Today I ticked a point off my bucket list playing two ancient boardgames in the park with a friend. We played about five games of Hnefatafl and one of Fox and Geese in the War Memorial Park in Coventry. Hnefatafl, also known as Kings Table, is a board game popular in the Viking period. Fox and Geese is a similar game but is heavily weighted to the Geese player and so fell out of popularity in the Middle Ages. Both games are asymmetric games with unequal forces and different winning goals. They challenge the player to be competent, keep focus and work towards specific goals in pursuit of the eventual objective of winning.
My friend is called Arron and despite it being his first time playing (and having just come off a long drive from work) did very well indeed. I obviously play these games daily as part of my job and I did not cut him any slack but he soon picked up the rules and the game and after an hour was making it very hard for me to win.
It was a very enjoyable time with lots of good conversation and game play. We got a lot of interest as well from other park users. One boy sent his mother over to ask if he could have a game. In the future I would like to play more in the park so if anyone would like to join me drop me a message in the comments section.
Historytalker 