Chautari Baghchal

Goats move first

1. Placing. Each turn, put one goat on any empty point. You cannot place on a point that already has a piece.
2. Sliding. When all twenty goats are down, a goat slides one step along a line onto a connected empty point.

Tigers

• A tiger slides one step along a line onto an empty point.
• Or it jumps over one goat in a straight line onto the empty point right behind it. That goat is captured.
• There is no rule that forces a capture.

How the game ends

• Tigers win by capturing five goats.
• Goats win by trapping all four tigers so none can move.
• If eighty moves pass without a capture, the game is a draw.

Playing a move

• Placing a goat: tap a gold dot.
• Moving a piece: tap one of your pieces (it gets a ring), then tap a gold dot. A red dot is a capture.
• Tap an empty spot to cancel your choice.
• The two men move the pieces themselves. Wait until the hand lets go before your next tap.

The camera

• Drag to look around, scroll or pinch to zoom, right-drag or two-finger drag to pan.
• The View button jumps to a preset: Play view, Three-quarter, From above, a close-up of each man, or the whole chautari.
• With Camera follows each move on, the camera zooms in on every move and then returns to where you had it.

Buttons and keys

Playing the goats

• Place goats on the edges and in pairs first. A goat with a goat or the edge directly behind it cannot be jumped.
• Before every placement, check each tiger: is there an empty point right behind this goat, in line with a tiger?
• Take away the tigers' empty neighbours slowly. The aim is to trap them, not to rush.
• Keep your goats in a connected wall and advance the wall together.

Playing the tigers

• Stay near the centre, where a tiger has the most moves. A tiger stuck in a corner is easy to trap.
• Look for double threats: one move that attacks two goats at once, so the goats can only save one.
• Be patient in the placing phase. Every goat has to go somewhere, and mistakes come late.
• Five captures is enough, so a quick capture early can decide the game.

Choosing a level

• Easy sometimes plays a random move. Medium looks three moves ahead. Hard looks four moves ahead and rarely blunders.

Words you will hear

The scene

Two elders play Baghchal on a village chautari under a peepal tree, with terraced hills and the Himalaya behind. Everything is built in your browser from shapes and painted textures, so faces and cloth are stylised, not photographic. The men move the pieces themselves.

Sound and voices

• Effects and ambience are generated on your device. The tiger's roar, the goat's bleat and the wooden clicks are all synthesised.
• The conversations are spoken by your device's own text-to-speech. For the most natural Nepali, use a device or browser that has a Nepali voice. A Hindi voice reads the same script well. Open Menu › Voice settings to pick the best voice you have and test it.
• If no Nepali or Hindi voice exists, the game uses an English (India) voice with Romanised Nepali. If there is no voice at all, you still get the Nepali text and English translation in the bubbles.

Privacy

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