Tweaking Ancient Games

The ancient game I will be tweaking is called: Hnefetafl 

First iteration: I made it where the attacking team are allowed to move two of their pieces in a single turn. To balance this out I also made sure that the attacking team couldn't capture the defending team’s pieces apart from the king. When these new rules were tested I found that the game lasted longer than the usual five to ten minutes. If after playing the game for a few minutes the defending team fails to get a piece behind the attacking team to allow a capture to happen, the game slowly comes to a halt, and both sides are unable to move around the board.

Second iteration: I change the rules slightly. I decided that the king could get captured the same way as other pieces could, one on each side and not one on all four sides. The second rule that I added was that the king could assist other pieces on capturing the attacking team pieces. By doing this the attacking team would have to be quicker when it came to capturing the king as it will become easier for the king to escape from difficult situations. When it came to play-testing these new rules the games became quicker. They lasted around four to six minutes each. Both the attacking and defending sides had an even chance of winning with these rules where the attacking team was winning more than usual compared to the original rules.   

Third iteration: I decided to add a facture where the attacking team had to capture the opponent’s king within 15 turns. If this attempt was failed it would result in victory for the defending team. To make this achievable, the defending team was not allowed to capture the opponent’s pieces or move one of their own pieces back to where it originally was. To make capturing easier, the attacking team can capture the king in the same way that other pieces could be captured on the board. When these rules were play-tested I found that the games lasted around five to eight minutes, even longer when the player takes time to think about his next move. Out of five games the attacking team only claimed victory one time, where the defending player started to move one spare at a time not making a gap for the attacking team.

Fourth and final iteration I decided to change how the defending team was able to win the game. The original rules say that the king must reach one of the four sides of the board to achieve victory but I decided to change it to being one of the four corners of the board. I felt as though this would be bit more of a challenge for the defending team. To balance this rule out, the attacking team was not able to place one of their pieces on one of the four corners, as this would stop the opponent’s team completely from reaching one of the corners. When play-testing with these rules I found that the games lasted a lot longer than usual and were lasting around seven to ten minutes. This is because the defending team had difficulty in reaching one of the corners with their pieces. Three games were played with these rules and all three games ended with the same result. These rules favoured the attacking team more as I was finding that the attacking team was blocking the defending team and therefore stopping their king from reaching one of the corners.