Ancient Games

The Royal Game of Ur

Ur is a game which was found in Iraq and was played over 2000 years ago. The game has a simple objective and an equally simple set of rules, however most game boards appear to be quite complicated in terms of style (especially when compared to modern day iterations such as your typical checkered chess board). The rules of the game can easily be found online but it's interesting to note that the game does feature some element of decision-making in the moves which you take, not unlike Backgammon in some ways.

Senet

Senet is an ancient Egyptian game and has some similarities to Ur, although the board is elongated and has 30 squares as opposed to the 20 squares on the Ur board. As with Ur you roll a number of pieces which depict the amount of squares you may move a piece and you attempt to get to the opposing end from where you start. Some minor elements of tactics are encountered in this game, once again much like Ur. The most notable aspect of the game is its symbolic approach and attempt at a narrative; it depicts the journey into the afterlife (your pieces must move to their final rest at the end of the board). As earlier spoken of with Alea Evangelii and the Stanway Game, this indicates that games have had great cultural and religious significance.

Duodecim Scripta

This Roman game plays and in some cases looks very similar to Backgammon and is a possible precursor to the modern game. The game is sometimes known as "The Game of Twelve Markings" and is sometimes presented as a set of six words of six letters each. Each letter in this instance would be a space which can hold a player's token. One interesting board discovered appeared to be disguised as a restaurant menu of some kind.

Tafl Games

Tafl refers to a series of very similar games which appear to be Scandinavian in origin. Tablut is a fairly well documented version of this game and is probably the ancient game which I found to be the most engaging due to the strategy involved. Most variations of the game are intended to depict a battle between uneven forces, which is a theme I find exciting (and is therefore possibly a large contributing factor to my enjoyment).