Cool ancient or medieval tabletop games?

[Kyriakos]

Apparently this was a byzantine tabletop game, and tied to chess:

Iirc typical chess also existed, and was termed Zatrikion (which afaik means 'absolute victory'). In the version in the pic the moves go in a circle and not in a line. It seems that the central circle is impassable terrain, and you can attack from two sides instead of the one in regular chess

You can post your own suggestions/info in this thread

 

[Borachio]

Nine Men's Morris.

 

[Arakhor]

I used to play that a lot with my mother.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I've heard about some variations of chess, some... more interesting than others. For instance I think the variation that Tamerlane tended to play had a few extra pieces like the elephant. I also heard that in medieval Japan, some chess theorists created some chess variants with hundreds and hundreds of pieces all with different ways of moving - I imagine these varations of chess were not particularly practical to play and the guys just did it for the lulz

 

[Borachio]

I used to play that a lot with my mother.

Nine Men's Morris? It's good isn't it?

I haven't played it in a long time.

Go is good as well. Though I only played it a couple of times.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I've been intrigued by Senet and The Game of Twenty Squares. The game boards would be easy to make, and at one time I asked my dad to think about making a board and set of cones and spindles and the sticks they (ancient Egyptians) used in place of dice.