Two families can sit down at the same 23-point board and still play different games. Some play until the tigers have eaten every goat, some let a tiger keep jumping and some bring the tigers onto the board one at a time. Each of these variants changes a single rule, and each one changes the strategy for both sides.
This guide covers the three variants that the Three Tigers app offers in Settings: what each one changes, how to play it from both sides and what to settle before a game. It assumes you know the standard rules and the goats' safety test; if you need them, start with the complete rules of Aadu Puli Attam and our goat strategy guide.
What every variant keeps
Each variant changes one rule and leaves the rest of the standard game alone:
- The board. Twenty-three points and ten lines. A move follows a line to the next point along it.
- Goats move first, and they enter one per turn on any empty point.
- The capture. A tiger jumps an adjacent goat along a straight line to the empty point directly beyond it. Goats never capture and tigers never jump tigers. Capturing is always optional.
- The goats' win. The goats win when no tiger can move or capture.
- The draw rules. Threefold repetition and fifty tiger moves without a capture, both counted only once all the goats have entered.
Fifteen captures
In the standard game the tigers win with five captures. Here they need fifteen, which means every goat. Nothing else changes: the goats still win by trapping all three tigers.
That sounds like a gift to the goats, and it is, but the trap still has to be built from the goats that are left. Trapping the three tigers on their starting points takes ten goats, and no position on the board traps all three with fewer than six. So once the tigers have taken ten goats, the goats can no longer win, and the best they can hope for is a draw.
- As the goats, be bolder, but keep count. Each capture now brings the tigers a fifteenth of the way to a win rather than a fifth, so a goat given up to pull a tiger into a corner costs far less. But every goat you lose is one fewer to build the trap with.
- As the tigers, settle in for a siege. You cannot win quickly, so play for the gaps that open as the herd thins. Once ten goats are gone, the goats can no longer trap you, and the only result left to avoid is a draw. The count of fifty tiger moves without a capture restarts after every capture, so keep the captures coming.
Multiple jumps
After a capture, the same tiger may jump again from the point where it landed, and keep going while another capture is there. Each jump follows the usual rule, over an adjacent goat along a straight line to the empty point directly beyond, but the chain may turn onto a different line at any landing point. The tiger may stop after any jump, and every goat taken in the chain counts towards the five.
In the standard game, a goat that fails the safety test is in danger only once a tiger reaches the point next to it, and you get a turn to answer before it can jump. With multiple jumps, a tiger can land next to that goat by capturing another one, then jump it in the same turn. That is how one careless goat can cost two or three.
- As the goats, close gaps before a tiger is near. The pattern to fear is a line of goat, empty point, goat, empty point: a tiger on the far side of the first goat can take both in one turn. Two goats side by side on a line are still safe along it, because there is no empty point directly beyond the first.
- As the goats, look one landing ahead. Before you place or move, find any goat a tiger could take, then look at the point where that tiger would land. If it sits next to another goat that fails the test, you stand to lose two.
- As the tigers, look for captures that land beside a second target. A jump whose landing point lines up with another exposed goat takes both in one turn, and the goats get no move in between.
- As the tigers, choose where the chain ends. You may stop after any jump, so finish on a point with exits rather than on a corner the goats can close.
Placing the tigers
Only one tiger starts on the board, on the apex. The other two wait in the tiger player's hand. The goats still move first, and the tiger player spends the first two turns placing those two tigers, one per turn, on any empty point. Until both are down, no tiger moves or captures, so the first capture can come no earlier than the tigers' third turn. From then on the game follows the standard rules, from wherever the tigers stand.
- As the tigers, start where the goats want to build. A careful goat player builds the wall from the base corners upward, partly because the tigers normally start at the top. A tiger placed low on the board is inside that ground before the wall exists.
- As the tigers, spread out and keep off the corners. The standard start puts the tigers together at the top, where they get in each other's way, so use the placements to begin apart. Each of the six corner points has only two neighbours, which makes a tiger there the easiest to fence in, as our tiger strategy guide explains.
- As the goats, use the quiet turns. You place three goats before any capture is possible. Put them where they will still be safe when the hunting starts: with only the apex tiger on the board, all six corner points are free.
- As the goats, answer each tiger as it lands. A tiger placed next to your goats cannot capture on the turn it arrives, so you always get a move to reply. Run the safety test on every goat near it.
Which variant to play
- Fifteen captures can only help the goats. It changes nothing but the tigers' win, and makes that harder. It suits a learner playing the goats, as our guide to teaching the game to children suggests, or anyone who wants a longer game.
- Multiple jumps can only help the tigers. Every single jump is still allowed, and the chains come on top. It suits two players who already know the safety test well.
- Placing the tigers changes only the opening. Once all three tigers are down, the standard rules apply. It suits players who know the usual openings and want a fresh start.
Agree on the rules before the first goat
The rules vary from house to house, as our post on the tiger and goat games of South Asia explains, so settle them before anyone moves. Four questions cover the variants and the draws:
- How many captures win? Five, or all fifteen.
- One jump per turn, or several?
- Do all three tigers start on the board? Or only the apex tiger, with the other two placed.
- Do you play the draw rules? Threefold repetition and fifty tiger moves without a capture.
Online matches in Three Tigers always use the standard rules, so there is nothing to agree there.
How to practise
The board on our How to play page plays the standard rules, which makes it the place to practise the safety test that every variant depends on. To play a variant in the Three Tigers app, choose it in Settings for an offline game, as our app guide explains. The app is on the App Store for iPhone with iOS 17 or later.
Frequently asked questions
Which version is the real Aadu Puli Attam? All of them. The variants are family rules, not mistakes. The standard set is the one the app uses online and our complete rules describe, so it is the one two strangers can count on.
Can a tiger stop partway through a chain of jumps? Yes. Every jump after the first is optional, just as the first capture is.
Can a chain of jumps change direction? Yes. At each landing point the tiger may jump along any line through that point, as long as the usual conditions hold. It still cannot jump over a tiger or land on one.
With fifteen captures, how many goats can the goats lose and still win? Nine at most. No position traps all three tigers with fewer than six goats, and six are enough only when the tigers stand on one short side line with goats on the next two points along each tiger's row.
Does placing the tigers change who moves first? No. The goats place first, and the tiger player places a tiger on each of their first two turns.