In the English-speaking world a simplified version is known as Fox and Geese. In this version the objective of reaching a certain location has been removed and instead it all comes down to capturing each other's pieces. Neither is it mandatory for the fox to capture the opponent's pieces, and there are no restraints on the defender's (the geese's) movements.
The fox is placed in the middle of the board, and 13 geese are placed on one side of the board. The fox and geese can move to any empty space around them (also diagonally). The fox can jump over geese like in checkers, capturing them. Repeated jumps are possible. Geese can not jump. Unlike in Halatafl, capturing is not mandatory. The geese win if they surround the fox so that it cannot move. The fox wins if it captures enough geese that the remaining geese cannot surround it anymore.
The traditional game with 13 geese is not well balanced and gives advantage to geese. There are more balanced game variants with 15, 17 or 18 geese or two foxes.
Read more about this topic: Fox Games
Famous quotes containing the words fox and, fox and/or geese:
“Commit a crime and the world is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge and fox and squirrel and mole.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“How much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world! and how much the best!”
—Charles James Fox (1749–1806)
“Not a flock of wild geese cackles over our town, but it to some extent unsettles the value of real estate here, and, if I were a broker, I should probably take that disturbance into account.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)