Baghchal starts with an uneven board: four tigers at the corners, and no goats placed yet. One player moves the tigers. The other places twenty goats, one per turn.
The goals are different. Tigers want to capture. Goats want to take away the tigers' moves.
Placement comes first
The goat side places a piece on an empty intersection each turn. During this phase the tigers can move or capture, but placed goats do not move yet.
After all twenty goats have been placed, the remaining goats move along connected lines. Both sides must follow the board's connections; a diagonal drawn through one point is not permission to move along every diagonal.
A capture needs space
A tiger captures by jumping over an adjacent goat in a straight line to an empty intersection. Both parts of the jump must follow connected edges. Captures are optional, and the app allows one jump per action.
A goat next to a tiger is not automatically lost. The landing intersection also has to be empty.
The goals
| Side | Pieces | Winning condition |
|---|---|---|
| Tigers | Four | Capture five goats |
| Goats | Twenty placed over time | Leave the tigers with no legal move |
For goats, placing a single piece where a tiger can jump is often less useful than building a group. For tigers, an empty landing spot can matter as much as the goat next to it.
Draw conventions in the app
The app uses a draw after three occurrences of the same board, side to move, placement count, capture count and rules version. It also handles a side with no legal action after checking the winning conditions.
These are the app's documented conventions. People who learned Baghchal at home may use different draw rules. Agree on the rules when you play together.
Start with both sides
Local two-player mode lets you take turns on one phone. Playing each side helps explain what the other player is trying to prevent. The learning flow and on-device opponent provide another way to practice.