page_title: Fox games
section_title: Halatafl
hierarchical_section_title: Fox games / Halatafl
caption_attribution_description: A modern edition of the traditional Scandinavian halatafl, the "fox game"
context_page_description: Fox games are a category of board games for two players, where one player is the fox and tries to eat the geese/sheep, and the opposing player directs the geese/sheep and attempts to trap the fox, or reach a destination on the board. In another variant, Fox and Hounds, the fox merely tries to evade the hounds. There are several versions known: in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Sápmi, Sweden, Iceland, Slovakia, Russia and Nepal.
context_section_description: Halatafl means "tail board", in Old Norse, and "tail" presumably refers to a fox's tail. As in Grettis saga, rävspelet (modern Swedish for "the Fox game") is still played with holes and pegs.
  There are two fox pegs (the red pegs on the picture) and 20 sheep pegs (the yellow pegs). Like the original game, tafl, the objective is for the defender (sheep) to reach a certain destination on the board, the square of nine holes marked with red, and it is the attacker's (the foxes) objective to stop the defender from reaching it. The foxes are placed in the corners on the bottom of the red square (the paddock), whereas the sheep are placed on the opposite side of the board. When the players have decided who will move first, they move one step in turns. The sheep may only move forward or sideways, while the foxes may move in any direction, even backwards. If a sheep is in front of an empty hole, the fox has to jump over and capture the sheep, as in checkers. The capturing is mandatory, as are repeated jumps if possible. The sheep have won if they manage to fill the paddock, the red square.
caption: A modern edition of the traditional Scandinavian halatafl, the "fox game"
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