Last updated on December 12th, 2025 at 05:43 pm
Hnefatafl – Board Game Review
Hnefatafl is a Board/Strategy game from Philippe Schober, first launched in 30th March 2020.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 30+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Hnefatafl Stand Out
Hnefatafl is an ancient Scandinavian board game whose variants were played all over medieval Europe before chess was even invented. In those so called Tafl games two different sized armies fight each other. The invading black army tries to capture the white king, while the defending white army tries to protect their king and help him escape.
Often also called the Game of the Vikings Hnefatafl tells many stories, like the Moskowites invasion of Sweden or the Viking hordes pillaging Britain. But no matter what the story is one thing always stays the same: The hunt for the king.
Even though the rules aren't complicated the game offers fascinating strategies and rewards tactical play. Try to surround the enemy pieces, plan ahead, lay traps and force your opponent into surrender. Will you capture the king for gold and glory? Can the loyal guards hold back the invading forces and secure the flight of their king?
You can create your own custom variants — with over 200,000 different variants possible! The online multiplayer supports crossplatform play. Play on any supported platform with just a single account*.
This game features:
- Variant "Hnefatafl"
- Variant "Hnefatafl – Copenhagen"
- Variant "Hnefatafl – Historical"
- Variant "Hnefatafl – Berserk"
- Variant "Hnefatafl – Fetlar"
- Variant "Old Hnefatafl"
- Variant "Simple Tafl"
- Variant "Sea Battle 11×11"
- Variant "Sea Battle 13×13"
- Variant "Tablut"
- Variant "Tablut – Historical ("Saami")"
- Variant "Linnaeus' Tablut"
- Variant "Foteviken Tablut"
- Variant "Ard Ri"
- Variant "Historical Ard Ri"
- Variant "Brandubh"
- Variant "Historical Brandubh"
- Variant "Magpie"
- Variant "Tawlbwrdd"
- Variant "Historical Tawlbwrdd"
- Variant "Tyr 13×13"
- Variant "Tyr 15×15"
- Variant "Tyr 19×19"
- Variant "Coppergate 15×15"
- Variant "Alea Evangelii"
- Variant "Historical Alea Evangelii"
- Custom variants for offline and Online Play*
- Offline play for two humans
- Offline play against various computer opponents
- Offline play between two computer opponents
- Online Play*
- Ingame Chat for Online Play*
- Crossplatform Online Play*
- Achievements*
- ELO scores*
- Match Browser to find the right opponent
- Match History to review your past matches
- Annotate and share matches
- Tutorial/Rules included
*) These features require the creation of a free Fellhuhn account, valid on all supported platforms.
This app is supported by advertisement which can be disabled through an one-time purchase of IAP.
This Board game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Hnefatafl is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 12th August 2024
Recent improvements include:
Fixed the problem with server connections due to certificate errors.
The AI should now prefer a quick victory over annihilating the whole enemy army.
Download & Availability
Hnefatafl is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
This app lets you play all the variants: four-piece(popular) or two-piece(historically accurate) king capture, board size from 7×7 all the way up to 19×19, different initial positions, edge or corner escape, neutral or hostile throne and/or corner squares, so you can play the variant you think is best and most fun! There are AI opponents that play the 7×7 well, but tend to be weak on larger board sizes. Fortunately however the real value of this app, is that it is popular enough to be able to play real humans from all over the world in real time(10, 20 or 30 minutes) or with correspondence time controls(1day, 2day, 1week etc). Plus there are ongoing tournaments of different variants, often with 64 participants.
We read that the king is captured when surrounded on all four sides unless its by a wall. Yet the game is taking our king when only surrounded on three sides and he has room to move. Im new to this, so? Why am we losing when hes not surrounded on all four sides.
The rules all wrong. For the king to be taken you need for pieces around him. Not this two thing. And the pieces also need to be right next to the other pieces to take the opposite person pawn.
This is by far the best platform. The developer takes great care to provide feedback and has created a masterful platform to learn and play this amazing game. We teach our young children every day and they are so eager to play, we can get them to do their homework every night with the promise of a game! The online system is incredible. We eagerly anticipate seeing the next move. Ample and customizable times are given. There is a planning mode that allows you to play through various scenarios and replay past matches so you can learn where you went wrong and really improve your skill. Our family has become true devotees to the learning and sharing the game with colleagues and friends. Even sculpting and building our own sets and using the app alongside actual boards to take advantage of the planning mode to gain skill and practice. For those who are just discovering this game, it is a REAL historical ANCIENT game with a rich history. We would recommend to anyone lucky enough to chance upon it to do a little reading on the history and origins. The time spent doing this is far more valuable than just about any other activity we commonly use our phones for now a days. The game play has a simplicity which makes it easy to gain an adequate level of proficiency in a far shorter time than chess for example, but the strategies required are complex and exciting enough to satisfy ones intellectual needs. And knowing that this was played and developed by our ancient ancestors makes it even more amazing. The built in AI is excellent for learning winning patterns and strategies and are fully customizable. This particular app allows for all the possible multitude of historical variations. Online play is simple to navigate and takes the excitement to a high level even including rankings and tournaments.
As an American, we just found out this game. We had to google the rules/game play. This game is a blast, but would be nice if there was a rules section for each of the games, as it seems each game has some variations and rules. Other wise, very nice. 5 stars for sure.
We love this version of Hnefatafl. It is so refined and makes learning and playing this classic game easy and fun. However, there is a major flaw that could be easily corrected by the designer. For example, when playing in online matches, where one player fails to move, there should be an automatic feature that forfeits their game. Ive had several matches where our opponents just stop playing in the middle of the match, and there is no way to end these games then. Theyre basically paused forever. The designer should build in an automatic forfeiture feature if an opponent fails to move after maybe 2 weeks.
We only play this game as a single player. When we make a move they should take the opponents piece by trapping it against the sides, it does not remove the piece. Yet when the computer makes the same move, it takes our piece. When we move our king to either the side border or to the corner, it does not show us as winning. But if the computer opponent makes the same move, it shows that we lost.
We deleted this App after our very first game after it repeatedly captured the King with only 2 pieces. Farvel.
The rating on this app doesnt do it justice. This is our favorite digital version of this game Ive ever played. With tons of options, play by turn online play, and the ability to access all your games between this and the PC version. No free to play monetization garbage either. Its everything you could ask for.
Really nice with tons of levels, honestly the best alternative to chess on the App Store, no idea why the other guy gave this 3 stars for music, this game should have so many more downloads. The only issue is that sometimes it does take a while for the computer to think and make a move.
The music playing in the background is Christmas music called we three kings. No appropriate for Viking board game.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 3.93
- Size: 223.81 MB
- iOS: 12.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Philippe Schober
Last updated: 12th August 2024 | Genre: Board, Strategy | Developer: Philippe Schober