Nibelungenlied

Nibelungenlied

Designer: Richard Vickery
Publisher: About.com: 2003 Simultaneous Movement Game Design Competition
Type: Board
Status: Free
Available from: http://boardgames.about.com/library/games/on/bl-simul-nibelungenlied.htm

An interesting game played on a triangle-based board based on The Nibelungenlied, an epic poem written in Germany about 1200AD.

Components

• A set of chess pieces
• Two screens
• A triangular grid board with 5 vertices on each edge, with the three vertices in each corner marked off as 'castles.' The base of the board has the West corner at the left and the East corner at the right. The peak of the triangle is called North. The castles are Xanten in the West (the Netherlands), Worms in the East (Burgundy), and Isenstein in the North (Iceland).

The forces of Tragic Destiny (Tod) and Natural Order (NO) are in opposition.

NO wins if Siegfried marries Brunhild or Kriemhild, which occurs if Siegfried is alone with either queen in a castle (both pieces occupy vertices of the same castle and the third vertex is vacant).

Tod wins if Gunther marries Brunhild, which occurs if Gunther and Siegfried are both in a castle with Brunhild; or if Gunther and Hagen kill Siegfried by the three of them occupying the neighbouring vertices on a triangle, with no vertex being part of a castle.

The victory conditions can be filled at any point in a turn, and the game ends immediately.

An entry into the About.com: 2003 Simultaneous Movement Game Design Competition.