I thought I'd follow up last month's Brandubh variant with another one you might be interested in. This one is based on the Welsh game tawlbwrdd. What we know about the game comes from a Welsh manuscript in 1587, written by Robert ap Ifan. He gives an imprecise description of the layout of the pieces on the board, and neglects to tell us how they move, but he does tell us about capture. Victory for the king isn't clear. Details have been filled in mainly by R. C. Bell, who I follow. But I don't bother with the dice that he introduces, as these aren't mentioned in the manuscript and they really ruin the game in my opinion.

1. The game is played with a king, twelve defenders and twenty-four attackers, on a board eleven squares by eleven. The king sits in the centre, with his defenders around him in a diamond shape, while the attackers form four hollow pentagonal shapes around the edge of the board. I won't even attempt to describe this layout in any more detail, it's best viewed here:

http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imatge:Tauler_de_tawlbwrdd.jpg

2. The object of the game for the king is to reach any square on the edges of the board. The attackers, as usual, have to capture the king.

3. The attacking side begins. Movement (it is now supposed) is in the same way as tablut: as far as you like either horizontally or vertically. There are no recorded restrictions on the central square.

4. Capture for ALL pieces is by custodianship, that is, surrounding an enemy piece on two sides by pieces of your own. The king may capture, but may himself be captured in the same way as other men.

In Bell's reconstruction, only the king can come to rest between two other pieces, but from my memory of the original rules (which I read in translation), this seems to apply to all pieces. The variant I present here seems, after a few games, to be relatively balanced.