He played again, and again, until he’d been checkmated three times, whereupon he swept up the pieces in a fury, dropped them in the skirt of his hauberk and said: “You’ll never defeat another knight – it’s not right!”
Wauchier of Denain, Second Continuation of Perceval
You ability to think tactically and strategically. Includes games of skill, games of chance, games of words, and those most terrible games of life which all the others are practice for.
Skill Based Games
The one said that brains were worth more than luck because he that lived by his brain did things in an orderly fashion and even if he lost that he was not to blame in this because he did what suited him.
Scholars of Alfonso X of Castile, Libro de los juegos
The most pure archetype of this kind of strategic skill comes into play with strategy games, which directly test the player’s planning and decision making against their opponent.
==Draughts and Nine Men’s Morris== are simple, common examples. Both involve moving your units around to exploit weaknesses in your opponent while avoiding openings on your own side, balancing pressuring the enemy at key points and avoiding overextending yourself to do so.
==Gwyddbwyll== is a more sophisticated version, seen as the nobler and more complex - the Irish even say it was invented by the god Lugh.
==Tawlbwrdd== and the many “tafl” games of the Danes and Saxons, are unique in their asymmetrical gameplay. Whether described as a fox and geese, or a king surrounded by his enemies, one side has a more powerful piece or pieces while the other has more and can surround and subdue its strong opponent. The game teaches either the art of using your superior skill against a numerically stronger enemy, or the art of using numbers and sacrifices to overwhelm the strong.
====Chess== is, of course, the iconic game of strategy… once it makes its way to Britain. Chess has many different types of pieces, and learning to use them all together provides an additional angle for mastery. Changes and additions to its rules1 add additional work to learn.
==The Philosopher’s Game== brings the additional complexity of math to its unique pieces, encouraging practice of arithmetic along with the strategy.
Luck Based Games
The other said that luck was worth more than brains because if his fortune was to lose or to win, no matter how much brains he might have, he could not avoid it.
Scholars of Alfonso X of Castile, Libro de los juegos
Of course, many games rely on some random elements. None of these is without some kind of skill, even if it’s merely of the “know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em” variety - but some are fairly barebones and all can fall under a suspicion of being mere gambling or fortune telling.
Or, of course, an appeal of being mere gambling - which many people even in the upper classes love despite the sermons against it.
==Dice== games involve predicting (and normally wagering) on the values of dice rolled, usually in terms of the combinations of multiple throws. These games are often seen as the epitome of luck based games, reliant on whatever fortune sends your way, and needing to know how to handle good and bad luck equally.
==Cards== become a more sophisticated form of chance based games later in the campaign. The cards used often lend themselves to metaphors, especially around the similarly capricious nature of romance and society.
Other games tend to have a more respectable veneer of hybrid luck-and-skill mechanics.
==Marbles== games usually involve attempting to flick, roll and bounce small stones, usually to score by hitting a target or other marbles, or getting closer to a target or target zone. This involves physical skill, but also a degree of unpredictability and adjustments for the ground and the stones.
==Tabula==, though, is the most iconic hybrid game. There is randomness in the rolling of dice to decide how your pieces can move, but a lot of clear strategy in which ones you move when. It epitomizes the way games involving some luck can teach you how to plan when you aren’t sure what might come next.
Games of Words
I am perplexed to pass judgment between the two sides of the following love-debate: two ladies wanted for the sake of love to kiss the knight they both loved, and the one did not dare to do it but began to weep, whereas the other could not prevent herself from carrying out her heart’s desire. Tell me your opinion: which of them ought the beloved to approve more?
an example of a torneyamen
==Torneyamen== or the jeux-partis are a genre of lyrical debates. Commonly, one side will pick some dilemma that can be debated, their opponent will pick which side to take, and both will defend their side in quick-witted verse responses2. The Saxons bring in a similar tradition of flyting. In each, the debate itself sometimes matters and has underlying currents of discussion - but in theory the battle is around the skill at forming cogent and poetic responses.
==Rigamarole== is a party game involving telling stories based on short randomized prompts, also encouraging quick adaption and both lyrical and narrative skills, but usually in a less competitive form.
War, Cruel and Sharp
Tomorrow it will be
The King’s move, I suppose, and we shall have
One more magnificent waste of nameless pawns,
And of a few more knights. God, how you love
This game!Edwin Arlington Robinson, Lancelot
The practical use of all these skills is most obvious on the battlefield. Simple prowess at arms does not suffice to win in battle3. Those endeavors require all the lessons that the smaller games practice; how to maneuver strong and weak pieces, how to hold in good and bad luck, how to turn men into weapons.
The strategic analogy is most straightforward in the skirmish or sortie; some small clash of a few against a few, like a chessboard. But it also includes the siege and assault of fortifications, forage and logistics4 and the grand plans of coordination and supply on grand campaigns; the chevauchée, the ambush, the covert action, battle in the hills or on the sea. There are more variations than all the other games combined.
This kind of strategy is not limited to official wars between kings and alliances. When every half-rate knight has a sword, it’s not hard for small conflicts to snowball into battle, sanctioned or not. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, as they say, and the dead do not bring suit5.
In terms of more legally grounded conflicts, the defense of each manor is the responsibility of its lord. Its vassals, if it has any, are obliged to send aid, as is any liege lord it has - but its immediate protection is in the lord’s hands6. For broader threats to a county, the local representatives of the king may assemble for local defense - usually a count or prefect - and for larger areas of military importance7 a duke may be assigned with the authority to coordinate and gather these armies autonomously for certain purposes.
Kings are wary of allowing too much autonomy over these kinds of assemblies, though. Even though not all kings will be able to lead every army8, it’s important to them that each army is acting on their specific orders, and can be disbanded from its leader should that person begin to think the army gives them enough power to make the rules. There are many strict laws around such things.
But we must again remind you, inter arma enim silent leges9. Which brings us to…
Cheating
So we should feel pity indeed for those who in this mortal life trick their way to having the world in their hand – alas! they may have that now, but they’ve no tomorrow! They reach the heights with their trickery, their cunning: in the world they’re much esteemed, risen as they have upon Fortune’s wheel. But how does that count for anything? It’s the wheel of Damnation.
Jacquemart Gielée, Renart le Nouvel
Cheating is a kind of strategy. A base and dishonorable one, but that alone will not keep it from use in both war and the lesser games.
Most games of skill are somewhat difficult to cheat in without an opportunistic sleight of hand10, whereas the games of luck are often easier to twist with a dishonest die or play of the cards. The poetic games are often similarly riggable by setting up the audience, or by controlling the “random” selections.
And these are all good lessons for warfare, where there are a great number of ways to be dishonest.
Footnotes
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Most to make the game faster paced and more exciting, but the social metaphors of “Queen’s Chess” where the queen is allowed a much more powerful ruleset (rather than being a copy of the king), “castling” or “en passant”, while perhaps unintended, often can be referenced. ↩
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This may seem somewhat like a medieval rap battle, as a sort of shorthand for understanding it. ↩
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Much less to win in war. ↩
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For, as they say, an army marches on its stomach. ↩
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Of course, the nearly dead and the bereaved are quite likely to pursue legal and illegal action, but this is a calculation that many ambitious people are willing to gamble on. ↩
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Or a castellan, seneschal, or similar officer given this authority while the lord is away. ↩
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Particularly distant regions, especially border regions that may come under threat and need a quick response for news could easily get back to the king. ↩
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Not just from cowardice or frailty, but also because they may not be in the right place at the right time - perhaps because they are needed to lead a different army. ↩
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“In war, the law is silent.” ↩
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The other option, perhaps, is if they are not familiar with the rules, or you can convince them that they have forgotten some rule. ↩