Fox and Geese

A free game from Ancient.Games · no wagering, no account

Fox and Geese

One hunter against sixteen birds.
The fox eats by jumping. The geese win by leaving him nowhere to go.

Ranulf, the warrener

Pick your side and we'll start. Most folk take the geese first.

Geese16
You are the geese

Tap a goose, then tap where it walks.

The real one is a round wooden board.

Ten to twelve inches across, cut and engraved in the shop, sanded smooth and sealed. Comes with the fox, all sixteen geese, and a drawstring bag — in wood tokens or resin figurines.

See the board
How it works

The geese move one step at a time along the engraved lines, in any direction. There are sixteen of them and they cannot jump.

The fox moves one step in any direction, and takes a goose by jumping straight over it into the empty hole beyond, exactly like draughts. One jump per turn.

The geese win by crowding the fox until he has nowhere left to move. The fox wins by thinning the flock — once four geese remain they can no longer close a net, and the hunt is his.

The fox is on a clock. Forty of his moves without taking a goose and the flock wins by default, so running away forever is not a plan.

The geese are stronger than they look, and they should be — sixteen against one. Keep the wall unbroken and never leave a bird with an empty hole directly behind it, or Ranulf jumps it and the line opens up.

Ancient Games · handmade historical boards · ancient.games