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SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
I've seen it. I never leave my guns charged when I park my P-40, anymore.
Good shots!
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Lucky13
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Hnefatafl (often called "Viking chess")
Despite the nickname, this isn't chess, and the Vikings weren't waiting for bishops to arrive. Hnefatafl is a Norse strategy board game from Scandinavia, played throughout the Viking Age and likely earlier. The name roughly translates as "fist board", which feels appropriate once you've lost for the third time.
This wasn't a dice game for killing time. It was a thinking game. The sort you play when you enjoy out-planning someone more than out-drinking them.
Hnefatafl turns up wherever Norse culture travelled. Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man. If the Norse settled there, they probably brought the board with them.
There was no universal rule set, because the Vikings never standardised anything if local custom would do just fine. Every region played its own version, argued about it, and carried on.
Do we actually have evidence?
Yes. Quite a lot, in fact. Archaeology has uncovered game boards carved into stone, wood, and slabs.
Playing pieces made from bone, glass, amber, and stone.
It's also mentioned in sagas and medieval sources, usually as something respected, not trivial. What we don't have is a tidy instruction manual. Modern rules are reconstructions, pieced together from finds, texts, and common sense.
How you play.
Two uneven sides.
One king with defenders starts in the centre.
The attackers begin around the edges.
All pieces move like a rook in chess.
You capture by trapping a piece between two of your own. No luck, no dice, no excuses.
The win conditions are where it gets interesting...
The defenders win if the king escapes.
The attackers win if they capture the king.
You don't win by wiping the board. You win by thinking several moves ahead and sacrificing pieces without getting sentimental about it.
Why it feels extremely Norse...The king doesn't conquer. He survives. Armies succeed by losing men correctly. Strength helps, but foresight matters more.
It's a game about protection, pressure, and knowing when to let something go so something else can get free. Make of that what you will.
Hnefatafl is part of a wider family of tafl games, including:
Tablut (recorded in Lapland)
Tawlbwrdd (Wales)
Ard Rí (Ireland)
Hnefatafl is a Viking Age strategy game about escape, sacrifice, and keeping the one thing that matters alive.
Which, honestly, explains a lot about Norse worldview.
Source: Internet
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Lucky13
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Lucky13
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One does wonder, with four bladed propellers like those, would the propeller in the front have an negative effect on the rear one, them not being....level, or are they close enough that it won't make any difference?
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Lucky13
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Nice shots!
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Lucky13
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Lucky13
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VA-146 Blue Diamonds A-4C Skyhawk BuNo 148474, NK-604, with AGM-12 Bullpup, USS Constellation, 06 October 1967.
This very missile then took down the center span of the major Chieng Chang RR/Hwy bridge, on the main supply route
between Hanoi & the Chinese border.
Photo: Hugh Magee
