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Celtic
and Renaissance Games
Brandubh
Tawlbwrdd
Hnet
Ninemen
Quilles
Fithcheall
A Game of War
Brandubh or Fithcheall, is an Irish war game of unequal forces . There is a king, protected by his soldiers, against twice as many attackers. The object is for the king to make it to the edge of the 7 x 7 board and the object for the attackers is to capture the king. All pieces have the rook's move in chess, that is, moving vertically or horizontally, but never diagonally. The pieces also may move however many spaces they want to. Captures are made by trapping an enemy piece between two of your pieces, but an enemy piece may travel between two of your pieces (or visa versa) and pass through without harm.
X O X
X
O
X
The O piece is thus captured.
I'm sorry for the lack of a board, but I had trouble getting a proper image installed. Just take a Celtic border, from a book or the Celtic web sites, divide the middle into 7 x 7 inch squares, place the pieces as shown, and go for it!
If the board is divided up into 7 X 7 squares and you start at the lower left corner with the horizontal squares labeled A to G and vertically from 1 to 7, then there will be attackers at A3, A5, C1, C7, E1, E7, G3 and G5. The king will claim the center square and have defenders at C4, D3, D5, and E4
