boardgames.zoneFox & Geese
Asymmetric hunt - will the fox escape?
- 2 players
- 10–20 min
- DifficultyEasy
Lobby
No open tables right now
Open one and anyone browsing can join.
How to play
- Fox can move and jump to capture
- Geese can only move forward diagonally
- Geese win by trapping the fox
- Fox wins by reducing geese to 4 or fewer
Questions
Fox wins by capturing enough geese to prevent being trapped. Geese win by trapping the fox so it cannot move.
The cross-shaped board has 33 positions connected by lines. One player places the single Fox piece in the center. The other player places 13 (or 15) Geese filling one half of the board.
Geese win by surrounding the Fox so it has no legal moves. Fox wins by capturing enough Geese (usually reducing them to 4 or fewer) so trapping becomes impossible.
The Geese move first. Players alternate turns. Geese can only move forward or sideways (toward the fox's starting area), never backward. The Fox can move in any direction along the lines.
Geese: Advance slowly and maintain a solid line - don't leave gaps. Geese: Force the Fox into corners where it has fewer escape options. Geese: Accept that some Geese will be sacrificed - focus on the overall trap.
Fox and Geese has been played since at least the 13th century in Iceland and Scandinavia. Boards have been found carved into medieval cathedral cloister seats in England.