to take. Once this has been met, the piece is completely removed from the game. However in order to capture a king, you must trap him from all four sides to fully win the game. Movement is a set value, in that you can move any piece single piece you want each turn, and the movement is exactly the same as moving a castle/rook in the game of chess. You can move in a line however many spaces you want.
I really enjoyed playing this game, since there was an extremely good tactical approach. You had to think about cutting off the king's exits, or making it so that your men create a clear path to make your king escape, there was an endless number of ways to tactically win the game, which was the highlight of the game.
Thursday, 19 December 2013
Duodecim Scripta and Pachisi
Hello all
Today I shall talk about some more ancient games that I got to try out. These games for today are Duodecim Scripta and Pachisi.
Duodecim Scripta is the ancestor to the game Backgammon and the meaning of the name is Twelve (lines) written down. It is a board that has 24 places and the goal of the game is to get pieces off the board. There aren't very many known rules for Duodecim Scripta except for the knowledge that 3 dices is used to determine the player's movement across the board. Also, if your opponent has 2 pieces in the way of the other player and he tries to land on the same square that pieces, he cannot and must go onto the place behind the opponent's piece. However if there is only one pieces, you are able to take that piece and send it back to the start, a similar rule found in Royal Game of Ur.
Pachisi is a cross and circle board game that is considered India's national game. The goal of this is to get all four pieces that a player has, around the board at least one lap. Player would throw cowrie shell in order to determine the movement for that turn. If a player lands on a place that is occupied by an opponent's piece that is not a castle space, they can capture pieces and send them to a location on the board known as Charkoni. The movement in this game is similar to the game Frustration, in which you could move around the board, take pieces and send them back, and then finish the game by moving up the column you started.
Out of these two games, I find Pachisi to be the most interesting, as it shares similarities with modern games, and it also has a very good concept for a board game. The only downside I would have to say for the game of Pachisi, is the use of shell for replacing dice, though I would of thought that they have developed a version that uses some sort of dice to determine movement.
Today I shall talk about some more ancient games that I got to try out. These games for today are Duodecim Scripta and Pachisi.
Duodecim Scripta is the ancestor to the game Backgammon and the meaning of the name is Twelve (lines) written down. It is a board that has 24 places and the goal of the game is to get pieces off the board. There aren't very many known rules for Duodecim Scripta except for the knowledge that 3 dices is used to determine the player's movement across the board. Also, if your opponent has 2 pieces in the way of the other player and he tries to land on the same square that pieces, he cannot and must go onto the place behind the opponent's piece. However if there is only one pieces, you are able to take that piece and send it back to the start, a similar rule found in Royal Game of Ur.
Pachisi is a cross and circle board game that is considered India's national game. The goal of this is to get all four pieces that a player has, around the board at least one lap. Player would throw cowrie shell in order to determine the movement for that turn. If a player lands on a place that is occupied by an opponent's piece that is not a castle space, they can capture pieces and send them to a location on the board known as Charkoni. The movement in this game is similar to the game Frustration, in which you could move around the board, take pieces and send them back, and then finish the game by moving up the column you started.
Out of these two games, I find Pachisi to be the most interesting, as it shares similarities with modern games, and it also has a very good concept for a board game. The only downside I would have to say for the game of Pachisi, is the use of shell for replacing dice, though I would of thought that they have developed a version that uses some sort of dice to determine movement.
Royal Game of Ur and Senet
Hello all
It's been quite a long time since I last posted.
Today, I'm going to talk about some ancient game that I got to look at the other day.
The games in question are known as Royal Game of Ur and Senet. These are two of the oldest games in existence and are both similar to each, since both of them are a race game.
The goal of Royal Game of Ur is to get all of your pieces to the end of the board before your opponent does, by tactically moving with what you roll on a D4 each turn. You can also take other people's pieces in order to send their pieces back to the start, and additionally you can create stacks in order to stop your opponent from being able to take your pieces if his stacks are not as big as yours.
Senet's goal is very much the same in that you need to get all your pieces off the board before your opponent.You could also land on panels that caused different effects throughout the game.
Over the years, Royal Game of Ur's board design got changed so that it was only one straight line to the end, rather than doing the same route pattern as in the beginning of the game. Also Senet got a few rule tweaks to balance some of the game play.
Out of these two games, I believe Royal Game of Ur to be more enjoying, as it has a lot of tactic thinking and movement within the game, and also it is quite a fast pace game, so you can play the game quite frequently before it starts to get boring. I think one of the major downsides to the game, is that it can be quite unforgiving, especially with the idea of taking pieces and also being able to take stacks of pieces that are lesser than the one taking the pieces. It is a good thing that you can take people's pieces, however sending them back to the beginning is quite harsh, especially when the player gets a big stack sent back to the start.
It's been quite a long time since I last posted.
Today, I'm going to talk about some ancient game that I got to look at the other day.
The games in question are known as Royal Game of Ur and Senet. These are two of the oldest games in existence and are both similar to each, since both of them are a race game.
The goal of Royal Game of Ur is to get all of your pieces to the end of the board before your opponent does, by tactically moving with what you roll on a D4 each turn. You can also take other people's pieces in order to send their pieces back to the start, and additionally you can create stacks in order to stop your opponent from being able to take your pieces if his stacks are not as big as yours.
Senet's goal is very much the same in that you need to get all your pieces off the board before your opponent.You could also land on panels that caused different effects throughout the game.
Over the years, Royal Game of Ur's board design got changed so that it was only one straight line to the end, rather than doing the same route pattern as in the beginning of the game. Also Senet got a few rule tweaks to balance some of the game play.
Out of these two games, I believe Royal Game of Ur to be more enjoying, as it has a lot of tactic thinking and movement within the game, and also it is quite a fast pace game, so you can play the game quite frequently before it starts to get boring. I think one of the major downsides to the game, is that it can be quite unforgiving, especially with the idea of taking pieces and also being able to take stacks of pieces that are lesser than the one taking the pieces. It is a good thing that you can take people's pieces, however sending them back to the beginning is quite harsh, especially when the player gets a big stack sent back to the start.
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