- Dablot Prejjesne
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Dablot Prejjesne is a two-player abstract strategy board game from the Lappland region of Sweden. The game is also called Dablo. Dablot Prejessne in Laplandish actually means "To play Dablo on a board". The game represents the struggle between the Sami tribal people and the landowners. The Sami people are represented in this game with one piece representing the Sami King ("gånneka"), one piece representing the Sami Prince ("gånnekan alke"), and 28 pieces representing their soldiers or warriors ("dårake"), . The landowners are represented with one piece representing the landowner, one piece representing the landowner's son, and 28 pieces representing their peasants. The game is a relative of draughts and Alquerque. Pieces leap over one another to capture. However, the similarities basically end there. In draughts and Alquerque, any piece can capture any enemy piece whether that enemy piece is a King or not. In Dablot Prejessne, pieces can only capture each other if they are of the same rank or lower. They cannot capture pieces of a higher rank. The Sami King and the landowner are the highest ranked pieces and are equal in rank, therefore, they can capture each other and all other pieces. The Sami Prince and the landowner's son are the second highest ranked pieces, and are of equal rank. The Sami Prince can not capture the landowner, and likewise, the landowner's son can not capture the Sami King. However, they can capture each other, and all the other pieces. The 28 soldiers or warriors and the 28 peasants are the lowest ranked pieces. The 28 soldiers or warriors can not capture the landowner or the landowner's son. Likewise, the 28 peasants cannot capture the Sami King or the Sami Prince. However, they can capture each other. All pieces do move alike, and can move and capture in any direction. There is no promotion of pieces in Dablot Prejjesne.
Its closest relative in the draught family may be Italian checkers and Italian Damone. In all these games, a lower rank piece can not capture a higher rank piece. However, in Dablot Prejjesne ranks are pre-determined, and never change, whereas, in Italian checkers, pieces must be promoted to King in order to gain higher rank. In Italian Damone there are pre-determined ranked pieces also, however, it is played on an 8 x 8 draughts board with far less pieces as compared to Dablot Prejjesne.
The board used is very similar to that of Kharbaga. The difference is that in Kharbaga, the board is 5 x 5 whereas in Dablot Prejjesne, the board is 6 x 7.
Contents
Goal
A player wins if it captures all their opponent's pieces. Alternatively, a player can win by stalemating the other player by not allowing him or her to make a move.
Equipment
The board used is a 6 (width) x 7 (length) grid board with diagonal lines running throughout the board. It is similar to the Kharbaga board, but just bigger.
Each player has 30 pieces total. One player plays the Sami tribe which can be the red colored pieces, and one player plays the landowner party which can be the black colored pieces.
The Sami tribe consist of 1 Sami King piece, 1 Sami Prince piece, and 28 soldiers or warriors (here-in-forth will be referred to as soldiers).
The landowner party consist of 1 landowner piece, 1 landowner's son piece, and 28 peasants.
Game Play and Rules
1. Players decide what colors to play, and who starts first.
2. The 28 soldiers or peasants are initially setup on each player's half of the board. The Sami King and Sami Prince are placed on the two points in front of the soldiers and on the player's farthest right on the sixth and seventh rank (please refer to the first external link below for a visual description of the initial setup for both Sami tribe and landowner party). Similarly, the landowner and the landowner's son are placed on the player's farthest right on the sixth and seventh rank.
3. All pieces move alike. Only one piece may be moved per turn, or used to capture. A piece moves one space in any direction onto a vacant point.
4. Pieces can only capture pieces of the same rank or lower. The Sami King and landowner are the highest ranked pieces and are of equal rank to one another, therefore, they can capture each other, and all the other pieces. The Sami Prince and the landowner's son are the second highest ranked pieces, and are equal in rank to one another, therefore, they cannot capture the Sami King or landowner, however, they can capture each other, and the other lower pieces. The Sami soldiers and landowner peasants are the lowest ranked pieces, and are of equal rank to one another. They can not capture the Sami King or Sami Prince, and the landowner or the landowner's son, however, they can capture each other.
A piece must be adjacent to an enemy piece in order to capture. The piece captures the adjacent enemy piece by the short leap as in draughts or Alquerque. The piece leaps over the adjacent enemy piece in a straight line, and lands on a vacant point on the other side following the pattern on the board. Multiple captures are allowed. The traditional rules to Dablot Prejjesne are not completely known. It is unknown if captures are compulsory, however, to enliven the game, captures should be compulsory. Even with this rule, the game is still somewhat long and tedious. In smaller variants, it is enough to simply capture the Sami King or landowner in order to win. This concept could be applied to the standard size Dablot Prejjesne which enlivens the game even more.
5. There is no promotion of pieces in this game.
Related Games
- Italian Checkers
- Italian Damone
- Draughts
- Alquerque
- Kharbaga
External links
Categories:- Abstract strategy games
- Traditional board games
- Sami culture
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