Tablut (C64 and Android)

Tablut is a traditional Scandinavian and Saami board game from the tafl family, the same family as Hnefatafl which was played by the Vikings over 1000 years ago. It was written down by Carl Linnaeus in 1732 and is the version of the game for which we have the most complete historical rules. A king and eight defenders face sixteen attackers on a 9x9 board.

The king wins by reaching any square on the edge of the board. There are no special corner squares in Tablut, so every edge square is an escape point. This makes open ranks and files leading to the edge very dangerous for the attackers.

Out in the open the king is captured like any soldier, by trapping him between two attackers on opposite sides. When he stands next to the castle, the castle counts as one side, so three attackers are enough. When he is on the castle, all four surrounding squares must be occupied by attackers.

The attacking side moves first. Linnaeus did not record who started, so this is a modern convention adopted for tournament play. With the reconstructed historical rules, Tablut is considered a well balanced and competitive game for both sides.

The exact game rules can be read from the games menu. 

F1: Save game (5 slots)

F3: Menu (Load game, Music, Difficulty, Instructions)

F5: Stereo / Mono

M: Change 3 different songs in-game or mute

For Commodore C64, C128, C64 Ultimate, C77, emulators. CRT and D64 images.

APK for Android phone, allow installing from "unknown sources".