Tara: Ireland’s Royal Board Game

About this board game

Tara: Ireland’s Royal Board Game is a two-player pure strategy game playable in about 30 minutes, inspired by the Book of Kells, the Hill of Tara, and Ireland’s Celtic royal heritage.

Across its three main games and eight variants, players build networks of ring forts and strive to finish with the fewest kingdoms. A kingdom is a group of linked ring forts, and bridge tiles gradually connect the scattered structures into increasingly intricate Celtic knotwork.

• Sacred Hill: Learn the core system through manoeuvres and Battle. Build unconnected ring forts, then expand beside your own forts and link them with bridges. Besieged isolated forts must be captured.
• High Kings of Tara: Add three kings per player, moving like chess knights. Kings build ring forts, capture enemy forts and kings, and may be immobilized.
• Poisoned Chalice: Face the most demanding challenge, with players operating at right angles to each other and attempting to control the opponent’s limited placement options.

Each variant introduces fresh strategic tensions. In Sacred Hill, the focus is on forming and reducing kingdoms; in High Kings of Tara, captured kings create a second scoring pursuit. Poisoned Chalice adds restrictive placement and surrounding captures reminiscent of go.

Scoring can also focus on the number of ring forts or the Celtic knots created, with ties ruled out in several versions. The rules are quick to learn, while the layered choices offer substantial depth for experienced abstract gamers.

First released in 2004, Tara: Ireland’s Royal Board Game combines striking visual inspiration, accessible fundamentals, and challenging replay value in a compact contest for two.