Kubb Rules

Kubb

Kubb (pronounced ‘KOOB’) is a Swedish lawn game said to have been played all the way back in the Viking ages. Although its true origins may be unknown, the game is well known throughout the world and is quickly becoming one of the most popular outdoor lawn games. Kubb is typically played on grass, but kubb could also be played on sand, dirt, or even snow. Kubb provides fun for all ages, everyone can play!

Contents

Some kubb sets consist of the following:

Note: corner stakes not included in woodyouplay.com sets because they are not necessary for play.

Setup

Kubb is typically played on a rectangular pitch approximately 16’ x 26’ (8m x 5m). Baseline kubb blocks are set up evenly on each back row with the king in the middle of the pitch. The pitch is split up into halves, each team with their respective fields. Teams can consist of 1-6 players each.

Objective

The object of the game is to knock as many of your opponent’s kubb blocks over as you can using the dowels. The dowels MUST be tossed underhand, end-over-end, no helicopters. To win, a team must knock all of their opponent’s kubb blocks over and successively knock over the king. However, if the king is knocked over any time during play, the offending team loses.

Each team tosses one dowel

Whoever gets their dowel closest to the king without touching it goes first.

Team B goes first.

Team B tosses first

one at a time trying to knock over as many baseline kubb blocks as they can.

Team A tosses back toppled kubb blocks

On to Team B's field. These now become field kubb blocks

Team B sets up the field kubb blocks

where they lie, in either direction but they must be facing Team A.

Team A tosses back

the dowels. They must knock over the field kubb blocks before the baseline.

Team B tosses back toppled kubb blocks

onto Team A’s field. If at any time kubb blocks thrown onto the opposing team’s field do not make it within the field boundary, the offending team gets one more chance. After two chances, if the blocks do not land within the opposing team’s field, the opposing team may put the blocks where ever they want. For instance, they could put the field kubb a minimum of one block length from the king or they can put them just in front of their baseline kubb blocks.

Team B tosses back dowels

from their new baseline created by the closest field kubb block to the king left standing from Team A’s previous turn. Again, they must go for the field kubb block before tossing at the baseline kubb blocks.

Team A tosses back toppled kubb blocks

on to Team B’s field. If two or more of the kubb blocks come into contact with one another, Team B has to stack them. (this is an optional rule to speed up game play)

Possible stacking configurations:

Team B sets up field kubb blocks

Team A tosses back dowels

Team B tosses back toppled kubb blocks

trying to get all the field kubb blocks close together to increase possibility of knocking multiple kubb blocks over in one shot.

Team A sets up the field kubb blocks

Team B tosses back dowels

Team B has knocked over all of Team A's field kubb blocks and baseline kubb blocks with two dowels left.

Team B tosses at the king

Team B must use the remaining dowels to try and knock over the king from their original baseline. If their baseline had moved up, they still need to move back to the original baseline to toss at the king.

If Team B topples the king...