# Aadu Puli Attam — goats against tigers

- From: Aadu Puli Attam, a goats-and-tigers game from Tamil Nadu
- Players: 2 players
- Time: 10–15 min
- Made by: Traditional, Tamil Nadu and South India
- This version: Tigers win on five captures; some sources say they must take all fifteen

Made with boardgameBuilder 0.14.4. To design from it, open boardgameBuilder and choose Open game: its blocks go on the canvas, and the feelings are left for you to pick.

Three tigers hunt fifteen goats. Tigers capture by jumping; goats cannot capture at all, but together they can hem the tigers in. The two sides play by different rules for different goals.

## What it shows a designer

Two sides with different pieces, different moves and different goals. It shows asymmetric design: balance comes from tuning numbers such as goats needed and capture counts, not from giving both sides the same thing.

## What you need

- paper with the 23-point board drawn: a triangle from one apex, crossed by four rows
- 3 tiger pieces and 15 goat pieces (coins or pebbles of two kinds)

## How to play

1. **The board.** Draw a point at the top. From it draw four lines fanning down. Cross them with four rows: three rows of six points (the two outer points of each row on side lines) and a bottom row of four. That makes 23 points.
2. **Set up.** Put the tigers on the top point and the two points below it nearest the middle. The goats start off the board. Goats move first.
3. **Goats place.** Until all 15 are on, a goat's turn is placing one goat on any empty point.
4. **Tigers.** A tiger moves one point along a line, or jumps along a line over one goat to the empty point just beyond it, taking that goat. One jump per turn.
5. **Goats move.** Once all goats are on, a goat's turn is sliding one goat one point along a line. Goats never jump.
6. **Win.** Tigers win when they have taken 5 goats. Goats win when no tiger can move.

## After playing, talk about

- Which side felt stronger at the start, and at the end?
- How did the goats protect each other?
- What would change if tigers needed only 3 goats?

## Where the rules are written down

- https://xchess.net/en/aadupuli/rules
- https://threetigers.app/blog/how-to-play-aadu-puli-attam-rules

## Its blocks

- Player interaction: direct confrontation
- Chance or skill: mostly skill
- Information visibility: full information
- Timing: take turns

## Saved state

boardgameBuilder reads this part back when the file is opened.

```json
{"mechanics": {"player-interaction": "direct-confrontation", "chance-skill": "mostly-skill", "information": "full-information", "timing": ["take-turns"]}, "chosenFeelings": [], "previousMechanics": {}, "previousFeelings": [], "turnNumber": 0, "locked": false, "turnHistory": [], "answers": {}, "tests": {}}
```