Hnefatafl Viking Chess

This game is one of the most beautiful board games we've owned. Each plastic piece is cut with geometric angles, creating pleasant-looking pieces that you would expect to be hewn from stone or jade. Each piece is stored in a felt-lined form box so that when you open the box, the pieces look like jewels. The game board is one solid piece, which is nice for a game that relies on moving between squares. Why do I go on about the aesthetics of this game? Because in a simple game, aesthetics matter. You could play this game with pieces of paper - the rules are not complex. But this gives a beautiful play experience and therefore I found it worth the cost. The teal blue pieces (medium pieces) are the offense, trying to attack the white (tallest piece) king. He is defended by a small band of short pieces. The rules are simple, and I will say that they aren't the easiest to read on the vellum instruction paper. Nice visuals are given to demonstrate the basic rules. We all caught on, including the 9yo who played with us. This game is for 2 people.

Pronounced "Neff-ah-tah-full", this game is easy to learn and a challenge to complete! All pieces move in straight lines much like pawns in chess, but to take other pawns you have to pinch them instead of jumping them like in checkers. The king has to be surrounded on all 4 sides (with an exception) and the king is the only piece with special rules as far as movement but it only has to do with where only that piece can land. There are good instructional videos out there and you will pick it up fast! Since the king can escape to any of the 4 corners, you have to cover a lot of directions instead of just across from you like checkers. Because of this, you can get so focused on one corner that you forget you have a straight 1 or 2 move shot to the opposite corners and the king can escape suddenly! That is always a funny moment for the king player. The only thing that can get a little bothersome is the tall/thin pieces are hard to grab when they are all crowded together and there is not much grip to them. Keep an eye on where pieces were because there will be some knocking over. I bought this as a birthday gift for my husband, and since we were already on a Valheim kick it fit with the theme. I imagine if you have a teenager that you want to spend more in person time with, and they were playing that game, you could get them to play this with you. It certainly got us to miss a night online!

I bought this for my husband’s Birthday a few days ago. We’ve already played several hours of it together and have found the game to be really challenging and fun. The quality of this set is top notch. From the chess board to the wooden painted pawns, and all the way to the box and packaging elements. Our only complaint is that we could’ve used a few more instructions on how the game is to be played. The instructions included in the set are very limited and we had to look up some YouTube videos to make full sense of the rules. Other than that, fun unique game, cool aesthetic, and really beautiful set!

Really love playing the game. Easier and quicker to learn and play than chess and offers many ways to strategize as the attacker or defender which offers loads of re-playability. The pieces are really pretty to look at and are finished very well, however because they are very light weight, while trying to set them up/play with them they often fall, knocking others over and are fiddly given the small size of the board. Would have given 5 stars if the pieces had a little more weight to them. Highly recommend as a gift.

Great game gave it as a Christmas gift!

This Hnefatafl board game is awesome and great quality for the price! My only complaint is my specific Hnefatafl board game didn't come with instructions (and isn't on the box) like it says it does in one of the pictures but they have a great product video explaining the rules so I will still give it 5 out of 5 stars!

The viking chess set is in great condition would recommend. But one or two rules are a bit hard to understand. One: moving one of you pieces between two enemy pieces will not get it captured. Two: only the king piece can land on the white spaces(no mention of this rule is in the box but its listed in every version of this game you can find online) Besides that the rules are quite easy to learn

Got one as a birthday present and my husband and I played it every day for weeks. Easy to learn rules and gets more challenging the more you play. Bought this game for both of my adult kids for their birthdays. Pieces are solid

Les pions sont en bois, la planche très belle. Une belle boite, en somme une belle qualité. Le jeu est très plaisant, mon fils adore son cadeau.

The product is gorgeous and well made, but a few wooden pieces were scarred or slightly chipped (probably a production defect in my case). The colours are nice in all of it's parts (case, pieces, game board, insructions).

the only reason i got this version is because it was the cheapest (and its already 40cad). all other options basically double in price. the colours and theming are good for kids but the actual build quality needs work. the board spaces are very small and the pieces are essentially an exact fit, making them all very close together and very hard to grab, even for kids. on top of that, the blue pieces are tall and lightweight so its very easy to keep kep knocking them over. its also kind of disappointing that for 40$, they're just coloured blockes. youd think theyd be carved or have themed pictures or something. While you can argue "you get what you pay for" since again it was the cheapest option, at 40$ which is already the price of most board games, i'd still expect better. at the end of the day it doesnt change the game, and with there being centuries of variations, its easy to switch things up. just be prepared to keep knocking pieces over

Les pions sont long et facile à faire tomber. Le dragon sur la planchette est beau mais ne nous permet pas de bien voir les cases. Le jeux est quand même beau et solide. J’aurais aimé avoir les explications du jeu en français.