Board Games at Cyningstan

News/Blog

11 Jan 2012: Reconstructing Hnefatafl - a Series of Four Articles

For some reason the booklet Reconstructing Hnefatafl never got added to this site before. This oversight has now been rectified, and the booklet is available in the Learn section, in the group of one-off documents. Reconstructing Hnefatafl is a booklet which has been in draft form since 2007, but has been referred to in that form by other researchers. The intention is to finish off this booklet eventually, perhaps amending it with more up-to-date research, but time has not allowed this in the past five years! (Read more...)

10 Dec 2011: We are now on Google Plus

Users of the Google+ social media site can now add Board Games at Cyningstan to their circles. We'll be sharing stories on there and monitoring the stream for replies and updates. So if you're on Google+, why not pop along and have a look? The page is at http://bit.ly/viEKaL - or can be accessed by searching for "Board Games at Cyningstan". (Read more...)

13 Nov 2011: The Pocket Book of Board Games

This little hardback book was written by John Astrop, and published in 1980 by Kestrel Books. It contains fourteen games which are a mixture of traditional and invented games, but all are board games in the traditional style for two players. It is brightly illustrated and, while slightly too large for most pockets, it is still compact enough to be portable. It is aimed at a younger audience. (Read more...)

06 Nov 2011: Making Board, Peg and Dice Games

What attracted me to this book, written by Jeff and Jennie Loader and published in 1993 by Guild of Master Craftsman Publications, were two things. One, it contained a description of madelinette, the only one I have so far found in printed form. Two, the image on the cover depicts two other traditional board games, halma and four field kono, both being professional-looking sets and promising much for the "making" aspect of the book. (Read more...)

30 Oct 2011: Discovering Old Board Games

Robert Charles Bell (1917-2002) was a medical doctor by trade. But it is for his hobbies, as much as his profession, that he became widely known during his lifetime. He contributed articles to coin collectors' magazines. And he researched, played and wrote about traditional board games: one of his books is covered elsewhere on this site, and much of the gaming material here was taken from his works. (Read more...)

23 Oct 2011: The World of Games

One of the first books to introduce me to traditional board games was The World of Games, by Jack Botermans, Tony Burrett, Pieter van Delft and Carla van Splunteren. Popular enough to be translated into several languages, this book gives details of about 100 board games, as well as card games, dominoes, dice and other types of game. (Read more...)