The ancient South Indian hunt · also called Puli Meka, Aadu Puli Attam
Also known as: Puli Meka, Aadu Puli Attam, Aadu Huli Aata, Huli Gatta, Puli Joodam, Lambs & Tigers
A timeless predator-vs-prey battle played for centuries across South India — known as Puli Meka in Telugu, Aadu Puli Attam in Tamil, and Aadu Huli Aata in Kannada. A close cousin, Bagh-Chal, is Nepal's national board game, though it uses a different 5×5 board with 4 tigers and 20 goats. This version is played on the authentic 23-intersection triangular board — an apex with four fanning lines crossed by three horizontals — where three tigers hunt fifteen goats by leaping over them, and the goats must surround and trap every tiger.
How to Play
Goat player places 1 goat per turn — a tiger moves after each
Both sides slide one piece per turn along any line
Tigers capture by jumping over an adjacent goat to the empty space beyond
🐯 Tigers win by capturing 5 goats
Goats win by immobilizing all 3 tigers
History
Puli Meka takes its name from Telugu — puli ("tiger") and meka ("goat") — and belongs to South India, where it has been played for centuries under names that shift from state to state: Aadu Puli Aatam in Tamil Nadu, Aadu Huli Aata in Karnataka, and Bagh Bakri (tigers facing twenty-one goats rather than fifteen) across much of Hindi-speaking North India. Families scratched the triangular board straight onto stone floors, temple steps and courtyards, using tamarind seeds or pebbles for the goats and larger stones for the tigers.
The game belongs to a much larger, worldwide family of asymmetric hunt games built on the old alquerque board, where a handful of strong pieces face down a crowd of weaker ones. Nepal plays its own version, Bagh Chal, on a 5×5 grid with four tigers and twenty goats; Malaysia and Sumatra play Rimau-rimau, where two tigers hunt a mob of men; the Bororo people of Brazil play Adugo, in which a lone jaguar stalks a pack of dogs; and Europe has hunted the fox for centuries in games like Germany's Fuchs und Gänse and France's Renard et les poules, descended from the Viking-age game Halatafl. Different animals, different continents, the same idea: can the many trap the few before the few pick them off one at a time?
Strategy
Goats win by numbers, not by attacking — advance as one connected mass so a tiger never has an empty landing point on the far side of a goat.
As the goat player, never leave a lone goat next to a tiger with an empty node beyond it; that is exactly the gap a tiger jumps through.
Tigers should hunt for "forks" — a single move that threatens two goats at once, so the goat player can only save one.
Early on, tigers want open space and goats want to close it: goats should claim the central and apex nodes first to fence the tigers into a corner.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you play Goats and Tigers?
Three tigers try to capture goats by jumping over them, while the goat player places and moves fifteen goats to surround and trap every tiger. Goats are placed one per turn first; once all fifteen are on the board, both sides slide one piece per turn along the drawn lines.
How do the goats win?
The goats win by immobilising all three tigers at once — if no tiger has a legal move (neither a slide nor a jump), the goats have trapped the hunt and win.
How do the tigers win?
The tigers win by capturing five goats. A tiger captures by jumping over an adjacent goat into the empty point directly beyond it, exactly like a jump in Checkers.
Is Goats and Tigers the same as Bagh Chal?
No. They are close cousins but different games. Goats and Tigers uses a triangular 23-point board with three tigers and fifteen goats; Nepal's Bagh Chal uses a 5×5 square grid with four tigers and twenty goats.
What is Goats and Tigers called in other languages?
It is Puli Meka in Telugu, and is known as Aadu Puli Aatam in Tamil, Aadu Huli Aata or Huli Gatta in Kannada, and as Goats and Tigers or Lambs and Tigers in English.
Can you play Goats and Tigers against the computer?
Yes — you can play as the goats or the tigers against the AI, or pass-and-play against a friend on the same device, free and online.