blog

SKAL!!! Week 6 Results

Sun, 19 May 2013 20:07:06 +0100

fire the weather forecasters. Today was scheduled to be a 70% chance of thunderstorms and it turned out to be sunny, high 70's, and windy as heck. This made for some longer than normal games, and some less than tight groups in the field. A day where choosing side over throwing first came up in most games. We had great turnout with 7 players, and afterward our own Steve Feathers taught all the Girl Scouts who reserved the shelter near us how to play!

Week 5 Results:

1. Dobbie : 11
2. Grant: 10
3. Sandy: 9
4. Steve: 8
5. John: 7
6. Melissa: 6
7. Jaime: 7

Standings After Week 5:

1. Grant: 50
2. Doug: 44
3. Steve: 40
4. Dobbie: 29
5. Chris : 25
6. Jaime : 24
7. Melissa: 21
8. Mary : 16
9. Sandy: 15
10. Tony : 11
11. Johnny W. : 9
12. Dana : 7
12. John: 7
14. Ross : 6
15. Abbey : 5

Kubb in Des Moines turns 5

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:57:50 +0100

This past weekend we hosted a big party at my house. It’s the birthday party we host every year for my wife Becca, her brother Josh, and one of our oldest friends Doug (Doug couldn’t make it this year, but we still thought of it as the Triple Birthday Bash.) This annual party is the reason we found Kubb, as I was looking for something all of the guests could play in the back yard and stumbled across instructions for building a set and how to play. That was back in 2008, and while a lot of things have changed in the 5 years since it’s certain that our love of this game hasn’t.

Now, I’d had a few drinks, and as I tend to do once I tie one on, I got philosophical (and a little emotional) and thought about this game and what is so special about it that keeps us coming back for more.

The simple truth is that Kubb will give you whatever you want from it.

Do you want a pleasant afternoon, relaxing in the backyard with your family and playing a game with kid-friendly variants? Play with stacking or fudge the throwing lines for the kiddos - Kubb’s got you covered.

Prefer a raucous and rowdy, well-pickled crowd of a dozen (plus spectators) tossing insults as often as wood, laughing through triumphs and groaning over defeats? Kubb has that too!

Or you could slow it down, and play with one good friend and teammate, analyzing situations, discussing strategy, and deconstructing this deceptively complex machine. That’s Kubb for sure.

How about edge-of-your-seat intensity at multi-state tournaments, testing your nerves and your skill against some of the fiercest competitors in the country? No DOUBT Kubb has this for you!

Maybe you’re just looking for a great day in a park with a couple-hundred like-minded souls, sharing a passion for a unique game, making new friends and visiting old ones? Definitely this – always, always this.

I know I get a little “kubb-by-yah” sometimes, but I’m a true believer in “Kubb unites people and creates peace on Earth.” I know that this is what it can be, because time and time again I’ve seen that Kubb is whatever you want it to be.

I know this too – however you’re playing Kubb, you’re doing it the right way. Keep it up, and I’ll see you on the pitch!

SKAL!!! Week 5 Results

Tue, 14 May 2013 02:01:38 +0100

Not our best turnout (windy day on private property) but a fun day of Kubb nonetheless!

Week 5 Results:

1. Dobbie : 8
2. Doug : 7
3. Grant : 6
4. Chris : 5

Standings After Week 5:

1. Doug : 44
2. Grant : 40
3. Steve : 32
4. Chris : 25
5. Jaime : 19
6. Dobbie : 18
7. Mary : 16
8. Melissa : 15
9. Tony : 11
10. John : 9
11. Dana : 7
12. Sandy : 6
12. Ross : 6
14. Abbey : 5

SKAL!!! (Week 4 Results)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:02:12 +0100

What a beautiful day to play some Kubb in the park! The nice weather brought out quite a few passers-by that were interested in learning about the game. We love sharing the game!

We're halfway through the season, and it's really starting to look like a three horse race with Doug, Grant, and Steve within 5 points of each other and a dozen points ahead of the pack...

Week 4 Results:

1. Grant : 10
2. Doug : 9
3. Chris : 8
4. Steve : 7
5. Mary : 6
6. Jaime : 5

Standings After Week 4:

1. Doug : 37
2. Grant : 34
3. Steve : 32
4. Chris : 20
5. Jaime : 19
6. Mary : 16
7. Melissa : 15
8. Tony : 11
9. Dobbie : 10
10. John : 9
11. Dana : 7
12. Sandy : 6
12. Ross : 6
14. Abbey : 5

SKAL!!! (Week 3 Results)

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 19:42:25 +0100

Beautiful day for some Kubb in the park - let's hope the weather holds for the season kick-off pot-luck tomorrow!

Week 3 Results:

1. Dobbie : 10
2. Steve : 9
3. Doug : 8
4. Jaime : 7
5. Melissa : 6
6. Mary : 5

Standings After Week 3:

1. Doug : 28
2. Steve : 25
3. Grant : 24
4. Melissa : 15
5. Jaime : 14
6. Chris : 12
7. Tony : 11
8. Dobbie : 10
8. Mary : 10
10. John : 9
11. Dana : 7
12. Sandy : 6
12. Ross : 6
14. Abbey : 5

SKAL!!! (Week 2 Results)

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:15:21 +0100

A very gusty day in the park didn't keep us from another successful week of SKAL! With 9 players we play the largest schedule allowed by rule (9 rounds), as if we hit 10 players we split into two schedules with a playoff. 9 twenty minute rounds is a three-hour play time, and it felt a little long towards the end! The wind was brutal, changing speed and direction without notice, and everybody struggled to string together 8m hits. All-in-all, an afternoon of Kubb in the park is nothing to complain about, and we are all looking forward to week three games on Saturday the 20th!

Week 2 Results:

1. Grant : 13
2. Chris : 12
3. Tony : 11
4. Doug : 10
5. John : 9
6. Steve : 8
7. Dana : 7
8. Sandy : 6
9. Mary : 5

*Special shout-out to Grant for going a perfect 8-0 today - no losses, no games called due to time. A SKAL first!

Standings After Week 2:

1. Grant : 24
2. Doug : 20
3. Steve : 16
4. Chris : 12
5. Tony : 11
6. John : 9
6. Melissa : 9
8. Dana : 7
8. Jaime : 7
10. Sandy : 6
10. Ross : 6
12. Mary : 5
12. Abbey : 5

Knotted up at 9 points apiece, will it be an uncomfortable week at the Walker household???

SKAL!!! (Week 1 Results)

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 03:11:09 +0100

The season kicked off at Tower park on a warm (if somewhat overcast and breezy) Spring day. Grant and Doug both entered the fourth round undefeated, giving up only a single base kubb apiece in the first three rounds. They continued a shootout for the rest of the afternoon, facing off in the 7th and final round with a half of a game separating them. In the end Grant showed why he carries the #1 tag, but we've got to hand it to Doug - he hasn't thrown a baton in months but he showed up and played some great games today! We also saw how important every throw in a Scrambler is, because Steve, Jaime, and Ross all finished with three game wins and margin of only TWO base kubbs across 7 games separated 4th place from 6th!

Great start to the season everybody - I look forward to seeing you all again next week!

Standings after week 1:

1. Grant : 11
2. Doug : 10
3. Melissa : 9
4. Steve: 8
5. Jaime : 7
6. Ross : 6
7. Abbey : 5

Des Moines Kubb Team Restructure Changes Finalized

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 02:31:48 +0100

After 2 long months of deliberation between team captains, and the Des Moines Kubb Board Members, the 2013 teams have been renamed and restructured to accomodate the changing landscape of Kubb Country, USA.

Here is a breakdown of the restructure:

Team Knockerheads will adopt the team name: The Wringers
The Beers will now be Wolfpact
Pitch Slap will play as Kubb Sickles
Los Padres will now be known as Sweden Suns
Head Slap will be Thad Kubbler
Chicks with Sticks is now Kingpen
Kubb'd will now be the Team Formerly Known as Kubb'd
Kubbacca will now be R2Kubb2, and R2 will rotate between King3PO, Obi-Wan Kubbnobi, and Count Dookubb
Team Madhouse will adopt the name: Kubbchuggs
4,5,6 Pick Up Sticks will be the Cast Spinner Kings

"We feel the team restructure will better represent the city of Des Moines as they travel and compete in all of this years' tournaments" said Dana Oredson, of the team formerly known as Kubb'd.

"I wasn't really excited about the changes at first" said Grant Scott of the new team The Wringers, "but I knew this would be best for the entire club."

"We are completely confident that our names represent the whole of Des Moines Kubb, and we are also sure that our name changes will not offend or rub other clubs the wrong way" said Tony Hansen, winner of the 2012 "nicest guy" in Iowa award.

"There were some hard decisions in the war-room during deliberation, and it took all the captains working about 50% to get through this in twice the time" said Melissa Walker, who in her role as club Vice President was allowed to use the DMK "Gavel" and yell "YOU'RE OUT OF ORDER!!!".

Look for our teams in the near future, coming to a tournament near you!

Kubb Raising Part III - Q&A

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:37:45 +0100

hey josh. i read your article (http://desmoineskubb.com/blog/kubb-rules-breakdown-1-the-kubbadox) and funny enough, we just postet an article on www.baselcitykubb.ch with the same problem, but a very different idea. i try to translate the two basic-rules to enlish, but i need help of a friend. but it would be nice, if you could comment on our rule (i think it's by far the best). The Article can be found here (http://baselcitykubb.ch/?p=899), i'll soon add a translation.

best wishes, Samuel from switzerland

My Swiss friend,

Although Google Translate isn't the best, I think I understand the problems you are trying to uncover from your article. And thanks for the link to our rules, very cool. You are proposing a solution to what I refer to as "The Kubbadox" and "The Block", if I understand correctly. The proposition is that in instances where there are two potential footprints overlapping, you would simply "shunt" the kubbs with the least amount of position change to get them both in bounds, versus what we are currently doing based on our rules, which is to rethrow one of the kubbs.

I know the rules folks have discussed this many times, but there is something holding directors back from accepting the change. And from what I understand, there is significant issue with the fluidity, or the intangibles of allowing the defenders to shunt. "What direction?" is the major question that cannot be quantified for every scenario. Defender’s choice or attacker’s choice? And another very important question, at what angle is the kubb's final placement? All these questions can easily result in a kubb being shunted into a placement where it actually would be better for the kubb thrower to rethrow the kubb. The variables when shunting are not dependent on the kubb footprint, but more dependent on how the defenders "feel" like shunting the kubb, and that allows the kubbs to form legs and start crawling.

I think that a very skilled kubb inkastare will accept these very unlikely scenarios, or try to stay out of those scenarios altogether. It's no different that hitting a bulls-eye in darts, then continuing to attempt a second bull’s-eye. There are some inherent risks with that move. Maybe you should go for the triple 20, because there's less "clutter" and less metal to hit. As an avid kubb driller, I would rather have some awkward things come up that are completely on ME, than rely on the defenders to "shunt" my kubbs in however they like. Just my 2 cents.

Dobbie

Hi Josh, love your blog! Anyway I've got a kubb standing question for you: If a kubb is blocked on one side by the center stake but the other side is open, could I put up another one first so that both sides of the first kubb are obstructed and I can put it up against the stake? I mean, assuming I had a choice with the second kubb.

Thanks for these detailed explanations!

John

Hi John,

I had to get the big dogs involved on this one. And after discussions and review of the rules, the intent of the rule is that you cannot force an obstruction, if an unobstruction is an option. So in your scenario, if the second kubb can be raised a different way, you would have to do that. Forcing an obstruction can only happen if a kubb, when raised on either end, will force an obstruction, and there are no other kubbs that can move out of the way to do so.

Dobbie

I am a live in Turkey. Amd we play kubbs. But.we.dont use pins in the center. How do a strategie change when pins are unused?

Derin

Salutations Derin! It’s been a while since I played without center pins, but I imagine that the overall strategy for kubb raising remains the same, with the exception that raising on the sideline for a center-pin-obstructed shot ceases to be an option. Playing without a center pin raises some questions regarding the boundary though – since a kubb can be raised over the vertex of the centerline and sideline, a kubb that is half-in/half-out on the sideline AND half-in/half-out on the centerline would only be 25% “in bounds”. I suppose it would be up to you and your group to determine whether such a kubb would be considered in or out of play.

Chris

What’s with that “Approximate Risk Picture”?

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

It’s a quick-and-dirty visual representation of the fact that a kubb is much more likely to tumble over an edge rather than a corner. It takes a perfect edge-on hit to push a kubb over a corner, and even then it probably won’t follow that path for very long. Also note that the risk picture of a kubb will vary significantly based on the facing, and the specific image I included only approximates the risk for a kubb oriented 45° to the throwing line.

Chris

Hey DMK,

Great blog post. I live in Eau Claire, WI (on Championship Hill), am an avid kubber, love thinking about strategy and different aspects of the game, and enjoy your blog. Question on the four kubbs with the green circle. I totally agree to keep the two possible doubles away from each other. However, in the green scenario, what do you think about if a team had the double on the right or left, but not in the middle. Just thinking if the kubbs on the right are up against the sideline, etc., it might be tough to come across them to get the middle single, etc. What would be your thoughts while you are raising them?

Thanks for all of your work, sharing, and your shout out to Championship Hill.
Cecilia Anderson

Hi Cecilia – thanks for the great question! The more I learn about Kubb the more I learn that there are no absolutes, and the answer to almost every strategy question is “Well, sometimes…” In the scenario I was illustrating I was trying to demonstrate a tactic to isolate kubbs, so that after baton number one is thrown (and presumably hits the middle double) the attacker is now left with two singles that can’t be cleared with a single baton without extraordinary luck and skill. In this instance, standing the double to the one side or the other would (if struck appropriately by the attacker) leave the remaining two field kubbs much closer together and increase the odds of the attacker clearing them with a second baton. That said, there are a lot of other factors that might make the outside double you mentioned be the better idea. For instance, the facing on the front kubb makes you think the double is unlikely, or the best line of attacking the double runs through the center pin making the shot trickier.

What I hope that you and other readers take out of the article is a method of thinking about this phase of the game, rather than specific “in this case do that” kind of instruction. If you’re considering how the batons will come in, how the pieces will move, and what the field will look like after the throw then you are going about solving these problems the right way.

Chris

Fence Building 101 – (or #occupybatons!)

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 04:15:10 +0100

Kubb is a tactical game, and almost all of those tactics come into play during two phases – the defenders will probably have some tough choices to make about how best to stand thrown field kubbs, and the attackers will have to figure out the best way to take down the resulting groups. Here are a few pointers on how to make the best decisions when you’re looking at a woodpile & trying to figure out how to turn it into a baton-eating monster.

The first thing to do is stand the forced kubbs; the leaners, half-ins, and those that must be stood a certain way to allow others to be raised in-bounds. (You DID read our last entry , right?) If you don’t have any choice in the matter you might as well get them out of the way first then evaluate the remainder. Are there any “obvious” kubbs to stand, like runners or ‘east-west’ kubbs that can be raised away from the pile and soak an additional baton? Do those next!

Reevaluate. How many batons are likely to be needed for the kubbs that are currently standing? (We borrowed a Golf term and call this ‘par’.) Look at the group from the attackers' point of view - literally AND figuratively. How would you attack the group as it stands now, and how would you expect the kubbs & baton to move after impact? Facing (how the kubbs are oriented) is the most important factor here. Kubb is a game of physics and geometry, and judging these shots is like judging complex combination shots in billiards, with the added uncertainty that square corners bring to the table.

(Playing in the snow is great for this phase because you can draw lines in it-Team Knockerheads drew a lot of lines in the snow at the Loppet!)

Repeat this estimation for each anticipated baton. Admittedly, this is a lot like forecasting the weather because the farther into the future you’re looking the harder it is to predict. Make your best guesses anyway, because even if you’re only right part of the time it’s better than never guessing at all. Are there any ‘holes’ in the pattern you can stand a kubb in? Space for the sake of space isn’t always the right move – sometimes it just opens up room for debris to do damage, whereas coming closer to another kubb can sometimes get it out of the line of fire or leave one or more other kubbs isolated.

For instance, take the ‘inside double’ scenario. Picture 4 field kubbs that have been tossed into an X pattern:

Standing each away from the center generates the most overall space, but you’ve created two possible doubles and a sharpshooter may have a good opportunity to clear them with two batons. If, on the other hand, you stand two of the kubbs towards the center then you’ve created an ‘easy’ double on the inside, but have isolated two kubbs on the edges and most likely soaked up an extra baton.

Also keep in mind that ‘horizontal’ space is much more important than ‘vertical’ space. It’s relatively easy to strike a kubb and push it up the pitch, at least when compared to how difficult it is to push one across it. I will usually prefer to build a relatively tight horizontal fence rather than a looser vertical line. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do, and either way you raise a kubb will offer a double to your opponent. When you have to choose the lesser of two evils the most important thing is to ensure that the line through the double points away from any other field kubbs. If that isn’t an issue (or isn’t possible) then once again go with the most horizontal – if they’re shooting across the pitch it can lengthen the shot by a meter or two AND it reduces the chances that they send debris downrange.

Another thing to pay attention to is the ground itself. (Nearly forgot to include this bit - tip of the hat to Dano for the reminder!) Every pitch is different and has its own peculiarities – bumps, divots, clumps of grass, and a host of other things can make for uneven ground, and a leaning kubb might be toppled by a touch that a sure-footed kubb could have shrugged off. Location is more important than footing because it’s better to occupy a whole baton (even if it’s just a glancing blow) than be sure footed while increasing the risk a double. If the direction you stand the kubb doesn’t seem to directly affect the baton count, then by all means make those attackers hit it squarely!

Run through all of your remaining choices before standing any questionable kubbs, because you may see a later opportunity that contradicts an earlier choice. Don’t commit to anything until you’ve decided where they are ALL going to go.

As a general tip, don’t have too many cooks in the kitchen. Everyone on the team should participate in the process to make sure all of the likely scenarios are discussed, but there should only be one player raising the kubbs (at least in the main group – obvious outliers can be handled by a teammate). Remember, once a kubb goes up you’re committed, and making sure that only one person touches the questionable kubbs will help eliminate miscommunication and costly mistakes. Giving away even one kubb for free because of poor placement is one too many.

Finally, keep in mind that standing kubbs is largely about playing the percentages. If you stand a group that you think will take three batons and the attackers clear it with one it doesn’t necessarily mean you were wrong – it could just mean they got some very lucky bounces. (Don’t write it off and forget about it either, because if a pattern emerges then maybe you need to rethink how you’re judging par.) Over time though, making the best decisions in this phase (and getting a miss from your opponents now & then) will keep your base kubbs safe and get you advancing to that advantage line to seal the win.

Good Kubbing!