What is the Friendly Neighbor Rule?
Many tournaments including the U.S. Kubb Open, U.S. Midwest Kubb Championship, and Great Lakes Championship have been using a new rule called the neighbor rule. Very simply, the rule states that if during the kubb tossing phase, you end with a kubb entirely on top of other kubbs, you can place that kubb wherever you want on the opponent’s side of the pitch.
The neighbor rule as written in the Kubb United Rules for Open Play is as follows:
The “neighbor rule” (a.k.a Elevated Award): At the end of the kubb tossing phase, any kubbs that are elevated, not touching the ground, and have an in-bounds footprint as though the kubb were not elevated, become award kubbs.
Grass cannot support an elevated kubb. To determine if a kubb is elevated, imagine taking away the grass, and if the kubb would remain elevated, it is an elevated kubb.
Award kubbs are collected by the attacking team at the beginning of the kubb raising phase.
At the end of the kubb raising phase the attacking team places award kubbs upright and on the ground anywhere on their opponents half of the pitch in bounds provided they are at least one baton-length (30 cm) from the king or any field marking stakes (if field marking stakes are used).
Why was the rule created?
The neighbor rule has been attractive to tournaments for three reasons. Firstly, the ease of understanding the rule. Complicated explanations for how to raise elevated kubbs can confound even veteran players. This rule makes raising kubbs far easier for new players.
Secondly, it rewards good inkasting. While an elevated kubb is usually a good thing without the neighbor rule, there are a couple instances where it can harm the inkaster. A good example of this is the following image where, with U.S. National rules, you must lift the elevated kubb first forcing the two underneath out of bounds even though they have an in bounds footprint. With the neighbor rule all three kubbs are in bounds.
Lastly, the rule saves time. The most common time to see elevated kubbs is when a large number of kubbs are in play and trying to decide where one or two elevated kubb should go amongst a large group can delay the progress of the game.
What do you do with an award kubb?
So what is the best way to use an award kubb? The first inclination is usually to put the kubb directly in front of another kubb to make an easy double throw with a baton. You could also use the award kubb to tie together two spread out kubbs to turn two singles into a triple, as shown below.
Another common way to use an award kubb is to place it directly in front of a baseline kubb. If you don’t need the kubb to chain together a group of kubbs, this is the best place to put it. You have to throw at the baseline kubb eventually, this allows you to turn it into a double. But don’t put them in front of more than one baseline kubb as that would defeat the purpose.
Like the neighbor Rule? Do you have other uses for award kubbs that you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments.
45 Comments
I would be interested in exploring the idea of using the award kubb in the scenario where a kubb that would be in-bounds if it were to have an unobstructed footprint is forced out of bounds due to stand up rules. In the US, we consider the kubb out of bounds. At the Hagar-Schindhard tournament in Germany, they just stand the kubb partially out of bounds once both teams agree it would be in. They use 100% like the US Open and mark the boundaries with string, so there is no center-pin blockage, but putting the kubb on a string and potential issues with kubbs getting hit and shifted without being knocked down could lose some precision in ruling. At the Mirakkelkubber tournament in Belgium, they stood the kubb up and then pushed the pile with that kubb until it was out of bounds. Depending on how many kubbs that need to shift that can lose precision as well. It doesn’t happen often, but I feel this could be an interesting opportunity to use the award kubb and make the defense make all effort to get that kubb in-bounds if possible.
All very interesting options to think about Evan. In my opinion something needs to be done in those situations that force kubbs with an in-bounds footprint out. Tough to punish an inkastre for a good throw.
I agree Kyle. All 3 options worked and I find them better solutions than our current rule. One of the major reasons that I like the award/neighbor for suspended kubbs is that it is just clean, quick and easy to teach new players. Using it for the legal force outs seems like it fits that same criteria.
I like that one and the “out of bounds but in bounds”, especially if there are no center pins. Not sure I completely understand the other one.
Yeah, my understanding is that they have issues with the “out of bounds, but in bounds” if you use string for the boundaries.due to times when a kubb or baton hit the string and “trip” the standing kubb without wood making contact. They also put their baseline kubbs inside the string boundary due to this issue as well and play 100% in rule. I can see the center pin blockage being an issue too, although many tournaments in Europe allow the center pin to be removed and that works ok too. The option I saw in Belgium at the Mirrakelkubber tournament was that you had to slide the kubb that was out of bounds and any kubbs that were blocking it from coming in bounds parallel with the center line until all the kubbs were in bounds. Not a huge problem if you only have 1 kubb plus the one you need to get in bounds. But, we had 1 scenario where after I drilled, they had to shift 3 o r4 kubbs and that seemed awkward. Does that make sense now?
Yea, I understand it now. That one I don’t really like, possibility of kubbs shifting could lead to trouble. Yours is definitely the easiest to learn, I could see that working well.
I agree also. All kubbs that have an in bounds footprint should always counts as in bounds, and I think they should be stood up first. This would prevent all force outs except in the case where kubbs lay perpendicular to each other in the corner. Am I wrong? Maybe this topic should be the next Kubb On article.
If they have an in bounds footprint they are supposed to be stood up first but there are cases when they can share a footprint with another that also needs to stood up and 1 of the two can be forced out.I actually had a case a few weeks ago where 1 kubb forced 2 kubbs out of bounds.
Great article and explanation of the rule. For a newbie like me, this is WAY easier to understand and teach.
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With regard to the placement of the Award Kubb in the Good Neighbor rule, could you please clarify something for me. If you are reasonably confident that you can knock down all field kubbs with your upcoming 6 batons, wouldn’t you always place the Award Kubb next to a field kubb, or to link together two spread out kubbs? If not confident about knocking down all field kubbs, then I can see placing an Award Kubb in front of a baseline kubb. Is there another reason? Am I missing something here? Also, why do you indicate that placing Award Kubbs in front of more than one baseline kubb defeats the purpose. Not sure what I’m missing here either. Thanks for your help. Trying to climb the learning curve!
What I’ve witnessed in real gameplay, is that there is little advantage to placing an award kubb in front of a baseline. More times than not, I’ve seen someone hit that kubb, but not knock it into the baseline, or hit the baseline and miss the award kubb (either scenario defeating the purpose). In my opinion, you’re creating a tougher shot, and would be better served to place it as part of your drilled group, especially if it can be a “connector.”
In regards to the more than one baseline kubb, since all field kubbs must be down before a double into the baseline will count, you can’t hit an award to baseline kubb more than once. So if you had two award kubbs, placing one in front of a baseline may make sense, but you wouldn’t want to place the second award kubb also in front of a baseline.
Hey Allen, so the reason someone would place a kubb in front of the baseline even though they are confident they can clear the field in 6 batons is because it’s one less field kubb that they would have to clear. So in theory this could save them 1 baton that they wouldn’t have to throw at the field kubbs. This would give them 1 extra shot at the baseline kubbs (in theory). The other reason they would put a kubb in front of a baseline kubb is because you can put the kubb a little askew, giving you a slightly bigger target and you’ll still knock over both kubbs.
When it comes to placing an award in front of more than one baseline, I can see your point. It would still possibly save you another baton. What you don’t want to do though is not clear those 2 award kubbs on the baseline because that could mean 1 or 2 field kubbs that your opponent won’t have to clear and in turn giving them more opportunities at the baseline which could cost you the game.
What you need to know is that everyones style, skill and strategy is different. So everyone will use what they think works best for them, so I encourage you to continue to think critically about these types of things and try out different strategy, sometimes you might be surprised and find something you like to use or something that nobody had tried before.
Hope this helps answer your question!
In regards to why you would place the award kubb in front of the baseline. A big part of kubb strategy, especially on defense, is baton efficiency. A lot of high level players when setting up inkasted kubbs will estimate how many batons a pile will take to fall. When you are placing an award kubb, especially with medium to large piles, you can find yourself increasing the number of batons a pile might take to fall. Placing the award kubb in front of a baseline kubb is good for efficiency because you have to throw at that kubb anyway. Closely placed field/basline kubbs should be more likely to fall than attempting to string together 3 or 4 kubbs in a line at 4 meters.
Thanks to all for the quick response and thoughtful replies!
Neil, Kyle, Christopher– thanks for the quick and thoughtful replies!! Allen
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