HNEFATAFL Viking Chess Set is a 2 player beautiful wooden board game aimed at ages 8 and up. An ancient Viking board game of strategy that has players engaging memory and planning defensive patterns. HNEFATAFL is known as "The King's Table" loosely translates to "board game of the fist" and is said to be at least 600 years older than CHESS. From Marbles Brain Workshop, this set contains 1 game board, 1 King piece, 12 Vikings, 24 attacker pieces, and instructions. Set up is clear. The Viking King is set in the middle on the refuge square and flanked by his 12 Vikings. Then attackers are placed on each side of the board. To Play Players choose sides, Viking or Attacker. The attackers goal is to capture the king. The Vikings goal is to lead the king to safety. HNEFATAFL is game of strategy and skill.
The rules of the game are as follows. To set up, The Viking King is set in the middle on the refuge square and flanked by his 12 Vikings. Then attackers are placed on each side of the board. To play players first choose a side, Viking or Attacker. The attackers goal is to capture the king. The Vikings goal is to lead the king to safety. Safety is a refuge square in any corner of the board. Pieces can only move horizontally and vertically. Capturing pieces is achieved when two attackers flank a Viking or vice versa. Once the King leaves the refuge square it can't go back and that refuge square becomes a hostile square. The Viking king can only be captured by having 4 attackers surround him on squares. Up to 3 pieces can be captured at once when flanked by pieces from the opposing team. An excellent game of strategy.