What is Fox and Geese?
Fox and Geese is an asymmetric classic board game where one fox faces 13 (or 17) geese on the 33 points of a cross shaped board. The geese win by surrounding the fox so it cannot move, and the fox wins by jumping over geese to catch enough of them.
The two sides have different pieces and different rules. The fox is alone but can move and capture in any direction, while the geese are many but can neither retreat nor capture. It is one of the hunt games played in medieval Northern Europe and survives in Iceland under the name halatafl. The board is the same 33 point cross used for peg solitaire. Here you can take either side against the computer on easy, normal or hard, or play a friend on one screen.
How do the fox and the geese move?
The fox moves one step along a line in any direction, the geese move one step forward or sideways only. Only the fox can capture.
| Piece | Move | Capture |
|---|---|---|
| Fox (1) | One step along a line to an empty point, forward, back or sideways | Jump over a neighbouring goose in a straight line to the empty point beyond to catch it. If another jump is possible from the landing point, keep going |
| Geese (13 or 17) | One step forward (toward the fox) or sideways to an empty point. Never backward | Cannot capture. Surrounding the fox is their only weapon |
Geese the fox can catch blink with a red ring and the landing points glow red. Capturing is optional, so the fox may simply step instead. During a multi jump, tap the fox to stop where it stands.
What do the goose count and diagonal options change?
On the title screen you can pick 13 or 17 geese and diagonals on or off, giving four rule sets. The fox always starts in the centre and moves first.
| Variant | Starting geese | Fox needs to catch | Feel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 geese · diagonals on (default) | Top arm 6 points + first middle row 7 points | 5 geese | Plenty of jumping lanes, the liveliest fox |
| 13 geese · diagonals off | Same | 5 geese | Straight lines only, the goose wall is sturdier |
| 17 geese · diagonals on | The 13 setup + both ends of the second middle row | 7 geese | More geese squeeze the fox from the start |
| 17 geese · diagonals off | Same | 7 geese | Easiest for the geese, good fox practice |
Diagonals run only from points whose column and row numbers add up to an even number. With diagonals on, geese may also step diagonally forward.
How do you win or draw?
If the fox has no move on its turn the geese win, and if the fox catches its target number of geese the fox wins.
| Game ends when | Result |
|---|---|
| The fox is surrounded and can neither step nor jump | Geese win |
| The fox catches 5 geese (7 on the 17 goose board) | Fox wins |
| No goose can step forward or sideways on the geese turn | Fox wins |
| 60 moves pass with no capture and no goose moving forward | Draw |
| The same position appears three times | Draw |
Because geese can never step back, every forward move uses up part of their future. The geese may stall with sideways steps, but sooner or later they must advance and tighten the net.
How do you win as the geese?
The key is to advance in solid rows with no gaps. A goose with another goose right behind it cannot be jumped, because the fox has nowhere to land.
- Only push geese that are backed up. A goose beside the fox is caught at once if the point behind it is empty. Check that the back row can follow before moving the front row.
- Fill the middle row first. Once the seven point middle row is all geese, the fox is shut into the lower arm and the side ends, and the rest is filling empty points one by one.
- Count the fox's room. Keep track of how many empty points the fox can still reach and choose moves that shrink that space.
- Sideways steps buy time. When the fox probes for a gap, repair the line with a sideways step, then advance again when it backs off.
- Watch the diagonals. On the diagonal board a goose on a diagonal point can be jumped at a slant, so make sure the diagonal point behind it is covered too.
How should the fox play?
The fox should harass the ends and corners of the goose line to open gaps, and look for a point that threatens two geese at once.
Geese cannot turn back, so once the fox slips behind or beside their line they have fewer ways to defend. Standing where two geese are threatened at once means the geese can only save one. Getting pushed to the tip of the lower arm gets the fox trapped quickly, so staying in the wide centre matters too. In computer against computer games the hard geese almost never lose, so the fox's chances depend on drawing out mistakes.
How do the computer levels differ?
Easy looks two moves ahead and often wanders, normal reads four moves ahead in 0.3 seconds but sometimes gets careless, and hard reads eight to ten moves ahead within a second.
Hard runs an alpha beta search that deepens step by step, weighing the room the fox has, the geese that can be caught right now and the gaps in the goose line. Start as the fox against easy geese to get a feel for jumping, then switch sides and try to trap the fox. Wins are recorded per level on the title screen.
Controls
- Phone and mouse: on the fox turn the points it can reach sparkle. Tap one or drag the fox there. On the geese turn tap a goose, then a sparkling point, or drag it.
- Multi jumps: after a jump, if another catch is possible the next point glows red. Keep tapping, or tap the fox to stop.
- Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD pick a point, Enter or Space select and move. Ctrl+Z or U undoes, Esc stops a multi jump.
- Two players: fox and geese take turns on one screen. The name card of the side to play glows orange.
When you play the geese against the computer the board turns so your geese are at the bottom, and the computer fox moves first. Wins, chosen rules and sound settings stay in this browser only and are never sent to a server.