Ancient Games - Tablut

Tablut is a game originating from around 1,500 years ago, during the time of the Vikings (). Tablut is a variant of tafl, which were boards games often played in places like Scandinavia, Iceland, Ireland, and Britain, until being replaced by chess in the 12th century. However, Tablut continued to be played in some regions all the way to the 18th century, because of this, its rules are better recorded than those of the other tafl variants.

Rules

Set-up

Tablut is played on a grid, intended to be 9x9, but these numbers can be increased, along with the number of pieces (See image below). There are two factions: The King is positioned at the board’s centre, surrounded by Defenders. The Attackers are split into four groups at the middle of the board’s sides.

Classic version of Tablut: 9x9 Grid with 1 King, 8 Defenders, and 16 Attackers. 

Alternate, scaled-up version of Tablut: 11x11 Grid with 1 King, 12 Defenders, and 24 Attackers.
 

Movement

Any piece can move up, down, or sideways, but not diagonally. A piece can move across as many spaces in a chosen direction as the player wishes, or until its path is blocked by another piece, regardless of which faction that piece belongs to, or by the board’s boundaries. Pieces cannot move over each other.

No other piece, expect the King, can move into a corner.

Capturing

Defenders and Attackers can capture each other by flanking one piece with two opposing pieces from opposite directions as long as it isn’t diagonally. A captured piece is removed from the board.

However, in order to capture the King piece, it must be surrounded on all four sides by Attackers, or three sides, if the King is positioned along the board’s edge. Commonly, the King cannot help capture an Attacker, though other versions of Tablut allow this.

A piece can move between two enemy pieces without being captured.

If a regular piece is next to a corner square, then that piece can be captured by trapping it between the corner and an opposing piece. This perverse Attackers from easily blocking the corners.

Win Conditions

The King’s side wins if the King reaches any corner of the board, though different versions merely require the King to reach the edge.

The Attackers win if they capture the king.

Innovating upon Tablut

A few ways to build upon Tablut would be to add variants of Defender and Attacker pieces. For example, there could be pieces which can move diagonally or move through other pieces, forcing players to form new battle strategies.

References:

James Masters. (2022) Tablut Rules. Available at: Rules of Tablut, the Viking game (Kings Table) (mastersofgames.com) (Accessed: 15/10/2022).