Fox and Hens (sometime called Foxes and Geese) is a strategy game where you can either play as foxes or hens. It’s a modification of the Scandinavian game Halatafl (or Tafl) and was brought to Europe by the vikings. There have been quite a few variations of the game rules since then which I’ve tried to incorporate in this game.

The objective of the hens is to avoid being eaten :) by the foxes and either trap the foxes or get 9 hens safely home in the hen house. The objective of the foxes, on the other hand, is to stop the hens reaching the hen house by eating enough of them so that they are not able to achieve their goal. Foxes can move in any direction one space at a time (similar to a king in checkers) but the hens can only move forwards or sideways. The fox can jump over and capture a hen so long as there is a vacant space beyond, but hens cannot jump over foxes. Foxes must eat hens if possible otherwise it is a foul and that fox is removed from the game until the remaining fox captures another hen, then the fouled fox re-joins the game. If the final fox also fouls, then the hens win the game.