Games Britannia - Dicing with Destiny

Games Britannia is a TV documentary presented by Benjamin Woolley. Through the show Benjamin explores popular games in Britain from old to new and explores the social and history behind the games we play today.

The documentary begins with Benjamin talking about the archaeological dig where a body was found in a grave and there laid an already set board game among with other relics we now know as Alea Evangelii. We are not sure why this person was buried with the game but we can say that the person must have been important such as the creator of the game itself.

The Documentary then moves on to the works of Dr. Irving Finkel the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian. Who then talks about the game, he talks about the possibilities of the games rules which are only guessed not actual rules of the games. When I say 'guessed' I mean it by the rules are unknown and from hard work research they have came to these rules.

Looking into the game mechanics and how it's rules.

- The game board consists of 19 x 19 squares shown in the image below.

- A player will have more number of pieces than the other.

- The game starts with black counters, so the player who starting with the black counters will move one of their pieces on his/her turn.

- Pieces can not move through or onto an occupied intersection, but the King piece can only move through or onto the castles and citadels.

- Capturing pieces can only be done when the enemies pieces are surrounding on two opposite sides of the players counter. Kings cannot capture enemy pieces.

- The King can only be captured when the enemy pieces are surrounding with all four sides of the King, the King can also be captured with three pieces when the King is in a corner of the board.

- To win the game the player with the black counters have to capture the King where as the player with the white counters can only win when the King has reached the corner.