Fox and geese

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The game in a commercial version named Fox and Sheep

Fox and Geese or Fox and Hen (also Hala Tafl or Halatafl ) is a medieval strategy game. Around the year 1000 it was spread across Europe, starting with the Icelandic Vikings . The first written mention of the game was found in the Icelandic Grettis saga .

The game is played with pieces on a game board that was originally made of leather or that may have been drawn on the floor. The game board is structured like the solitaire , but the pieces are distributed differently. One player plays the "fox" (o), the other the "geese" (x). 

    x x x
    x x x
x x x x x x x
. . . o . . .
. . . . . . .
    . . .
    . . .

Often, 18 geese are played. The geese usually win in this game. To increase the chances of the fox, for example 17 geese were used in later versions, which are also not allowed to move backwards.

The player who plays the "geese" makes the first move, which can be moved straight ahead, to the right or left, and in some variants also diagonally to the next square.

The “fox” may also take one step at a time, or instead hit a goose if he is standing directly on a strange game piece and there is still a free space behind the piece. The captured stones are removed from the game. The geese are beaten by the fox jumping over them in a straight line. An alternative game is to be able to make several jumps in a row.

The geese won when the fox can no longer be moved, or the fox when there are not enough geese left to encircle it.

Start variant with 13 geese and without diagonals 

        x - x - x
        |   |   |
        x - x - x
        |   |   |
x - x - x - x - x - x - x
|   |   |   |   |   |   |
. - . - . - o - . - . - .
|   |   |   |   |   |   |
. - . - . - . - . - . - .
        |   |   |
        . - . - .
        |   |   |
        . - . - .

Start variant with 20 geese and with diagonals 

        x - x - x
        | \ | / |
        x - x - x
        | / | \ |
x - x - x - x - x - x - x
| \ | / | \ | / | \ | / |
x - x - x - x - x - x - x
| / | \ | / | \ | / | \ |
. - . - . - o - . - . - .
        | \ | / |
        . - . - .
        | / | \ |
        . - . - .

Similar games

Fox and hen 

    x x x
    x x x
x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x
. . 0 o 0 . .
    o o o
    o o o

The goal of the hens (x) is to place at least 9 of them in the hen house (o). The goal of Foxes (0) is to prevent this from happening.

See also

Web links