Thud
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Thud is a board game devised by Trevor Truran and first published in 2002, inspired by the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett. It bears a slight resemblance to the ancient Norse games of Hnefatafl and Tablut (and, in Dwarfish, is supposedly called "Hnaflbaflwhiflsnifltafl") but has been radically redefined to be less one sided. The two sides are dwarfs and trolls, the game representing the famous Battle of Koom Valley.
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Overview of game-play
In the game, the objective is to eliminate the opposition's pieces. As mentioned before, the two antagonists are the trolls and the dwarfs, the trolls being few in number (but individually very powerful), while there are a large number of dwarves, but each individual dwarf is very weak and requires support from nearby dwarfs to be of use against the trolls. As in fox games (a variant on tafl games), the two sides have different pieces with different movement and attacking styles.
Thud uses an unconventional, octagonal board divided into smaller squares, with only one piece allowed to occupy each square.
Fictional origins
Terry Pratchett has devised a fictional history of how Thud was invented, which bears some similarity to the Shahnama theory of the origins of chess.
"In short, the clever dwarf who invented the game was asked by his king to name his reward. The answer was that he wanted his board filled with gold: One small gold piece on the first square, two pieces on the second, four pieces on the third, etc. Needless to say this is more than all the gold of the Disc combined. The king then got angry and threatened to kill the dwarf who was 'too drhg'hgin clever by half'. The inventor then hastily changed his reward to 'as much gold as he could carry', whereupon the king agreed and simply broke one of his arms."
Gameplay
The octagonal playing area consists of a 15x15 square board in which a triangle of 15 squares has been removed from each corner. The Thudstone is placed on the centre square of the board, where it remains for the entire game and may not be moved onto or through. The eight trolls are placed onto the eight squares orthogonally and diagonally adjacent to the Thudstone and the thirty-two dwarfs are placed so as to occupy all the perimeter spaces except for the four in the same horizontal or vertical line as the Thudstone. (A photograph of the initial setup may be found at [1]). The dwarfs always move first.
On the dwarfs' turn, they may either
- Move: any one dwarf is moved like a chess queen, any number of squares in any orthogonal or diagonal direction, but not onto or through any other piece, whether dwarf, troll, or Thudstone; or
- Capture: anywhere there is a straight (orthogonal or diagonal) line of adjacent dwarfs on the board, they may hurl the endmost dwarf in the direction continuing the line, up to as many spaces as there are dwarfs in the line. This is different from a normal move in that the dwarf is permitted to land on a square containing a troll, in which case the troll is removed from the board and the dwarf takes his place. This may only be done if the endmost dwarf can land on a troll by moving in the direction of the line at most as many spaces as there are dwarfs in the line. Notice that since a single dwarf is a line of 1 in any direction, a dwarf may always move 1 space to capture a troll on an immediately adjacent square.
On the trolls' turn, they may
- Move: one troll is moved like a chess king, one square in any orthogonal or diagonal direction onto an empty square. After the move, any dwarfs on the eight squares adjacent to the troll are immediately captured and removed from the board. (However, a dwarf on its turn may move next to a troll and is not automatically taken, and moreover the troll cannot then move onto the dwarf's square to capture it: in this situation the troll can only capture the dwarf by making a move to a different empty square which is also adjacent to the dwarf.) Or they may
- Capture: anywhere there is a straight (orthogonal or diagonal) line of adjacent trolls on the board, they may shove the endmost troll in the direction continuing the line, up to as many spaces as there are trolls in the line. As in a normal move, the troll may not land on an occupied square, but any dwarfs in the eight squares adjacent to its final position are immediately captured. However, the trolls may only make a shove if by doing so they capture at least one dwarf.
The battle is over when both players agree that no more captures can be made by continuing to play. At this point they count score: the dwarfs score 1 point for each surviving dwarf, and the trolls score 4 for each remaining troll. The players should then swap sides to play another round, and the sum of their scores for the two battles determines the final victor.
The rules are now available on the official website ([2]).
Koom Valley Thud
For the 2005 rerelease of Thud, Truran devised a substantially different game that could be played with the same board and pieces, known as Koom Valley Thud. Unlike the original release in which the publishers attempted to keep the game rules secret so that anyone wishing to play would have to buy the official set (until someone paraphrased them above), the rules for Koom Valley Thud were posted on the official website ([3]) so that owners of the original edition would have access to the new rules.
External links
- Official site, including Pratchett's Story of Thud