Lambs & Tigers — Aadu Puli Aatam
Ancient South Indian strategy — can the lambs outsmart the tigers?
Aadu Puli Aatam (ஆடு புலி ஆட்டம்) — literally "Goat Tiger Game" in Tamil — is one of India's oldest strategy games. Ancient boards are carved into the floors of temples and the verandahs of houses across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. It is also known as Puli Judam (Telugu), Huli Gatta (Kannada), and Puli-Meka.
The game is beautifully asymmetric. Three tigers hunt up to fifteen lambs, capturing them by jumping over them like checkers. The tigers win if they capture 5 lambs. The lambs win by surrounding all three tigers so none can move — a triumph of unity over strength.
Classic board (23 nodes) — a pyramid of four rows fanning down from a single apex. Four diagonal lines radiate from the apex through the inner nodes of each row all the way to the bottom. The outer nodes on each row are connected only by the horizontal rows and sloped outer edges. The bottom row has just four nodes, sitting under the inner columns.
Extended board (29 nodes) — the same pyramid structure but with one extra node on each side of rows 1, 2 and 3, like wings extending outward. These wing nodes are connected only horizontally and by the sloped wing edges — not to the apex and not to the bottom row. This larger board gives lambs more room to manoeuvre and makes surrounding the tigers considerably harder.
Pieces move only along the drawn lines, one step at a time. Tigers may also jump over an adjacent lamb to an empty node beyond it — capturing that lamb. Lambs cannot move until all 15 have been placed on the board.