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Fox and Geese is one of the oldest hunt games: thirteen geese against a single fox on a cross-shaped board. You command the geese, which may only move forward or sideways, and must hem the fox in before it jumps over and eats four of them. The computer's fox reads more moves ahead each time you trap it.
The board is a cross of 33 points joined by lines. Your 13 geese start in the lower part of the cross, filling the middle row and the bottom arm; the fox starts just above the centre. You move first, and then you and the computer take turns.
On your turn, tap a goose to pick it up; the points it can move to are marked in blue, and tapping one moves it there. A goose moves one step along a line, either forward (up the board) or sideways. Geese can never move backward and never capture.
The fox moves one step along a line in any direction. If a goose is next to it and the point directly beyond that goose is empty, the fox may jump over the goose and eat it. After a jump it may keep jumping over further geese in the same turn, so a single fox move can take several geese. Its path is marked on the board.
You win when the fox has no move left on its turn. The fox wins if it eats 4 geese, if none of your geese can move, or if you have not trapped it within 80 goose moves. Trapping the fox adds one to your streak and starts the next game against a fox that looks further ahead; a loss ends the run.
A goose can only be eaten when the point behind it is empty, so the whole game is about never leaving a gap behind a goose that the fox can reach. Advance in solid rows: move a goose forward only when the point it leaves will be covered, or when the fox is too far away to use it.
Because geese cannot move backward, every forward step is permanent. Don't rush. Moving geese sideways costs nothing and often keeps your line intact while you wait for the fox to commit to one side. Keep an eye on the move counter, though — you have 80 moves, and most traps take thirty to fifty.
The fox is most dangerous in the open middle rows, where it can attack from several directions. Push it up into one of the arms of the cross, where only a few points remain, and then close the arm off. A fox in the top arm with your geese filling the row beneath it is nearly beaten.
Watch for double jumps. Before each move, look at every goose next to the fox and check the point behind it, then check whether landing there would line up a second jump. Losing one goose is survivable; losing three in one move usually is not.