Alternate Names
Tigers, Rimoe (Simalur, an island off the coast of Sumatra).
No. of Players
Two
Equipment
A Mogol Putt’han board, one Rimau (Tiger, Malay) counter, and twenty-four orang-orang (plural of man or men and representing hunters, Malay) counters are required for play. Here, the rimau-rimau counters are shown in white.
History
This game is played in Malaysia.
Objective
The hunters win if they manage to trap the tiger so that he is unable to move. The tiger wins if he manages to capture fourteen hunters or more.
Play
The game commences with nine orang-orang coutners positioned as above. The first move is by the rimau which may devour any three of the nine commencing orang-orang counters. The rimau is then positioned at any of the vacancies created by the removal of those three orang-orang counters. After this, alternate turns entail the orang-orang player placing one counter at any vacant position and the rimau moving or capturing in the following manner:
A rimau may move along a line to any adjacent vacant position in any direction. Alternatively on a turn, it may also jump and capture orang-orang counters. When jumping over one orang-orang counter, the rimau lands at a position immediately opposite the counter being jumped in a straight line. The rimau, however, may jump over any odd number of orang-orang counters (one, three, five, or theoretically seven) in this manner, provided that the counters being jumped are in a straight line with no vacant positions between them. Jump and capture moves by the rimau are not enchained and are not compulsory. After all of the orang-orang counters have been entered they may also move along a line to any adjacent vacant position on a turn. Of course, only one orang counter may be moved per turn.
Variations
A similar game is played in Sumatra and has two tigers, one commencing at the apex position of each triangle that is also on the border of the central main square. The opposing player has twenty-four goat counters. To commence, eight of the goat counters are positioned as the orang-orang counters in rimau-rimau with the central position now vacant, however. Here, a tiger may only capture one goat counter per turn by jumping.
Sources