Daldøs
| Years active | First documented in 1800s. Fallen largely out of use by first half of 1900s. |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) |
Board game Running-fight game Dice game |
| Players | 2 |
| Setup time | 30 seconds - 1 minute |
| Playing time | 5–60 minutes |
| Random chance | Medium (dice rolling) |
| Skill(s) required | Strategy, tactics, counting, probability |
| Synonym(s) | Daldøsa |
Daldøs [dal'døs] is a running-fight board game only known from a few coastal locations in Scandinavia, where its history can be traced back to around 1800. The game is notable for its unusual four-sided dice (stick or long dice). In Denmark it is known as daldøs in Northern and Western Jutland (Mors, Thisted and Fanø), and possibly as daldos on Bornholm. In Norway it is known under the name of daldøsa from Jæren, where, unlike in Denmark, a continuous tradition of the daldøs game exists. A rather similar game called sáhkku, using virtually identical dice, is known in a number of variants from the Sea Sami in Northern Norway, Finland and Russia. Otherwise, the closest relatives of this game appear to be the tâb games from Northern Africa and South-western Asia, possibly apart from one unlabelled diagram in a codex from Southern England.
Board
The board is boat-shaped and has three parallel rows of holes, two of which (A and B) have 16 holes each, while the middle row (C) has an extra hole in the prow of the ship.
Pieces
Each player has 16 spatula-shaped pieces with a bottom end fitting into the holes of the board. One player has pieces that are rather wide and thin; whereas the other player's pieces are more obelisk-shaped. At the beginning of the game, player A's pieces are placed in the holes of row A so that the spatulas are perpendicular to the row (un-dalled), and equivalently for player B. Later in the game, the pieces will be turned (fordallede, or dalled) so that the spatula is parallel to the rows.
Dice
Two special dice are used. Each die is a four-sided long die with pyramidal or rounded ends, preventing the die from standing on end. They may be about 2 by 2 cm in cross section, and 4 cm long. The four sides are marked A (with the value 1, called dallen, i.e. the dal), II (2, probably called døs), III (3) and IIII (4). According to some sources, the dal is opposite to III.
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