The “Battle Of The Trees” ™ Celtic Board Game : "The Board"

 

As I commented on previous posts, I always wondered why the Celts were so fond of adopting square board styled games even when their cosmogony whirled around the spirals and labyrinths as sheer symbols of the never-ending circle of life, of nature, and the Sun God.

 The presence of spirals and labyrinths were the reason for my decision to choose a circular board design. Labyrinths are different from mazes. Labyrinths are unicursal, which means that they have one well-defined path that leads us into the center and back out again. There are no dead ends or paths that divide. 

A maze, on the other hand, is a puzzle to be solved: a left-brain task that requires an active mind, logic, analytical skills, and problem-solving abilities. A labyrinth is a right brain task involving intuition, imagery, and creativity. With a labyrinth, there is only one choice: the choice to enter or not. This was the reason for my decision to choose the maze as the center of my circular board design.

 The board is composed of four concentric rings. Compared with the byzantine chess board, the black squares here have an ebony wood layout, while the white ones have a holly wood layout. 

In the center of the board lies the Central Maze of Annwn where the three creatures of the Underworld are kept hidden. 

The third inner ring highlights the frontiers of Annwn, the Celtic Underworld. “Defenders” take up positions on the third and fourth inner rings behind this barrier to protect themselves from any attacks. 

The light brown- and red-colored squares of the board mark the "Banishing Zone". It is a "safe" or "neutral" zone from which “Attackers” can access the Central Maze by jumping from the "Banishing Zone" area close to the Maze.

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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