[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":84},["ShallowReactive",2],{"game-hnefatafl":3,"article-hnefatafl":41},{"slug":4,"title":5,"description":6,"category":7,"subcategory":8,"tags":9,"thumbnail":14,"thumbnailAlt":15,"iframeUrl":16,"iframeWidth":17,"iframeHeight":18,"embedType":19,"developer":20,"developerUrl":21,"releaseDate":22,"lastUpdated":22,"popular":23,"difficulty":24,"controls":25,"features":29,"relatedGames":36},"hnefatafl","Hnefatafl","On an 11x11 board, 24 attackers hunt a king and 12 Norse defenders; the king wins by reaching any corner, attackers by surrounding him on all four sides.","Strategy","Board",[7,8,10,11,12,13],"Tafl","Asymmetric","Viking","Open Source","\u002Fassets\u002Fimages\u002Fgames\u002Fhnefatafl.svg","Hnefatafl game thumbnail","https:\u002F\u002Fhnefatafl.org\u002F","100%","600","iframe","dcampbell24","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fdcampbell24\u002Fhnefatafl","2026-07-08",false,"Medium",{"keyboard":26,"mouse":27,"touch":28},[],"Click a piece to select it, then click a destination square to move it; captures happen automatically when a sandwich is closed","Tap a piece to select it, then tap a destination square to move it",[30,31,32,33,34,35],"11x11 asymmetric board: 24 attackers versus 1 king and 12 defenders","Copenhagen rules with custodial capture and the shieldwall edge rule","King wins outright by reaching any of the four corner squares","Rook-like movement for every piece; no diagonal moves or jumps","Built-in AI opponent plus online human play via the hnefatafl.org server","Free, open-source Rust engine, client, and server (Apache-2.0 \u002F MIT)",[37,38,39,40],"chess","reversi","checkers","gomoku",{"id":42,"title":5,"body":43,"description":6,"extension":76,"faq":77,"lastReviewed":22,"meta":78,"navigation":79,"path":80,"seo":81,"slug":4,"stem":82,"__hash__":83},"games\u002Fgames\u002Fhnefatafl.md",{"type":44,"value":45,"toc":69},"minimark",[46,51,55,59,62,66],[47,48,50],"h2",{"id":49},"overview","Overview",[52,53,54],"p",{},"The board starts lopsided: twenty-four attackers ring the edges while a king and twelve defenders cluster around the central throne, yet the king wins the moment it reaches any of the four corners. That asymmetry drives everything else. This is Copenhagen Hnefatafl, the modern reference ruleset for the Norse \"king's table\" family, formalized in 2012 by Aage Nielsen, Adam Bartley, and Tim Millar to fix the drawish endings of older variants. Pieces slide like rooks — any number of vacant squares along a row or column — and captures are custodial: sandwich an enemy between two of your own pieces, or between your piece and a hostile restricted square such as the throne or a corner, and it comes off the board. The king is armed, joins in captures, and only falls when surrounded on all four cardinal sides, so parking it beside the throne is dangerous where three attackers are enough. A shieldwall rule lets a whole row of edge pieces be swallowed in one flanking move, which stops defenders from turtling forever, and an encirclement clause hands the attackers the win if they trap the king and every surviving defender in a single unbroken ring. The implementation here is dcampbell24's free, open-source Rust engine, client, and server, released under Apache-2.0 and MIT and playable at hnefatafl.org against other humans or the built-in AI. It appeals to chess players who want a fight where the two sides move, count, and win in completely different ways.",[47,56,58],{"id":57},"how-to-play","How to Play",[52,60,61],{},"Each turn you choose one piece and slide it any number of vacant squares horizontally or vertically, exactly like a rook; it cannot jump over or land on another piece. To capture, you close a sandwich on an enemy between two of your own pieces, or between your piece and the throne or a corner, on a single move — moving voluntarily into a gap is safe, and the king may participate. The attackers move first and try to choke the king's routes to the corners; the defenders try to carve a corridor. The king wins outright the instant it lands on any corner square. The interface is a point-and-click client: click a piece to select it, then click the destination square; on touch screens, tap a piece and tap where it should go. Perpetual repetition is forbidden, and a player who has no legal move loses.",[47,63,65],{"id":64},"tips-strategy","Tips & Strategy",[52,67,68],{},"Attackers should not chase the king early — their job is to blockade the four corners and shrink the board one file at a time, because scattered single pieces get picked apart by rook-line captures. Anchor groups to the throne and corners so those hostile squares help complete sandwiches, and watch for the shieldwall: when defenders line the edge, flanking the whole row at both ends clears them in one move. Defenders should keep the king mobile and avoid parking it beside the throne, where only three attackers are needed to trap it; the safest escapes run through opened files toward diagonally opposite corners so one blocked lane does not kill the run. Watch for the exit fort — once the king touches the edge and the attackers cannot dislodge the surrounding defenders, the position is already won. Common losing mistakes are splitting attackers into lone hunters and leaving a corner guard that was never actually sealed.",{"title":70,"searchDepth":71,"depth":71,"links":72},"",2,[73,74,75],{"id":49,"depth":71,"text":50},{"id":57,"depth":71,"text":58},{"id":64,"depth":71,"text":65},"md",null,{},true,"\u002Fgames\u002Fhnefatafl",{"description":6},"games\u002Fhnefatafl","teo5UdLy8lMU944Y5ZCPM5yJcAqJBR90nC6RRF6bRZA",1783575110255]