Dablot Prejjesne
Standard Dablot Prejjesne Opening Position
Alternate Names
Dablo. Known variants include Dablot Dåres and Dablot Åsele.
No. of Players
Two
Equipment
A Dablot Prejjesne board, twenty-eight each of small black and white counters, one each of medium black and white counters, and one each of large black and white counters are required for play. The game is a representation of a confrontation between indigenous Lapp Warriors and tenant farmers and the counters are ranked in regard to their size with a larger counter being more powerful. The Lapps have twenty-eight warriors (small size), a prince (medium size, here marked with a four-pointed star) and a king (large size, here marked with a five-pointed star). Equivalently, the tenant farmers have twenty-eight farmers (small), a landlord’s son (medium), and a landlord (large).
There are several variants which may be played on the larger Dablot Dåres Board or smaller Dablot Åsele Board. Up to thirty-three of the smallest counters are required for larger variants.
History
The game originates from the Saami people of Frostviken, Sweden and was first described in English by R. C. Bell.
Objective
The game is won when one player can no longer defend himself and resigns. Often, a player resigns after the capture of his or her king/landlord counter, even though this may not be an official win. A player loses the game if all their counters except the king/landlord have been captured.
Play
All of the counters are arranged on intersections of the board in the opening position as shown above. Alternate turns entail a move of a single counter along a line in any direction to an adjacent vacant intersection or the capture of opposing counter(s) by the short jump over it in a straight line to a necessarily vacant position beyond. However, a counter cannot capture another counter above its rank. This means that the king and the landlord can capture any enemy counter; the prince and son cannot capture the landlord and king; and soldiers and farmers may only capture each other. Captured counters are removed from the board and game. Double or multiple captures in one move are permitted and direction may be changed after each enemy counter has been jumped. Traditionally, capture is not compulsory but players may wish to adopt this rule to speed the game up. There is no promotion of counters.
Strategy
Large groups of friendly counters are not as vulnerable to attack.
Variations
Several variants are known, although not all have been completely described. Many variations do not have the equivalent of the prince/son counter and only play with one king and varying numbers of warrior/farmer counters. In addition to the varying board sizes and varying counters used, variations may only allow the warrior/farmer counters to move forward, towards the opposite side of the board from which they commence. King/landlord counters move and capture in any direction and soldier/farmers may capture by short leap in any direction. The concept of compulsory capture, usually only required for the warrior/farmer counters, is known to be used in these games but may only be an adaptation borrowed from Checkers.
Dablot Åsele from the village of Åsele in Vilhelmina, Sweden (left) also does not use a prince/son counter and calls for a smaller board. There is a game that uses this same board from Frostviken, Sweden that utilizes the prince/son counter (right).
Sources
Parlett, David. The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999
Dablot Prejjesne at Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dablot_Prejjesne
Dablot Prejjesne at Board Game Geek. https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13777/dablot-prejjesne