The ancient asymmetric siege gets an escape hatch, the king can dig his way out, but only twice.
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How to play
An asymmetric Norse board game on a seven-by-seven grid. The attackers outnumber the defenders two to one and move first, trying to capture the king; the king's side is trying to walk him to any corner. On top of that base game the king alone can dig — a one-use tunnel that lets him leave a position the attackers thought they had closed.
Every piece moves like a rook, any distance along a rank or file.
Ordinary pieces are captured custodially: sandwich one between two of yours and it is taken.
The king takes more: four sides on the throne, three beside it, two anywhere else.
The attackers win by capturing the king; the defenders win by reaching a corner with him.
Tunnels are the king's alone and each one can only be used once, so they are an escape you spend rather than a route you keep.
Controls
Desktop: click a piece, then click a highlighted square; use the Dig Tunnel button then click a glowing arrow
Phone & tablet: full touch support, tap to move and to dig
Game modes
Versus computer, Easy, Medium, or Hard
Two-player hotseat on one device
Online multiplayer
Tips & strategy
As the attackers, close the corners before you chase the king. He only needs one, and material means nothing if he reaches it.
As the king, do not dig early. The tunnel is worth most against a position that has already committed to surrounding you.
Custodial capture means moving BETWEEN two enemies is safe — pieces are only taken when an opponent closes the sandwich, not when you walk into it.
Defenders are worth more as walls than as attackers. Four of them cannot win a material fight against eight.
Count the squares to the nearest corner every turn. Both sides are really racing that number rather than trading pieces.
Origins
The asymmetry is genuinely ancient. Tafl games were played across Northern Europe — Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Britain, Ireland and Sápmi — with two armies of uneven numbers, attackers hunting a king and the king's side running for the edge. Chess supplanted them in the 12th century.
The original addition is that the king alone can dig: one tunnel, once per game, out of a position the attackers believed was sealed.
Attackers in tafl win by closing a net, and their whole plan is built on the certainty that a closed square stays closed. One escape hatch means no encirclement is ever finished, which forces the larger army to commit to a second ring it cannot really afford.
About Tafl Tunnels
Tafl Tunnels adds a one-use burrowing twist to the classic asymmetric Norse siege game. It is an original free browser game made in-house for PlayPendium.
A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.
