Aadu Puli Attam is a two-player hunt game from South India. One player has three tigers, the other has fifteen goats, and the two sides want completely different things: the tigers want to eat five goats, the goats want to hem the tigers in until none of them can move. There are no dice and nothing hidden. Everything that happens is on the board in front of you, which is why a game between two people who know the rules can be so tense.
This guide covers the standard rules exactly as the Three Tigers app plays them, plus the family variants you will meet in different households. If you would rather learn by doing, the How to play page has a board you can play in the browser against a simple opponent, and the app's six-lesson tutorial walks you through every idea below one move at a time.
What you need
- The board: a 23-point diagram. Below we describe how it is drawn; if you want to make one at home, read Draw your own Aadu Puli Attam board.
- Three tiger pieces for one player.
- Fifteen goat pieces for the other. Traditionally these are seeds, shells or pebbles of two kinds; any two sets of tokens work.
The board
The board is a fan of lines. At the top is a single point, the apex. Four straight lines run from the apex down to four points on a base line at the bottom. Three horizontal rows cross the fan on the way down, and each row extends one point beyond the outer sloping lines on both sides. Two short vertical lines join those outer ends of the three rows, closing the sides of the figure.
Count the points where lines meet and cross and you get 23: the apex, three rows of six, and four points on the base.
Two rules of geometry decide everything that follows:
- Pieces sit on points, never in the spaces.
- A move follows a line from one point to the next point along that same line. You cannot cut across a space or change lines mid-move.
Every point except the apex lies on exactly two lines. The apex lies on four. That matters for tactics, and we will come back to it.
Setup
- The three tigers start on the board: one on the apex and two on the middle points of the top row.
- All fifteen goats start off the board, in the goat player's hand.
- Goats move first.
Phase one: the goats enter
The game opens with a placement phase.
- On each goat turn, the goat player places one goat on any empty point. Goats already on the board stay where they are until all fifteen have entered.
- Between goat turns, the tiger player moves one tiger one step along a line to an adjacent empty point, or captures (see below). Tigers can capture from the very first turn, so the placement phase is not a quiet one.
- Placement continues until the fifteenth goat is on the board. Only then do goats begin to move.
Phase two: movement
Once all goats have entered, both sides move on their turn.
- A move is one step along a line to an adjacent empty point.
- The goat player moves one goat per turn. The tiger player moves one tiger per turn, or captures.
- If the goat player has no legal move at all, the goats pass and the tiger moves again. Goats are never forced to break their own formation.
How tigers capture
A capture is a jump. A tiger captures by jumping over an adjacent goat to the empty point directly beyond it, along the same straight line. The jumped goat is removed from the board for good.
The conditions, all of which must be true:
- The goat is on the point next to the tiger along a line.
- The point beyond the goat, on that same line, exists and is empty.
- The tiger, the goat and the landing point are in a straight line. You cannot jump around a bend from one line onto another.
A few consequences that trip up new players:
- Goats cannot capture. They win only by trapping.
- Tigers cannot jump over tigers.
- Capturing is optional. A tiger that could capture may move instead.
- One capture per turn in the standard rules. Some families allow a tiger to keep jumping; that is a variant, covered below.
- Jumps happen along any line, including the short vertical side lines and the base. A goat on the middle point of a side line can be jumped from above or below.
How each side wins
- Tigers win as soon as they have captured five goats.
- Goats win when it is the tiger player's turn and none of the three tigers can move or capture. It does not matter how many goats have been lost, as long as the trap closes.
Because the goats can lose four goats and still win, and the tigers only need one more capture after that, endgames are often decided by a single tempo.
Draws
Two rules stop a game going on forever. Both apply only once all goats have entered.
- Threefold repetition. If the same position, with the same side to move, appears for the third time, the game is a draw.
- Fifty tiger moves without a capture. If the tigers make fifty moves without capturing a goat, the game is a draw. The count restarts after every capture.
If you are winning as the goats, keep making progress rather than shuffling the same two goats back and forth. If you are the tigers and the herd has gone quiet, change the pattern before the count runs out.
Seven points a tiger can never capture
This is the single most useful thing to know before your first game. A capture needs an empty point beyond the goat. Seven points have no "beyond" on any of their lines:
- the two ends of the top row,
- the two ends of the bottom row,
- the two ends of the base line,
- and the apex.
A goat standing on any of these points cannot be jumped from any direction, ever. The apex is occupied by a tiger at the start, but the moment that tiger leaves, a goat can take its place and never be threatened there. The other six are the goats' safest anchors, and most placement strategies build outward from them. Our goat strategy guide shows how.
Family variants
The rules above are the standard set, and they are what online matches in Three Tigers use. Families play it their own way, and the app offers these variants for offline games in Settings:
- Fifteen captures. The tigers have to eat every goat to win, which makes the goats far bolder and the game longer.
- Multiple jumps. A tiger that lands after a capture may jump again immediately if another capture is available, like a king in draughts.
- Placing the tigers. Only one tiger starts on the board; the other two enter one per turn, in the same way the goats do.
If you learn the game from a relative, ask which of these they play. It changes the strategy more than you would expect.
A short example
Here is how a careful opening might start, in words:
- Goats place on one end of the base line. Nothing can ever capture there.
- Tigers bring one tiger down a sloping line from the top row, heading for the middle of the board.
- Goats place on the other end of the base line.
- Tigers bring the second tiger down.
- Goats place on the base point next to their first goat. It is protected: a tiger could only jump it along the base, and the landing point on that side is already occupied by a goat.
The goats are building a wall from the bottom up; the tigers are trying to get inside it before it closes. That tension is the whole game.
Frequently asked questions
Who moves first? The goats, always. The first move of the game is a goat placement.
Can a tiger jump two goats in a row? Not in the standard rules. Two goats side by side on a line are safe from a jump along that line, because there is no empty point directly beyond the first goat. Some families allow chained jumps as a variant.
Can goats capture tigers? No. Goats win only by leaving the tigers with no legal move.
What happens if the goats cannot move? They pass, and the tigers move again. A goat player is never forced to open a gap.
Does a tiger have to capture when it can? No. Capturing is optional, and sometimes a quiet move is stronger.
How long does a game take? Between two people who know the rules, ten to twenty minutes. The placement phase alone is fifteen goat turns.
Is it the same game as Bagh-chal? It is a close cousin. Bagh-chal, from Nepal, is played on a square grid with four tigers and twenty goats. The tactics feel similar; the boards and counts are different. See the tiger and goat games of South Asia.
Where can I practise? On the How to play page, right in your browser, or in the app against Easy, Medium and Hard opponents with undo and hints while you learn. Get it on the App Store.