Seega Game process

Hello, everyone--figured it was time to get back into updating the blog regularly--apologies for the overlong delay.

Any of you that have read the older posts know that I like to write not only about the games we make, but the stages and processes we use to make them.  This entry focuses mainly on a small batch of Seega games we've nearly completed, but the process itself applies (mostly) to how we assemble our tafl boards as well.  There are basically three components to these game boards as we makes them: the base, the game squares, and the frame.  The base we simply cut to size from a sheet of plywood (typically luaun).  The squares themselves, since they are the face of the game board, we cut from a nicer quality oak plywood.  To cut the squares, I cut thin strips of the plywood on my table saw. Then, I stack them 4 deep and cut them using a miter saw.

This picture shows one of my oak plywood strips on the miter saw with the jig i use for Seega and tafl board squares.

I usually just dedicate an hour or two a week to cut a lot of squares, and bag them in bags of 40.

Once I have the bases and the squares cut, we just carefully the glue the sqaures on.  I usually have a little trim-work to do on the sides of the boards, but then I cut the board frames.  For the Seega games, I cut simple unstained L-shape molding to size and then stain them.  Once the stain dries, we glue the frame to the board.

Here are four of the Seega boards, two have been glued  and dried, two are still clamped and drying.

Once the glue dries, we stain the boards and the frames to bring out the texture.  This batch we just stained a few hours ago with a dark walnut stain.   I tried to get the light so you can see the wet stain.  We put the first coat on for half an hour, the second coat for 15 minutes. After that, they get wiped down to dry for at least 8 hours. After that, they're pretty much finished.

New Tafl Pieces

Had to wait three days for our new tafl piece mold to cure, but it was finally ready to go last night. We went ahead and cast a set for Tablut.  These are simple black and white, I'd like to go for more of a stone like effect later.

Game Board Squares

Spent some time today cutting squares out of oak plywood.  These are 1 1/4 inch squares that we'll use for our tafl games (mainly Tablut and Ard Ri for now).  We use the same size for our Seega games, but we typically use pine for those.  During assembly, we need to do a light sanding to make sure everything fits correctly, and then the pieces are glued onto a base.

Casting new Tafl Game Pieces

So we decided we wanted a choice of game pieces for our Tafl boards.  For the new set, we're going simple, just a sphere on a base, inspired by some of the simple stone pieces of authentic germanic boards.  It's all one piece, cast in the same mold, but we'll play around with simple color variations.  These four will be used to create a 4-piece master mold.  This picture shows the new ones in front of a few of our larger Tafl pieces.

Blank Tablut Gameboard

It's been over a week since I've cut anything, so I cut and shaped the frame to this 11 x 11 Tablut board that I made about 2 weeks ago.  Here they are, unsanded, unstained, and unglued.   We're also working on a new design for the tafl game pieces.  I found some cool glass globe style tafl game pieces online that I think I'll base a new set on.

Gluing the Tablut Frame

Finally got around to gluing the frame for the Tablut board.  The frame is only about half an inch thick at its widest, so my corner straps were a little tricky to get in place. 

The individual squares for this board are 1 1/4 inches on a side, and the overall gameboard is just under 12" x 12" with the frame.

Finished Tablut board

Well, mostly finished. The 9x9 gameboard is still drying (applied a coat of danish oil).  Played around with a few different router settings before settling on a border frame that we liked. Once it's dried and glued, we'll probably add a high gloss or semi gloss finish to it.

Rough Tafl board--Ard Ri

This is an unfinished Tafl board with game pieces.  Tafl board games are a family of Germanic and Celtic games, and the boards themselves ranged from 7x7 squares to a board to as many as 19x19 squares.  Tafl games were a favorite of the Vikings, and often show up in places they frequented.  Our Tafl board is a Scottish variant called Ard-Ri ("High King").  As is typical of these ancient games, the rules we play by today are largely conjecture, but in general the game play involves two sides, one of which is typically outnumbered 2:1.  The smaller force, in the case of Ard Ri, is composed of a king (who starts in the center) and eight soldiers.  The opposing force surrounds the king's forces and attempt to capture the king.  If the king successfuly moves to a corner, then the game is over in favor of the king's player. 

Considering the range of Tafl games out there, not to mention my own love of Norse antiquity, we'll definitely be spending quite a bit of time crafting more of these games.

Tafl Board Game Pieces

We finally created the molds to cast game pieces for our tafl board.  The amount of detail that the  cast resin pieces picked up from the carved wood prototypes was amazing.  Like Senet, the rules for Tafl board games are largely reconstructed with a healthy dose of educated guesswork.  One thing that is consistent is the ratio of pieces, where one side is set against a side with twice the number of knights.  In addition, the smaller side has a King, who attempts to evade the larger force.

This image shows the original wooden prototype on the right, with  the first casts on the left. Like chess, the difference between the two sides is the difference in color. Red typically represented the side of the King.

Here's a close up of the king flanked by two of his knights.

Hnefetafl--branching out a bit

For the last several months Senet and Tjau have been our focus (or obsession, whatever).  While we'll continue to produce works inspired by these games, we've started to look at other cultures and other ancient games as well.  Ancient Indian and Germanic games have been on our list of games to pursue for quite a while.  This picture shows the two main game pieces we'll probably use for the germanic Hnefetafl strategy game.  The pieces were hand carved out of wood, and we'll use them to produce molds the same way we did for the Senet game pieces.