In Sahkku, your soldiers begin asleep, a neutral king can change sides, and a single landing can remove several opposing pieces. If you're learning the game, the soldier’s path and the king's shifting allegiance are the parts to watch.
Sahkku is a traditional Sámi "running-fight" game with several historical rule variations. The board and pieces make more sense once you follow their route through a turn.
A game nearly forgotten
In Laponia, published in 1673, Johannes Schefferus described a game played among the Sámi people of northern Europe. He noted its long dice and their markings but didn't record the game's name. John Milford supplied that name in 1841, describing Sahkku in Norway and Her Laplanders.
Later, Laestadian evangelists treated Sahkku as sinful because they suspected a connection to pre-Christian worship. Religious pressure and other changes pushed the game out of favor. Research and Sámi community memory helped bring it back. Sahkku is also one of several distinctive Sámi board games discussed alongside Pablo Pesnney and Tablute.
The board, soldiers, and king
Historical Sahkku boards range from 21 spaces in three rows of seven to 45 spaces in three rows of 15. Some use parallel lines where pieces rest; others mark individual spaces. On NewVenture's Sahkku Deluxe board, each group of three peg holes is one space. Its 39 spaces include the central "castle."
Each player has 13 pieces along the nearest edge of the board collectively called “soldiers”. A larger piece, the Ganagas, starts in the castle as a neutral king. Traditional pieces are often tall and pyramid-shaped, with the king taller and more elaborately carved. The goal is to capture every opposing soldier or force a concession.
Setting up and following the path
A soldier travels right along its home row, left through the center, and right along the far row. At the end, it rebounds and retraces the route. The demonstration suggests using the holes nearer your side on the outward journey and the farther holes on the return.
Players throw three long dice, each with a blank face, an X, a 2, and a 3. A blank gives no movement; the X counts as one. Four-sided dice can stand in for the long dice, which are traditionally tossed into a bowl. The first player to throw an X starts.
Each die result is a separate move. You can apply all three to one piece or divide them among several pieces.
Waking soldiers and recruiting the king
Soldiers begin "asleep" and can't move until activated. An X on the dice can wake the rightmost sleeping soldier: move it to the adjacent hole in its current space, then advance it one space along the path. Instead, you can use an X to move a piece one space or roll that die again. Multiple X results can be rerolled during a turn.
Friendly pieces can share a space. Landing on opposing soldiers captures all of them in that space. Some rule sets protect sleeping soldiers from capture, so players need to settle that choice before starting.
Landing on the neutral king works differently. Your moving piece leaves the game, and you recruit the king. The Ganagas follows the path like a soldier but can also jump to a neighboring section of the track. He can't be captured: when an opponent lands on his space, he changes allegiance. A “king coin” shows who currently controls him.
Blockades can stop either army
Two or three soldiers sharing a space form a blockade. No soldiers can pass it, including those belonging to its owner. That can make a die result unusable.
The owner can break the blockade by moving pieces away. An opponent who lands on it, however, captures every soldier there. The king can join a blockade under these rules, though landing on him changes his allegiance. Capturing all opposing soldiers wins the game, even if the king remains on the board.
Other ways Sahkku is played
Historical rule sets don't always agree. In some, the king can't share a space or join a blockade, though he may pass through an occupied space. Another rule prevents him from capturing on the same move in which he jumps to a parallel track.
A queen variant places two queens near the king. They move and capture like him, but they can be captured. Losing a queen while you control her loses the game. One account says an X activates queens, though it leaves unclear who may activate them.
There's also a different route. Rather than rebound at the far end, pieces continue through the center row and then return along the home row. The speaker couldn't pin down one definitive set of tournament rules, making agreement on the route and variants especially important before play.
Sahkku today, and the travel version
Sahkku has returned to play through tournaments and championship events. Scandinavian museums display old boards and pieces, while the Facebook page DLO shares modern sets and connects players of northern board games.
NewVenture's compact travel version fits the game onto a four-by-four-inch block. That takes compromises: sleeping soldiers start off-board, each space holds only two pegs, and the route runs left, right, left instead of right, left, right. The Deluxe version stays closer to the traditional game.