Daldøsa

Daldøsa is a Danish and Norwegian running-fight game, traditionally played on a boat-shaped board. Although piece moves are dictated by dice throws, the aim of the game is not to be the first one to get his/her piece(s) home, as in race games. Captured pieces don't start again or are forced back, as in typical race games, but disappear from the game altogether, and the winner is the player who captures all his or her opponent's pieces. As each player has potentially multiple pieces to move, the game is a balance between chance and strategy.

Daldøsa is at least a few hundred years old, but next to nothing is known of its origin, and it may well be much older. It is very similar to a family of games ('tab' games) known from North Africa, the Middle East and the Arab world, which raises the question as to how it got to Scandinavia .... One hypothesis is that the east Vikings (Varangians) brought it back from Byzantium something like a thousand years ago.

My Daldøsa set was part of a 2-in-1 set of Scandinavian board games, together with Hnefatafl, that I got some years ago. The board is in the shape of a Viking longboat ...

... and the pieces are roughly shaped like warriors carrying shields.

Note the traditional long dice!