Hnefatafl, The Ancient Board Game Of The Vikings (Video Game)

Hnefatafl (alternatively known as tafl, tablut, or kongens bord, i.e. king’s board; hnefi means closed hand or fist, but in this context the king piece, and tafl board in Old Norse, therefore king’s board) is a turn-based indie and strategy video game developed by Philippe Schober inspired by the eponymous ancient board game (chess-like in nature) of the Norse (otherwise commonly known as Vikings, a term denoting what would nowadays be widely understood as a profession or occupation rather than an ethnic label) which was popular during the Viking Age, a historical period of time enclosed within the broader Early Middle Ages. The historical game of Hnefatafl is mentioned in the renowned Icelandic sagas. The video game based on the historical game was released back in 2020. It allows players to start a game as either defender (or white player) or attacker (or black player). The pieces that the white player has are actually silver-coloured and, at the same time, the ones controlled by the black player are brown-coloured as well.

Players can experiment with different styles or variants of the game, from the base version (i.e. historical Hnefatafl) and beyond. A player can start a single-player mode game against an AI opponent with Germanic names (e.g. Ansgar) or can opt for an online game, even taking part in tournaments. There is also an AI opponent which has an Old English name, more specifically Uhtred. The game can be played via Steam and players can also earn various achievements based on their performance, intelligence, and tactics.

The ancient board game of the Norse (otherwise commonly known as Vikings) can be played digitally via Steam nowadays as well. Image source: personal screenshot using Snapshot on iMac

As it can be observed above, I also played it for quite a while and, to my satisfaction, I also managed to obtain several interesting Steam achievements so far. I plan to obtain as many as possible in the future as well, naturally. Both players move their pieces orthogonally over the board (i.e. up or down or left or right). In order to win as the white player, one has to move the king situated in the middle of the board at the start of the game by default to the limits of the board so as to flee the attacker. Conversely, the black player wins by capturing the king before escaping. Both players can capture each other’s pieces by surrounding one piece either up and down with two pieces or left and right with two pieces. The white player can also win by capturing all the pieces of the black player but this can prove quite challenging as the white player starts off with fewer pieces than the black one.

Player selection in Hnefatafl: you can decide to play an AI player or against another human player represented by a friend. Image source: personal screenshot on iPad

I know very well the fact that it’s not ok to brag, but here are my Hnefatafl achievements so far… so good. Image source: personal screenshot using the Screenshot application on iMac

Below you can also watch two brief tutorials of mine on how to win at Hnefatafl, playing either as the defender (i.e. white player, as it is officially described) or attacker (i.e. black player, as it is officially described). The following two tutorials were recorded against AI players, proving as such that artificial intelligence can’t outsmart human intelligence.

This is the tutorial on how to win as defender (i.e. white player with the silver pieces and the king):

This is the tutorial on how to win as attacker (i.e. the black player with the brown pieces):

If you are interested in other games or forms of entertainment of the Norse during the Viking Age, please also see this article. Thank you very much for stopping by as well as for your time, attention, and readership! All the best!

Documentation sources, external links, and further reading:

• Tafl games on www.wikipedia.org (in English)
• Hnefatafl on www.wikipedia.org (in Norwegian Bokmål), an article within which I also contributed over the passage of time
• Hnefatafl on www.wikipedia.org (in Danish)
• Hnefatafl – Vikings Wiki on www.wiki.vikingsonline.org.uk
• The etymology of Hnefatafl on www.old-icelandic.vercel.app (Old Icelandic Dictionary)
• The Mystery Behind The Lewis Chessmen: A Possible Icelandic Origin?, a related article written and published by me on The Dockyards back in 2016