Rules & objective
Eight animals each. Higher/equal rank captures lower: this edition uses Dog3/Wolf4. Move one orthogonal square, never diagonal, onto no friendly animal or own den. Rat captures Elephant on land; Elephant cannot capture Rat except a rank-zero trapped Rat. Only Rat swims. Two water rats may capture; this edition forbids all capture across the water/land boundary, so leave onto an empty bank first. Lion/Tiger jump straight from a bank to the first opposite land square, empty or legally capturable; either side’s rat on the crossed water blocks it. Own traps are harmless. An enemy resting in your trap can be captured by any defender. Capture when entering/leaving traps uses the animal’s normal attack rank; after entering an enemy trap its defensive rank becomes zero, restoring on exit. Enemy-den entry, capturing all enemies or leaving them no legal move wins. Bottom side starts by default; fresh games alternate starters. Automatic draws: identical board/side to move three times, or 100 individual moves without capture. These declared digital ending rules do not adjudicate perpetual chase.
Controls
Play directly on the cards or board with mouse or touch. Coordinate selectors are optional keyboard aids.
Worked example
A rat in the river can block a tiger or lion jump. Empty landing squares do not permit jumping past that rat.