Games ahead of their time: >Hnefatafl >The defending side

>>54237860
>Can you think of any other thousand-year-old board-games with asymmetric starting positions?

Ludus latrunculorum, tafl's predecessor.

What's the best hnefatafl variant, Copenhagen?

File: 51Zx1gUiGfL._SL500_AC_SS350_.jpg (37KB, 350x350px) Image search: [Google]

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That really is an absolutely fabulous piece of history that we have. While I can't think of any other asymmetrical ancient games off the top off my head besides some mahjong tile variants, I have always loved senet and the Ur game since I learned them in elementary school. It's amazing to think about games like this and Roman dice games and Chinese bone and tile games and all the others ways that people just like you and I all throughout history entertained themselves.

www.lutanho.net/play/senet.html
https://www.yourturnmyturn.com/java/ur/index.php

>>54238934
>Ludus latrunculorum
Isn't asymmetric, I'm just an idiot.

>>54238945
>besides some mahjong tile variants
Isn't mahjong just a couple hundred years old?

>>54238983

Mahjong is not the right term to use, but there has been a long tradition of tile and bone based games in China that predated it.

>>54237860
Does it come with pronunciation instructions?

>>54239967
I think it's supposed to be pronounced like "Nefatafel".

t. nordic pro

>>54237860
Rules?

>>54239967
Come on, it's as easy as svefn-g-englar

>>54237860
Isn't the king side favoured to win in tafl games most of the time?

I recall that in medieval ages, people were bidding for playing the white side by proclaiming how many turns at most they need to win, e.g. "I play white, but have only 9 turns to win".

>>54244973

The king has to escape from one of the 4 corners and he wins.

Its REALLY hard to kill him. All the pieces move like Rooks in Chess. To take a piece you have to have it surrounded on all four sides. As the attacker you have more pieces to block the corners but one wrong move and its game over

>>54247110
So it isn't balanced then

>>54244660
Attackers go first. Pieces move any distance horizontally or vertically, but not on or over other pieces.
The center and corners are marked squares, you can move over them but only the king can move on them.
You capture a piece by flanking it with two pieces or a piece and a marked square.
You capture the king by surrounding him on all sides with pieces, board's edges, and/or marked squares.
The king can only move one square at a time/

>>54237860
>classic scandinavian game is about fleeing

Kek

>>54249057

Well it was developed and played in ancient times.

>>54249057
Not sure if it's been solved, but my gut says it's probably solvable for the defender. The creators probably had access to neither the computation tools nor the theoretical math to adequately attack a problem like this though. (And before someone says "they probably wouldn't have cared either" - take a look at ancient Go game records.)

>>54237860
There are a lot of chess variants and alternate chess-piece games that are asymmetric, but I'm not sure of the age of any of them.