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Kaooa is a two-player abstract strategy game first recorded in the central provinces of India. It is a hunt game like rimau, rimau-rimau, main tapal empat, bagha-chall, the fox games, and aadu puli attam. However, what makes kaooa unique is that the board is a five-pointed star or a pentagram. Kaooa is also known as vultures and crows. One vulture goes up against seven crows.
The goal of the crows is to block the movements of the vultures.
The goal of the vulture is to capture four crows which is enough to prevent the crows from ever blocking its movements.
A five-pointed star or pentagram is used which makes for ten points or spaces on the board that pieces can be dropped and moved upon. There is one vulture piece, and seven crow pieces. The vulture and crows must be of different color or distinguishable objects.
1. Players decide who will play the vulture, and who will play the crows.
2. The board is empty in the beginning. All pieces are set beside the board.
3. Players alternate their turns throughout the game.
4. Drop phase: Crows start first, and one crow is dropped anywhere on the board. Crows continue to drop one piece per turn on any vacant point until all seven crows have been dropped which requires seven turns. Afterwards, the crows can begin to move.
After the first crow is dropped, the vulture is dropped by the other player on any vacant point on the board. On the vulture's next turn, it can move and capture crows.
5. Move phase: After all seven crows have been dropped, the crows can move one space onto a vacant point per turn following the pattern on the board. Crows cannot capture.
Vultures can either move one space onto a vacant point per turn following the pattern on the board, or capture one crow per turn. Capture is the same as in Draughts, where a vulture can jump over an adjacent crow piece and land on a vacant point on the other side. The jump must follow the pattern of the board, and be in a straight line. Multiple captures are not allowed.
HJR Murray also documents a game referred to as Kaooa which is played on a pentagram. Play is as described above with the exception of a single "tiger" piece hunting 7 kaooa
Permainan-Tabal is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Indonesia. The game is sometimes referred to as a cross between alquerque and draughts. It is essentially Draughts played on an expanded alquerque board. It is especially similar to draughts in that the moves of the pieces are strictly forward and sideways until they are promoted to kings by reaching the other player's first rank. The game is also referred to as dama.
Rimau-rimau is a two-player abstract strategy board game that belongs to the hunt game family. This family includes games like bagh-chal, main tapal empat, aadu puli attam, catch the hare, sua ghin gnua, the fox games, buga-shadara, and many more. Rimau-rimau is the plural of rimau which is an abbreviation of the word harimau, meaning 'tiger' in the Malay language. Therefore, rimau-rimau means 'tigers'. The several hunters attempting to surround and immobilize the tigers are called orang-orang, which is the plural of orang, meaning 'man'. Therefore, orang-orang means 'men' and there are twenty-two or twenty-four of them, depending on which version of the game is played. The game originates from Malaysia.
Main tapal empat is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Malaysia. It is a hunt game, and specifically a tiger hunt game since it uses an Alquerque board. The tigers can move as many spaces in a straight line as a clear path allows. Most hunt games have tigers, leopards, or foxes moving only one space at a time. In effect, the tigers in this game have the movement capability of the queen in chess.
Adugo is a two-player abstract strategy game from the Bororo tribe in the Pantanal region of Brazil.
Bear games is a category of board games of which many have historical roots in the Roman Empire. They were played in parts of the Empire as far away as Turkey and France and are still played today, especially in Italy. All of the games are two-player abstract strategy board games. Normally, the game is played with three hunters and one bear on a patterned board. It bears similarity to the hunt games such as the fox games, rimau-rimau, and bagha-chall, however, there are no captures involved. The three hunters are trying to hem in the bear, and block its movements.
Tsoro yematatu is a two-player abstract strategy game from Zimbabwe. Players first drop their three pieces onto the board, and then move them to create a 3 in-a-row which wins the game. It is similar to games like Tapatan, Achi, Nine holes, Shisima, and Tant Fant. However, what makes this game unique is that pieces can jump over each other which adds an extra dimension in the maneuverability of the pieces.
Hare games are two-player abstract strategy board games that were popular in medieval northern Europe up until the 19th century. In this game, a hare is trying to get past three dogs who are trying to surround it and trap it. The three dogs are represented by three pieces which normally start on one end of the board, and the hare is represented by one piece that usually starts in the middle of the board or is dropped on any vacant point in the beginning of the game.
Komikan is a two-player abstract strategy board game of the Mapuches from Chile and Argentina. The same game is also played by the Incas under the name Taptana, Komina, Comina, Cumi, Puma, or Inca Chess. In modern Quechua, the language of the ethnolinguistic group that are the descendants of the Incas, Taptana means "chess". It is known by the Aymaras, a neighboring ethnolinguistic group to the Quechuan people, as kumisiña. Throughout South America the game is known as El león y las ovejas which literally means "the lion and the sheep". The lion is actually a puma as there are no lions native to the Americas. The Mapuches also call it El Leoncito. J. I. Molina, in 1787, described it as ‘el artificioso juego del ajedrez, al cual dan el nombre de comican’ which translates to "the ingenious game of chess to which they give the name comican". Komikan may actually be the same game as Adugo as played by the Bororó people of Brazil. in 1898, Stewart Culin, the famed anthropologist, named a game played in Peru as Solitario. The same name was also used by the game historian, Murray, in 1952. The game may also be known in Peru as Kukuli. Komikan is a hunt game, and specifically a tiger hunt game since it uses an expanded Alquerque board. Like all hunt games, there are two unequal forces at play. In Komikan, one player has only a single piece, usually called a "puma" or "jaguar", or "kom ikelu", or "leon", which can move one space at a time or capture the other player's pieces by hopping over them. The other player has twelve pieces, or perros or perritos which is Spanish for "dogs" and "little dogs" respectively, that can only move one space at a time, but not capture, and attempts only to surround and immobilize the puma or jaguar. Pieces must move and/or capture following the pattern on the board. The expanded Alquerque board consist of an Alquerque board and a triangular patterned board attached on one of its side.
Rimau is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Malaysia. It is a hunt game, and specifically a tiger hunt game since it uses an expanded alquerque board. One tiger is being hunted by 24 men. The tiger attempts to eat the men, and the men attempt to trap the tiger. Unique to rimau, the tiger can capture a line of men in a single leap. There must be an odd number of men in the line, and they must be adjacent to one another. In most hunt games, the tiger, leopard, or fox is only able to capture one prey in a leap.
Buga-shadara, also known as Bouge Shodre, is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Tuva, a republic in Siberia, Russia. It is a hunt game where one player plays the deer. There are two deer usually represented as the black pieces. The boars are also referred black in the referenced article "Buga-shadara a folk game from Tuva". The other player has 24 white pieces with dogs associated to them. The board consist of an Alquerque board flanked on two of its opposite sides by a square patterned board. Because the board is in part an Alquerque board, this makes Buga-shadara a tiger hunt game. What makes Buga-shadara unique among tiger games are the expansion boards on the two opposite sides of the Alquerque board. They are square, whereas most are triangle-like. The word "shadara" resembles the word "shahdara". The "shah" part "is a title given to the emperors/kings and lords of Iran .". There is a place called Shahdara Bagh in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, and it's thought that the word "Shahdara can be translated as "the way of kings". Shah translates as "king" and dara translates as the way of kings." The referenced article associates the boars as kings. Perhaps the boars or deer are kings, and have to find a way or have a way with the white pieces or dogs.
Sher-bakar is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Punjab, India. It is a hunt game. It uses an alquerque board, and therefore, sher-bakar is specifically a tiger hunt game. There are two tigers attempting to elude and capture as many of the other player's pieces which in other hunt games in this part of the world is often referred to as a goat, cows, lamb, or men. An interesting and uncommon feature in this game is that the goats, cows, lamb, or men are piled up on four points of the board at the beginning of the game. Piling up pieces is an unusual feature in hunt games or any board game in general. The only other hunt game that uses this feature is Bagh bandi, a game closely related to sher-bakar. Hereinforth, the white pieces will be referred to as goats.
Bagh bandi is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Lower Bengal, India. It is a hunt game. It uses an alquerque board, and therefore, Bagh bandi is specifically a tiger hunt game. There are two tigers attempting to elude and capture as many goats while the goats are attempting to surround and trap the tigers.
Len Choa was a two-player abstract strategy game from 19th-century southern Thailand documented by Captain James Low in 1839. It is a Leopard hunt game. One tiger is going up against six leopards. The leopards attempt to surround and trap the tiger while the tiger attempts to capture enough of them so that the leopards can not immobilize the tiger. It is unknown how old the game is, and it is only known from the periodical Asiatic Researches; or, Transactions of the Society, Instituted in Bengal, For Inquiring into The History, The Antiquities, The Arts and Sciences, and Literature of Asian, Second Part of the Twentieth Volume and specifically in chapter X On Siamese Literature (1839) in which Low authored. There may be a very similar game played in Sri Lanka called Hat diviyan keliya.
Hat diviyan keliya is a two-player abstract strategy game from Sri Lanka. It is a Leopard hunt game. One tiger is going up against seven leopards. The leopards attempt to surround and trap the tiger while the tiger attempts to capture enough of them so that the leopards can not trap it.
Catch the hare is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Europe, and perhaps specifically from Spain. It is a hunt game, and since it uses a standard alquerque board from the game alquerque de doze, it is specifically a tiger hunt game. In some variants, some or all of the diagonal lines are missing which makes it difficult to classify as a tiger game in general. One hare is going up against ten to twelve opponents(hunters or hounds). The hare is the "tiger" in this hunt game which is prey and predator at the same time. The hare can capture the opponents by leaping over them. The opponents attempt to surround and trap the hare.
Leopard hunt games or simply leopard games are a group of abstract strategy games of Southeast Asian origin, similar in spirit to European fox games, although they are believed to have arisen independently. The games are usually played on a triangular board with three horizontal parallel lines intersecting the other two sides of the triangle and a vertical bisector. Though a number of variants exist, the basic principle of the game sees one player with a single piece and the other playing six or seven pieces. Players move pieces in turn along the board's lines. The objective for the hunter is to capture the opponents pieces by "jumping" over them as in checkers while the hunted seeks to corner the hunter so that it has no possible move.
Tiger and buffaloes is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Myanmar. It belongs to the hunt game family. The board is a 4x4 square grid, where pieces are placed on the intersection points and move along the lines. It is one of the smallest hunt games. Three tigers are going up against eleven buffaloes. The tigers attempt to capture as many of the buffaloes by the short leap as in draughts or alquerque. The buffaloes attempt to hem in the tigers.
Sua ghin gnua is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Thailand, formerly known as Siam. Another name for the game is tigers and oxen. It is a hunt game played on a 5x5 square grid with only orthogonal lines. One player plays the three tigers, and the other player plays the twelve oxen. The board is empty in the beginning. Players first drop their pieces onto the board, and then are able to move them. The tigers can capture the oxen by the short leap as in draughts and alquerque, but the oxen attempt to elude and at the same time hem in the tiger. Sua Ghin Gnua most resembles the tiger hunt games such as bagh-chal, rimau-rimau, main tapal empat, catch the hare, and adugo since they all use a 5 x 5 square grid. But tiger games technically consist of a standard alquerque board which is a 5 x 5 square grid with several diagonal lines criss-crossing through it which are completely missing in sua ghin gnua. There are however some variants of catch the hare which have missing diagonal lines also. Another game that resembles sua ghin gnua is from Myanmar, called tiger and buffaloes, which is a hunt game consisting of a 4 x 4 square grid with no diagonal lines. Myanmar happens to border Thailand geographically so there might be a historical connection between the two games. Another game from Myanmar is lay gwet kyah that is presumed to be similar to sua ghin gnua. Sua ghin gnua was briefly described by Stewart Culin, in his book Chess and Playing Cards: Catalogue of Games and Implements for Divination Exhibited by the United States National Museum in Connection with the Department of Archaeology and Paleontology of the University of Pennsylvania at the Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia 1895 (1898). It's also briefly mentioned by H.J.R. Murray in his book A History of Chess (1913). It was also described by R.C. Bell, in his book Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (1969).
The tiger game is a traditional Chinese board game. It is a strategy game for two players. One player, who plays the tiger, has only one piece. The other player has 18 men. The tiger must eat the men, who must block the tiger so that he cannot move. The game can be played with any kind of pieces that can be distinguished from one another. The board is 8×8 squares, with the addition of a square of 2×2 squares, which is called the tiger's lair.