The tigers have all the power and none of the time. Three pieces that can jump and kill, against fifteen that cannot fight back, but every goat that enters the board closes another gap, and once the wall is built the tigers are the ones in trouble. A good tiger player uses the placement phase, all fifteen turns of it, to make sure the wall never closes.
This guide assumes you know the rules; if not, read the complete rules first. It pairs with the goat strategy guide, because the best way to hunt goats is to know exactly what a careful goat player is trying to do, and to get there first.
The tiger's clock
You need five captures. The goats need to leave you no moves. Every goat that lands safely is a tick of the clock against you, so the placement phase is your hunting season, not a warm-up. Tigers may capture from the first turn.
Keep one number in your head throughout: how many of the goats on the board are currently capturable. If the answer is zero for several turns in a row, you are losing even if you have not lost a piece.
Move one: spread out
The tigers start together at the top: one on the apex, two on the middle of the top row. Three tigers on adjacent points threaten very little, and they get in each other's way (a tiger cannot jump over another tiger).
Send them apart early. One tiger down each of the outer sloping lines towards the base corners, one staying high to watch the top rows. Now every row has a tiger nearby, and a goat player who wants to build from the bottom has to build around you.
Sit where the goats want to be
A careful goat player builds a wall from the base corners upward, because those corner points can never be captured. You cannot capture a goat on a corner, but you can be standing on the corner first.
Occupying the points the goats need has a cost: a tiger on a corner has only two moves and is easy to fence in. The better squares to hold are the middle points of the middle rows. Each has four neighbours, lies on a row and a sloping line, and is exactly where a wall has to pass through. A tiger sitting there forces the goats to build around it, and every goat placed next to it is a candidate for a jump.
Use corners as a quick raid, not a home. Step onto a base corner to stop a goat taking it, then leave before the goats close your two exits.
Hunt for forks
A single threat is easy to answer: the goat player protects the goat or moves it. A fork is a position where one tiger threatens two captures at once, along its two lines. The goats can fix only one gap per turn, so the other goat falls.
The best forks come from a tiger stepping onto a middle-row point next to two goats that were each placed with an empty point behind them. Look for the move that creates two threats rather than the move that takes one goat now. A capture that leaves you on a corner with no follow-up is often worth less than a quiet move that sets up a fork.
Capture with purpose
Captures are optional, and not every capture is good.
- Take the capture when it wins material without landing your tiger somewhere it will be trapped, when it breaks a wall that was about to close, or when it is one of two threats and the goats have just answered the other.
- Decline the capture when the landing point is a corner with two exits and the goats have goats ready to fill them, or when a quieter move creates a fork next turn.
Count your exits after every jump. A tiger that has just eaten and now has one move left is a tiger the goats will finish off.
Remember the side lines
The two short vertical lines at the edges of the board are easy to forget, and goat players forget them more often than tiger players. A goat on the middle point of a side line can be jumped from the point above it to the point below, or the reverse. Many beginners protect their goats along rows and sloping lines and leave the vertical open. Look for it.
Do not get boxed in
The six corner points have only two neighbours each, so a tiger that retreats to one is easy to fence in. The apex has four neighbours, but they are all on the top row, and once the goats hold the top row with protected pieces the apex tiger has nowhere to go. Stay on the middle points, where three or four moves are usually available, and only leave that ground when a capture or a fork is on offer.
If a tiger is trapped, the game is not over; you still have two tigers and the goats still have to trap them. But a trapped tiger is a tiger not hunting, and you were already short of time.
The movement phase: hunt the edges of the wall
When all fifteen goats are on the board, the goats must move one piece per turn, and every goat move vacates a point. That is your chance. A wall that was solid during placement has to shift, and the moment a goat steps forward, the goat behind it may lose its protection.
- Sit next to the wall and wait for the gap. Do not move a tiger away from a goat cluster to chase a single goat.
- Threaten the goat that is protecting others. If the goats have to move it, the goats around it fail the safety test.
- Keep all three tigers mobile. The goats trap tigers one at a time; do not let a tiger idle in a corner while the other two hunt.
Beat the draw rules
Once all goats have entered, the same position appearing three times, or fifty tiger moves without a capture, ends the game as a draw. Both are traps for tigers that repeat themselves. If you have been walking the same tiger back and forth along a wall for a while, change the pattern: bring a second tiger to the same stretch, or threaten a goat on the far side of the board that the goats have stopped watching. A draw is better than a loss, but you are the side with the power, and a draw usually means you let the goats set the pace.
Common mistakes
- Keeping the tigers together at the top. They block each other and threaten one small area.
- Grabbing every capture. Landing on a corner after a jump often costs the tiger.
- Ignoring the base. Goats that own the base own the bottom two rows; contest it early.
- Retreating to the apex. It looks central, but its only neighbours are the top row.
- Forgetting the vertical side lines, both to attack and to escape.
How to practise
Play the tigers on the How to play board: switch to "Play tigers" and the computer will place goats against you. In the app, Easy, Medium and Hard opponents defend their goats with increasing care, and the tutorial has a lesson on trapping that shows you exactly how the goats will try to catch you.
Frequently asked questions
How many captures do the tigers need? Five in the standard rules. Some families play to fifteen, which turns the game into a long siege.
Can a tiger jump over another tiger? No. Only goats can be jumped.
Should I capture whenever I can? No. Count the exits from the landing point first, and prefer moves that create two threats.
Is the tiger side easier? It is easier to learn and harder to win with against a careful goat player. Most beginner games are won by the tigers; most experienced games are won by the goats.
What is the best first move? Bring one of the top-row tigers down a sloping line towards the base. Spreading out matters more than any single square.