Fox and Geese

How to play

Fox and Geese is an old hunt game for two players on a cross-shaped board of 33 points joined by lines. One player has 13 geese, the other a single fox. The geese start on the top arm and the row below it; the fox starts in the middle. The geese move first.

1. Geese move forward or sideways. A goose moves one step along a line to an empty point: down the board, left or right. Geese can never move backward and never capture.
2. The fox moves in any direction. The fox moves one step along a line, up, down, left or right, to an empty point.
3. The fox captures by jumping. If a goose is next to the fox and the point right behind it is empty, the fox may jump over it and remove it. It can keep jumping in the same turn, over one goose after another, and stop whenever it likes. Jumping is never forced.
4. The geese win by trapping the fox. If the fox cannot move on its turn, the geese win.
5. The fox wins by eating geese. If fewer than four geese remain, they can no longer trap the fox, and the fox wins. The fox also wins if the geese have no move left.
6. No endless shuffling. If 80 moves in a row pass without a capture and without a goose moving forward, the game is a draw.

To move, tap a piece and then a highlighted point. When the fox has several ways to jump, tap the landing points one at a time. The status line counts the geese still on the board.

At the top, choose your Opponent. Against the Computer you play the geese and the computer plays the fox, at Easy, Medium or Hard. Choose Friend to play two people on one device: one takes the geese, the other the fox. Hint shows a good move for the player to move, and Undo takes back one move against a friend, or your move together with the computer’s answer.

Strategy

Playing the geese

• Advance as a solid wall. Move the geese down together, keeping every goose backed by another one directly behind it. A goose with an empty point behind it can be jumped.
• Never leave holes. A gap in your line is a doorway for the fox. Fill it before you push forward.
• Push the fox to the edge. The fox is weakest in the narrow arms of the cross and at the end of an arm. Close the arms one by one.
• Don’t hurry. Geese can’t go back, so a hasty advance can’t be undone. Sideways moves let you wait for the right moment.

Playing the fox

• Stay in the middle. The center has the most escape routes and the most chances to jump.
• Look for double threats. Move next to two geese that each have an empty point behind them; the geese can only cover one.
• Wait for mistakes. Geese that run out of safe sideways moves have to step forward, often leaving a gap.

With perfect play the geese should never lose, but they need patience. In our tests, the computer playing the geese at Hard trapped the fox in all six games against the Easy and Medium fox, while two Hard players drew two of three games.

If you enjoy old board games, try Nine Men’s Morris, or the jumping and capturing of Checkers.

If you enjoy Fox and Geese, try Go 9×9 or Gülbahar next.