Aadu Puli Attam is a good game to teach because so little needs explaining: two kinds of piece, one board and a single way to capture. There are no dice and nothing is hidden, so everything a learner needs to see is on the board in front of them.
This guide is a plan for teaching the game to a child who can count, or to any adult who has never seen the board. It assumes you know the rules yourself; if you need a refresher, they are all in the complete rules of Aadu Puli Attam.
What you need
- A board. Drawing one together is a good start, and counting its points is the first lesson. Draw your own Aadu Puli Attam board shows how in five steps.
- Three tigers and fifteen goats that are easy to tell apart: two kinds of dried beans, coins of two sizes, buttons or small stones.
- Time for two games. A game between two people who know the rules takes ten to twenty minutes, and a first game runs longer. Two games let the learner play both sides.
Step 1: walk the board
Before any piece goes down, trace the lines together with a finger and count the points. There are twenty-three: the apex at the top, three rows of six, and four on the base. Then say the two rules that everything else depends on:
- Pieces sit on points, never in the spaces.
- A move follows a line to the next point along it. Never across a space.
Finish the walk at the apex. It is the only point where four lines meet, and one tiger starts there.
Step 2: set up and explain the turn
Put one tiger on the apex and the other two on the middle two points of the top row. The fifteen goats stay in the goat player's hand, and the goats always move first.
The game has two halves. First the goats enter, one per goat turn, on any empty point, while the tigers move one step or capture between those turns. Once all fifteen are on the board, each side moves one piece one step per turn, and a tiger may capture instead. The tigers win with five captures. The goats win when no tiger can move or capture.
Step 3: show the jump with two pieces
For the first drill, clear the board and put down one tiger and one goat next to each other on a line, with the point beyond the goat on that line empty. Show the capture: the tiger jumps over the goat to the empty point, and the goat comes off the board for good.
Then change one thing at a time and ask whether the tiger can still jump:
- Put a second goat on the landing point. No. A tiger needs an empty point directly beyond the goat.
- Move both pieces so the goat is at the end of the line, with the tiger next to it. No. There is nothing beyond the goat to land on.
- Pick a landing point around a bend, on a different line. No. The tiger, the goat and the landing point must be in one straight line.
- Swap the goat for a second tiger. No. Tigers never jump tigers.
Then let the learner set up positions for you to answer. Two more facts belong here: goats can never capture, and in the standard rules a tiger makes only one jump per turn.
Step 4: the safety question
Every point except the apex lies on exactly two lines. Before a goat is placed or moved, the goat player asks one question about each of them:
Is there a goat, or the end of the line, on at least one side of this point?
If the answer is yes for both lines, no tiger can jump that goat where it stands. Our goat strategy guide builds a whole plan out of this one test.
Seven points always pass it: 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 on any of them can never be captured. The apex starts with a tiger on it, so the other six are where the goats build from.
For the second drill, put a single tiger in the middle of the board and let the learner place five goats, asking the safety question before each one. Move the tiger after every placement and take any goat that fails. Repeat until all five survive.
Step 5: a first game with the learner as the goats
Give the learner the goats. They are the harder side to learn, but placing them one at a time is the best way to get to know the board, which is why new players usually start with them. Play the tigers yourself, and play them gently:
- Say each threat out loud before you act on it, as in "this tiger can jump that goat", and give the learner one turn to answer it.
- Ask rather than tell. "Which of your goats could a tiger jump next turn?" teaches more than pointing at the answer.
- Take the capture when a threat is left unanswered. The learner needs to see the rule work.
- Show the side lines early. The two short vertical lines at the edges allow jumps up and down, and they surprise almost every beginner once.
Step 6: swap sides
For the second game, give the learner the tigers. The tiger side is easier to learn, and hunting for a goat that fails the safety question teaches the same idea from the other side of the board.
Play the goats carefully, but leave the occasional goat unprotected and see whether the learner finds it. Remind them that capturing is optional, and that a tiger that jumps into a corner is easy to fence in. Our tiger strategy guide explains why.
Start with the standard rules
Teach the standard rules first: five captures, one jump per turn, and all three tigers on the board from the start. The app's tutorial, the board on our How to play page and every online match use them, so nothing has to be unlearned later. Two family variants are worth knowing about:
- Fifteen captures. The tigers must take every goat to win. If five captures come too quickly for a learner playing the goats, this lets them lose a few and still win by trapping the tigers. Games run longer.
- Multiple jumps. Leave this one for later. With chained jumps, one careless goat can cost two or three in a single turn.
The app offers both, along with placing the tigers one at a time, in Settings for offline games.
Leave the two draw rules, the same position appearing three times and fifty tiger moves without a capture, for later. They apply only once all fifteen goats are on the board, so explain them when a game first goes quiet: they exist so that a game cannot go on forever.
Common mistakes when teaching
- Explaining every rule before the first move. The two rules of the board and the jump are enough to begin.
- Answering for the learner. Ask the safety question and let them find the answer, even when it takes a while.
- Starting with multiple jumps. Every gap becomes far more dangerous. Keep it until the standard game feels easy.
- Playing only one side. Swapping sides is how the safety question starts to make sense from both directions.
How to practise between games
The board on the How to play page plays a complete game in the browser against a simple opponent. The learner can play the goats, or switch to "Play tigers" and let the computer place goats against them.
In the Three Tigers app, the tutorial's six interactive lessons go from placing a goat to trapping a tiger, Versus AI on Easy lets a learner practise at their own pace, and pass and play shares one iPhone between two players. These three modes are free, work offline and need no account. The app is on the App Store for iPhone with iOS 17 or later.
A note for parents: online accounts, purchases and social features are for adults aged 18 or older. A parent may supervise offline play on the parent's own device without creating an account for a child, as our Terms explain.
Frequently asked questions
What age can a child start? There is no set age. A child who can count the goats and follow a line from one point to the next with a finger is ready for a first game.
What if the tigers keep winning? That is normal at the start. Most beginner games are won by the tigers, and most experienced games by the goats. Go back to the safety question, or try the fifteen-capture variant for a few games.
Do we need to buy a board? No. A board drawn on paper or card takes about five minutes, and two kinds of beans, coins or buttons make good pieces.
My family calls it Puli Meka. Is it the same game? Yes. Puli Meka is the Telugu name and Huli Gatta the Kannada one, for the same tigers-and-goats game on the same 23-point board. House rules vary, so ask which version your family plays. There is more in the tiger and goat games of South Asia.