How do tigers get five captures?
Every capture needs the same pattern: your tiger, a goat on an adjacent point, and an empty point directly beyond that goat, all three sitting on one line the board actually draws.
Keep an empty landing point behind a goat you want to capture. Before you jump, check the routes from the destination and the blocks the goat player can place on the next turn.
Opening moves
A corner tiger has three adjacent routes on an empty board. An inner diagonal point has up to eight. Moving inward can add routes, but the goat player places another blocker before that tiger moves again.
Compare each destination by counting its legal routes after the next goat placement. Keep more than one tiger active so the goats cannot answer one threat and restrict the rest.
Judge a capture by its landing point. Take it when the captured goat and the new position help your attack. Decline it when the landing point lets the goats close your remaining exits.
Reading a goat formation
Look for goats with an empty point behind them on a line your tiger can use.
A supported line blocks a head-on jump because another piece occupies the landing point. Search the other lines through each goat, the end of the supported line, and any point vacated during the movement phase.
Once all twenty goats have been placed, the goat player must move one goat per turn. Reposition a tiger when that creates several threats after the goat's next move.
Protecting your own mobility
Count the legal moves and captures for all four tigers. A falling count warns that the goats are closing space, but the type and destination of each route also matter.
Tigers cannot jump each other. Check whether two tigers in the same area block routes that either tiger needs. Treat a capture as bait when its landing point lets the goat player close the tiger's remaining exits.
Capturing is not compulsory in this game. You may decline a jump and choose a legal normal move that preserves more useful routes.
The endgame when you are behind
After all twenty goats have entered, the goat player must move a piece each turn. Watch which point that move vacates and whether it creates a landing point or exposes a goat on another line.
Place your tigers where several goat moves create a capture threat. The goat player may also move from one supported formation into another, so check the new position instead of assuming each move opens a jump.
Keep an eye on repetition too. In the movement phase, a position repeated three times with the same side to move is a draw in this app. A repetition can save a tiger position that has no safe route toward a fifth capture.
Five tiger mistakes to check
- Letting a corner close. A corner has three adjacent routes. Move or create a capture before the goats support blocks on all three lines.
- Taking a capture without checking the landing. The jump may put your tiger where goats can close its remaining routes.
- Blocking your own tiger. Tigers cannot jump each other. Check whether one tiger occupies a route another tiger needs.
- Counting captures alone. Track your normal moves and capture routes as well. A trapped tiger cannot use its capture total.
- Assuming the fifth capture will appear. At four captures, build more than one jump threat so the goats cannot close the only landing point.
Now read what the other player is doing: winning as the goats. Their blocking checks show which landing points and escape routes you need to preserve.