About Board Games Families

Both the "Brandub" and the "Fidchell" (wrongly considered as "Celtic Chess") are tactic games quite difficult to ascribe to a particular family, but as they feature the capture of the King-piece by enclosure, they retain the quality of chase and battle games.

Curiously both of them preserve the importance of the King-piece as in the Nordic ones ("hnefi" certainly referred to the King-piece, and several sources refer to "Hnefatafl" as "King's table").

As you may already know, there are three great families: the race games, battle games, and chase games.

• In race games, the object is to reach the goal as fast as possible. They are usually controlled by the casting of dices, a fact that makes the game run by chance or fate. For example the Blackgammon. ( Bayless, M. on his work "Alea, Tæfl, and Related Games: Vocabulary and Context," in Latin Learning and English Lore, pp. 15–16, suggests that several archaeological finds in Scandinavia reveal "Hnefatafl" sets that included dice, and discusses controversy over whether the very name "Tawlbwrdd" suggests the throwing of dice).

• In chase games, each single piece moves across the board to break through opposing pieces and reach the goal, sometimes the edge of the board, thus escaping the hunters. For example the German fox-and-geese.

• In battle games, both sides have the same quantity of pieces and struggle to drive one's opponent off the board, or rather, capturing a chief piece. Chess and Draught are battle games.

On the next post I will blog in detail about
"The Circular Board" designed for

“Battle Of The Trees” ™ Celtic Board Game

Stay Tuned!

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The featured information and artworks belong to the “Battle Of The Trees” ™ Celtic Board Game  , a creative and inventive chase and battle game that retains part of the spirit of the ancient Irish "Brandub" and "Fidchell" board games.

One of its main features is that you may not only play it as a battle game, but also as a way for divination... You play as Gwydion, the bard and magician. “Lord of Knowledge” and “Lord of Trees”, and you will be responsible for animating the trees of the forest on their final quest.

 For further information about this game, I wrote a whole eBook as an extended version of the companion handbook, comprising the complete information upon the context and basis of “Battle Of The Trees” ™ Celtic Board Game, and now available on Kindle format at Amazon

Place an Online Order at its Official Site

“Battle Of The Trees” ™ Celtic Board Game