Tables game
Tables games are a class of board game that includes backgammon and which are played on a tables board, typically with two rows of 12 vertical markings called points. Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces. Tables games are among the oldest known board games, and many different varieties are played throughout the world. They are called "tables" games because the boards consist of four quadrants or "tables". The vast majority are race games, the tables board representing a linear race track with start and finish points, the aim being to be first to the finish line, but the characteristic features that distinguish tables games from other race games are that they are two-player games using a large number of pieces, usually fifteen per player.
Tables games should not be confused with table games which are casino gambling games like roulette or blackjack.
Name
The word "tables" is derived from the Latin tabula which primarily meant 'board' or 'plank', but also referred to this genre of game. From its plural form, tabulae, come the names in other languages for this family of games including the Anglo-Saxon toefel, German zabel, Greek tavli, Italian tavoli, Scandinavian tafl, Spanish tablas and, of course, English and French tables. The reason for the plural is twofold: first, that a tables board comprises four separate quadrants which are a feature of the play; and second, that tabulae also came to refer to the individual pieces – "tablemen" or "men" for short – used in the various games.Definition
Most, but not all, tables games are a type of race game. They are characterised as being:- Played by two players and hence bilaterally symmetrical.
- Multiplex games; i.e., players have a large number of pieces.
- Played on a rectangular board with players sitting on the long sides.
- Played on a board with four quarters known as tables, hence the name.
Types
Movement
Parlett identifies three different modes of movement in tables games:Games without movement
A small number of tables games involve no actual movement of pieces around the board. Instead pieces are entered or borne off or both, the aim being to be the first player to do so. Examples include Alfonso's Los Doze Canes also called Los Doze Hermanos, the English games of Doublets and Catch Dolt, the French games Renette, Tables Rabattues and Paumecary, the Icelandic game of Ofanfelling and the Levantine game of Eureika. Most of these games are simple pursuits suitable for children.Games of contrary movement
This is the group to which Backgammon belongs. Some start with all pieces off the board, others with a fixed starting layout, but the aim in every case is to race them around the board in opposite directions and be first to bear them off. The group also includes Acey Deucey, known as Gegenpuff in German-speaking countries, Plakota, the "English Game", the Spanish games of Emperador, Quinze Tablas and Todas Tablas, the Italian games of Tavole Reales and Testa, and the French games of Tieste, Impérial and Trictrac.Games of parallel movement
Like other members of the tables family, games in this last group are often mistaken for Backgammon or assumed to be its variants, yet the direction of movement and hence play is quite different. Players move in the same direction around the board and that direction is always anticlockwise. The group includes the old German games of Langer Puff and Buffa, the Italian game of Buffa Cortese, the Spanish games of Laquet and Pareia de Entrada, the continental game of Verquere, French Jacquet, Turkish Moultezim and a curious Icelandic game called Chase the Girls.Tactics
Papahristou & Refanidis categorise tables games by the type of attacking tactics permitted during the game:Hitting games
This is the standard tactic in games of contrary movement such as Backgammon where players move their pieces in opposing directions. In a hitting game, the players may hit enemy blots off the board. To do this a point must be occupied by only one opposing piece – this is called a blot – and the attacking player must move a piece onto that point. The blot is "hit" or "knocked off" the board and is usually placed on the bar between the two halves of the board.Pinning games
s are also games of contrary movement. However, no hitting is allowed. Instead, the attacking player may pin a blot by moving a piece onto the same point. The blot is not removed from the board, but is trapped and not permitted to move until the covering man is moved off. Plakoto is an example of a pinning game.Running games
A running game is a game in which no hitting or pinning is allowed and the game is essentially a race to bear off all one's pieces first. Points occupied even by one enemy man are blocked to the other side. They are usually games of parallel movement, like Fevga, where players move around the board in the same direction, but some, like Gioul, are games of contrary movement where players race their pieces past one another in opposing directions.History
Numerous archaeological discoveries witness to game boards and artefacts bearing a strong resemblance to those used in race games and ancient texts give an idea of their play in some cases. These bilateral race games may well be the ancestors of the tables game family. They include the Alea, Dogs and Jackals, Duodecim Scripta, the Game of Twenty, Grammai, the Royal Game of Ur, Senet and Nard.The history of tables games may be divided into different periods of development:
- Pre-classical period: Grammai and other early race games
- Classical period: notably Ludus duodecim scriptorum and Tabula
- Nard period: from its invention or earliest appearance in Southwestern Asia before AD 800
- Tables period: tables games from their arrival in Spain or Italy from the Arabic world around the turn of the first millennium
- Modern period: the rise of more sophisticated games from the 15th century onwards including Trictrac and Backgammon
Pre-classical period
Persia
The history of tables games and their race game forerunners can be traced back nearly 5,000 years to Persia, where excavations in 2006 at the Burnt City unearthed objects that appear to be part of a game set dating to around 3000 BC. These artefacts include an ebony board, two dice and 60 pieces, with the playing fields represented by the coils of a serpent. The rules of this game, like others found in Egypt, have yet to be discovered. It is, however, made from ebony, a material more likely to be found in the Indian subcontinent, which indicates such board games may be more widespread than once thought.Mesopotamia
Prior to the Persian discovery, the oldest board game sets had been found in Ur and are thought to have been created 100 to 200 years later. They were used for the Royal Game of Ur, played in ancient Mesopotamia. These finds are significant because of two Babylonian tablets with cuneiform descriptions of the game played on these game sets, the later one dated and the other one dating to several centuries earlier. These represent the oldest rule sets of any race game and clearly show this Sumerian game to be ancestral to the tables game family.Egypt
Another ancient race game was Senet, played by the ancient Egyptians around the same time. Board fragments that could be Senet have been found in First Dynasty burials in Egypt,, but the first painting of this ancient game is from the Third Dynasty. People are depicted playing Senet in a painting in the tomb of Rashepes, as well as other tombs dating to. The oldest complete Senet boards date to the Middle Kingdom.Senet was played in neighbouring cultures, probably arriving there through trade links with the Egyptians. It has been found in the Levant at sites such as Arad and Byblos, as well as in Cyprus. Because of the local practice of making games out of stone, more Senet games have survived in Cyprus than in Egypt.