Kubb, explained

The pitch

Mark a rectangle five metres wide and eight metres long. The king — the tallest piece, usually crowned — stands upright in the exact centre, on the halfway line.

Each team's five kubbs stand evenly spaced along their own baseline, the short edge of the rectangle. The two teams stand behind their own baselines.

A set is ten kubbs, one king, six batons and six corner markers.

A turn, step by step

1. Throw the field kubbs. If the other team knocked any of your kubbs over last turn, you begin by throwing those kubbs into their half — underarm, from your baseline — and standing them upright where they land. These are field kubbs.
2. They throw batons. The other team now throws their six batons, one at a time, underarm, end over end.
3. Field kubbs first. They must knock over every field kubb in their half before any hit on a baseline kubb counts. A baseline kubb knocked down while a field kubb is still standing is simply stood back up.
4. Repeat. Fallen kubbs go back across, and the turn passes.

This is the heart of the game and the part that reads worse than it plays: every kubb you knock over comes back at you as an obstacle the other team has to clear first. A team that is winning is also making the other team's next turn easier.

Winning, and the king

Once you have knocked over all of the opponent's kubbs — field and baseline — you may, with any batons you have left that turn, throw at the king.

Knock the king over and you win.

Knock the king over at any other time — including by accident, including with a ricochet — and you lose immediately. There is no warning and no appeal. It is the single most common way a game of kubb ends, and it is usually the team that was winning.

Throwing rules

• Underarm only, with the baton rotating end over end vertically.
• No helicopter throws — spinning the baton horizontally is not allowed, for either batons or kubbs.
• One at a time.
• Both feet behind the baseline at release.

The no-helicopter rule exists because a horizontally spinning baton sweeps a much wider path and would make the game trivial. It is enforced strictly in tournaments and almost never in gardens.

Is kubb any good?

It is very good, with two caveats.

It is genuinely tactical in a way most garden games are not: where you place your thrown-back kubbs matters, whether to clear a field kubb or set up a better line matters, and the king rule means the endgame carries real risk.

The caveats: it takes a full round of play before anyone understands the throw-back mechanic, and it wants a flat, marked pitch of five by eight metres, which is more garden than many people have. It is also a team game that works badly with three or five players.

Mölkky or kubb? is the direct comparison if you are choosing between them.

Kubb and Mölkky are not the same game

They get shelved together and confused constantly, so, plainly:

What is Mölkky? covers the other one.