Hey DMK!

We've had a flurry of challenges lately - this ranking ladder tournament has exceeded everyone's expectors, and has generated more games in the past week than in the prior 3 winters combined. We've had 8 ranked matches and have 3 more pending. All this activity has forced us to evaluate and fine-tune our rules regarding challenges--and like Dobbie told me, "This is a good problem to have."

1st: Challenges must be issued to a member without any current pending matches. You can't challen...
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Fun night in the rain! Getting a little wet doesn't stop the DMK crew from enjoying a few drinks & tossing some lumber, and 7 members showed up to play in week 3 of the Summer Scrambler Series. I jumped out to an early lead until the last game when Grant & I lost to Dobbie 5-0 in a dramatic finish, overtaking my half-game advantage.

One footnote: Despite working most of last winter to collect and assemble a comprehensive U.S. Nationals Kubb Ruleset Dobbie & I both violated them in a single bat...
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In 2010 we borrowed a tournament format from Chess called the "Swiss System", which is best described as a hybrid between a round robin and an elimination bracket. We were generally pleased with it (and the players reported enjoying it), but we were still using software designed to handle the subtleties of a different game, and it didn’t QUITE do exactly what we were hoping for. So, we took it upon ourselves to design a Kubb-specific tournament system, and built an Excel program to help ...

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Creating a Punishment Kubb - second only to knocking the king over early to lose the game when it comes to team morale draining moves. However, as a defender, the question becomes, where do I put this thing? Behind the King, on my baseline, behind a centerline pin? There are many options and variables to consider as well, such as "Am I winning or fighting from behind?", "How many field kubbs does my opponent have to throw?", "How skilled is my opponent, and are they likely to succumb to the p...

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For a little added pressure in the end game some groups use the following house-rule:

 "If a team makes a legal attack on the King and fails to topple it, their turn immediately ends and the opposing team is allowed a single legal attack at the King and an opportunity to win the game, regardless of how many Field Kubbs or Base Kubbs they have remaining."

FUN FACT: This "Variant" is apparently the standard in New Zealand, and as such we have heard this referred to as "Kiwi Rules"

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Did you see that we updated the rules to v1.1. The 'rules committee' has been in deep debate around the new rule-set. Passions are running high, arguments have spiraled out of control, and the use of hyperbole and rhetoric has been mildly excessive. Lines have been crossed, and good nature has taken the backseat to intimidation tactics, verbal abuse, and (must I say) stinkeye.

 But such is the life of a tournament organizer and his evil rule minions.....

While the thought of Eric Anderson actua...
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Towers (Stacking)

 

Easily the most common variant is the use of "Towers" or Kubb stacking. (In fact, this is the only variant popular enough to warrant mention in the World Championship rules.) Below is a standardized breakdown of stacking rules and phases:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.    <!--[endif]-->If a thrown Field Kubb strikes and topples another Field Kubb already in play, then the two Field Kubbs should be stacked vertically one on top of the other.

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By competition rules the first team to throw uses all 6 Batons (unless they topple all 5 Base Kubbs with their first 5 Batons) and this is considered by some players to be too much of an advantage (the Kubbmaster General included). “Four to Start” limits the opening team to only throwing 4 batons on the first turn, with each team throwing all 6 thereafter. In most social games or games amongst beginning players the extra two batons probably won't make that much difference, but at higher l...
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