Games Britannia - Dicing With Destiny

Recently I had the chance to watch a TV documentary called Games Britannia, which the presenter Benjamin Woolley explores popular games in Britain from the Iron age to the resent day, and unravels the social and cultural history behind  the games we all play today.

 The documentary starts off with Woolley who describes as archaeological dig where a grave was found, the body had been buried on to of an already set game board amongst other ancient relics we now know as Alea Evangelii. The body found in the grave must have been of some sort of importance to this amazing find, could it have been the creator of the game or some for of divination?

 Then we move on to the works of Dr. Irving Finkel, the Manager of the British Museum (at the time of broadcasting) who then talks about the possibilities of the rules if the game itself, which are only speculated at best (nothing concrete).

The board consists of 19 X 19 squares (as shown blow) and one player will have a greater number of pieces than the other.

 

Right, let's get this into the basic premise of game play:]

- A player has to move one counter on a turn.

- The Black Player must takes the first turn of the game.

- If the player cannot move one piece they lost a turn.

Movement

- No piece is able to move trough or onto an occupied intersection.

- The King is the only piece to move through or onto the Citadels.

- The King is the only piece to move through or onto the Castles.

- No piece is able to move onto or through an occupied intersection.

Capturing the King Happens:

- If the King is surrounded on three sides by the opposing pieces positioned on the edge of the game board.

- If the King is surrounded on all four sides by the opposing pieces.

Capturing the basic piece:

- The King can't be one of the counters used in the capturing of an enemy counter.

- A counter can only be captured on the opponents turn by the enemy counter on that turn.

- A counter is captured by an enemy counter when it has become surounded on two of the opposit sides by adjacent opposing counters.

End of the game:

- The player is the white counters wins the game if the King sails to the corner.

- The Player with the black counters wins the game if the King is captured.

 Woolley then goes further to investigate other ancient games we know as modern, games such as Ludo, Chess, and Snakes and Ladders to list some. These originated from India and were modified in such a sense to remove the spiritual sense and lean move towards feasibility and sales.

Overall I enjoyed learning new facts and information about the games I had enjoyed as a child which were originally spiritual games played many thousand and hundreds of years ago.