Tafl Games - Balance of Play

Balance of Play

There is some controversy concerning the widely reported imbalance of the game, as the rules strongly favor the king, although there are several rule modifications that can produce more balanced play, such as a weaponless king (the king cannot participate in captures), escape to the corners (rather than to the edges), or hostile attacker camps (the king and defenders may be captured against a vacant attacker camp square). Schmittberger (1992) even reveals some workarounds to produce more balanced play without modifying the rules of gameplay.

One such solution is by bidding: Players take turns bidding on how many moves it will take them to win the game. The lowest bidder gets the king. Thus, one player may open with a bid of 15 turns, the other player may counter with a bid of 14 turns, and the first player, more confident in his ability to escape in 13 rounds than in his ability to contain for 14, may bid 13 and take the king's side. If that player does not escape within 13 turns, the other player wins. Another workaround is to play a two-round match, in which players switch sides after the first round. If the king escapes both rounds, the winner is the player whose king escaped in the fewest turns.

The description of Tawlbrydd by Robert ap Ifan (preceding Linnaeus' account by 145 years) states that the king could be captured by two men. Peterson suggests that Linnaeus' special capture of the king is incorrect, and states that statistics from modern games played with four-man capture of the king show that white wins more often than black. However, it has not yet been demonstrated that balanced play results from rules allowing for a two-man capture of the king. Interestingly, some sources indicate that Scandinavian museum reconstructions of Hnefatafl typically stipulate that the king may be captured by only two attackers unless he is still in his hall, in which case he must be surrounded on all four sides.