Anybody here good at the game of Fox and Geese? Total beginner wonders how a game is ever anything but a draw. Seems too easy for either side to force the draw.
That sounds kind of like the version I have. Only in the rule set I have, the geese and the fox can both go forwards & backwards.
I unfortunately have not played the game and cannot quite remember if I've seen it played at an SCA event or not. However, I picked up a box of Cloister Games on my UK trip (2000) and it has Fox & Geese. It says:
"Fox and Geese belongs to the group of games known collectively as Tafl in which there are battles fought out by two forces of unequal power. Tafl games appear to have originated in Northern Europe. Mention is made of one as far back as AD 1300 in the Icelandic 'Grettis Saga'.
The rules say: It is a 2 player game, one is the fox and the other player is the geese. In this variant there are 13 geese to 1 fox. The fox can be placed on any vacant point. Both "fox and geese can move along a line, backwards or forwards, to the next contiguous point. The fox may jump over a goose to an empty point, capturing the goose and removing it from the board." Two or more geese can be captured by the fox in 1 turn -- as long as the fox is able to jump to an empty point after each goose captured. "The geese cannot jump over or capture the fox." The geese must work together to mob the fox and trap it in a corner, preventing the fox from being able to move. The geese win if they trap the fox. The fox wins if it captures enough geese to result in making it impossible for the geese to trap the fox.
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Fox and Geese - both go forward & backward
I unfortunately have not played the game and cannot quite remember if I've seen it played at an SCA event or not. However, I picked up a box of Cloister Games on my UK trip (2000) and it has Fox & Geese. It says:
"Fox and Geese belongs to the group of games known collectively as Tafl in which there are battles fought out by two forces of unequal power. Tafl games appear to have originated in Northern Europe. Mention is made of one as far back as AD 1300 in the Icelandic 'Grettis Saga'.
The rules say: It is a 2 player game, one is the fox and the other player is the geese. In this variant there are 13 geese to 1 fox. The fox can be placed on any vacant point. Both "fox and geese can move along a line, backwards or forwards, to the next contiguous point. The fox may jump over a goose to an empty point, capturing the goose and removing it from the board." Two or more geese can be captured by the fox in 1 turn -- as long as the fox is able to jump to an empty point after each goose captured. "The geese cannot jump over or capture the fox." The geese must work together to mob the fox and trap it in a corner, preventing the fox from being able to move. The geese win if they trap the fox. The fox wins if it captures enough geese to result in making it impossible for the geese to trap the fox.
Does that help?
-- Shadopanther