Game: War & Sheep

Image

chezzilla — 2008-06-16T21:39:29+00:00

Image

chezzilla — 2008-06-16T21:37:38+00:00

Thread: Re: Starting action cards

Starsunsky — 2008-05-02T05:46:18+00:00

I believe it is a typo in the rule. Players have no action cards in starting hand. All 21 action cards are shuffled to form a draw deck in the preparation.

Image

szoffi — 2008-03-17T14:23:03+00:00

I stick Hungarian text on the cards, then laminated them

Thread: Starting action cards

djnesq — 2008-02-17T17:57:02+00:00

The rules state correctly that there are 21 action cards. Later, you are told to shuffle 15 action cards to begin the game. Does that mean that each player begins with three action cards in his hand, or should the rules have said to shuffle 21 cards?

Image

Toynan — 2007-12-23T15:44:03+00:00

Summary card

Image

Toynan — 2007-12-23T15:43:02+00:00

Promotional card

Image

Capitaine Grappin — 2007-10-25T12:55:10+00:00

French edition

Image

Capitaine Grappin — 2007-10-25T12:54:44+00:00

French edition (back)

Image

Capitaine Grappin — 2007-07-05T02:56:28+00:00

Thread: Re: Review - War & Sheep

Hugh_G_Rection — 2007-04-26T05:53:55+00:00

Well, you just saved me $8...thanks. The theme may be sheep, but apparently this game is a turkey.

Thread: Quick Comments

caradoc — 2006-04-08T02:09:26+00:00

War & Sheep

War & Sheep by Bruno Cathala (Shadows over Camelot, Mission: Red Planet, and many more) is one of the funniest games I have played in a long time. Sure it was never in the running for the coveted Spiel Des Jarhes – the German Board Game of the Year award, but it is a very simple, very fun game laden with an odd sort of humour I find very appealing.
The clever movement system for the sheep and wolves inspires some interesting tactical manoeuvres, and the special ability cards throw in a fun and very wacky element.
This is not the best 2 player game ever made, but it is heavy with theme and that theme is hilarious, and carried all the way through the game – even reading the rules can inspire the odd giggle.
Playing this game is definitely an enjoyable experience, sometimes tactical, sometimes challenging, and always fun. If you require a fun little game to play after a few drinks have been imbibed, or a game to inspire a little laugh every so often, then this game will serve that purpose well.
If you are interested in this game, or own it already, check out the ‘Ideal Game Library’ on the website of Bruno Faidutti (www.faidutti.com) for some brilliant pictures of an enlarged version of this game – and a photo of the game designer Bruno Cathala dressed as a shepherd!

Image

jElliot — 2006-01-05T22:34:22+00:00

Image

H-Alga — 2005-12-12T18:25:31+00:00

Molly & Lore! kontra War & Sheep!

Thread: Re: Recon Question

steveoliverc — 2005-10-17T02:11:22+00:00

That's what we usually do -- recon more towards the end of the game if there are still 1 or 2 wolves out there in hiding. At the beginning, the odds are pretty good you won't encounter the wolf in the first few turns.

Thread: Re: Camouflaged sheep - dragged along?

relic10 — 2005-09-03T21:27:20+00:00

"A sheep is never forced out of camo. In this case the train is broken by the camouflaged sheep, just as if she was a grass token."

Thread: Camouflaged sheep - dragged along?

kat644 — 2005-09-03T14:27:44+00:00

Do camouflaged sheep get dragged along when another sheep in front of them moves? Or do they remain where they are?

Thanks.

K

Thread: Copy of English Rules?

Gomez — 2005-07-15T02:22:23+00:00

I'm wondering if anyone knows whereabouts a copy of the rules in English can be downloaded please? Unusually, there isn't a copy here on BGG

Thread: Re: Review - War & Sheep

Koldfoot — 2005-06-29T18:11:01+00:00

Holy sheep s%!#. For such a simple game you managed to write a long review.

I bought my copy for a buck or two at a blow out sale. I knew it wasn't a good game when I bought it. I still felt ripped-off.

Thread: Re: Review - War & Sheep

EvilTimmy — 2005-06-29T16:06:52+00:00

Agreed. My wife and I played this twice before we quickly figured out that absolute chaos from the cards ruins the game. It might be a good game for kids, who can accept a bit more randomness in a game.

Thread: Review - War & Sheep

houjix — 2005-06-29T06:10:27+00:00

Ah, War & Sheep. They go together like peanut better and jelly. Well maybe not, but you must admit that the pairing is at least mildly intriguing. Perhaps intriguing enough to give the game a shot ... or at least to check out some reviews.

- Overview -

War & Sheep is a Bruno Cathala title in Eurogame's "Games for 2" series. In the game, players take control of a flock of sheep grazing a pasture. Throughout the game, players will explore and graze uncharted tracks of grassland (exciting, huh?) looking for victory points. At the same time they must both avoid and use the lurking wolves. The object is to eliminate the opponent's sheep with the wolves or eat the grass worth the most victory points. I wish the grass out in my yard was worth victory points, but that's another story. Anyway, sound silly enough? It certainly is.

The game features some great artwork and some interesting tactical play, with some powerful random action cards thrown in. Coming in under $15 in the US, War & Sheep is certainly worth a look. So let's get to it.

- Components -

War & Sheep is packaged in a slick green box with nice artwork, sized at 6" x 9" x 2". The box, however, is about twice as deep as it needs to be to fit all of the components. Inside the box you will find a board, folded down the middle, 38 small round cardboard tokens featuring sheep, wolves and victory points, 24 cards (three of which are advertisements) and a rule sheet. The box also contains a flimsy but functional cardboard divider to separate the tokens from the cards

The board features a 6x6 grid of circle spaces. It is sturdy and colorful, although I have had some problems trying to get it to lay flat due to the fold.

The round tokens consist of 14 sheep tokens, half red and half yellow, along with 24 green grass tokens. Six of the sheep tokens in each color are "normal" sheep. They feature a standing sheep on one side and a sheep hiding in the grass (camouflaged) on the other. In addition, each color has one "mad" sheep. The mad sheep are identical to normal sheep, with the exception that the picture on the standing side has a crazy little hat. The 24 grass tokens all show green grass on the back side. On the front side they either have the number 1, 3 or 5 or a wolf (quantities: 1x11, 3x8, 5x3, wolf x2). The tokens themselves are a solid, smooth cardboard with slightly rounded edges on the front side. In truth, they are some of the best quality round counters that I have seen. They punch out very nicely and feel much more substantial than cardboard counters in many other games. The silly but wonderful artwork also continues here.

The game comes with 21 action cards (excluding the 3 advert cards). Three of the action cards are negative red Binge cards. The remaining 18 green cards are all different and feature positive bonuses. In addition to its game text, each card features a fairly humorous image and some flavor text. The cards are of acceptable stock, although certainly not the best quality around. They are moderately thick (hold them up to the light and you can see through them) with fair "snap". The standout feature of the cards is still the artwork.

The rule sheet is a three-page color foldout. The rules do have a few issues worth noting. First, the font is a bit strange, making it a bit difficult to read some of the small notes. There are also several typos present. Some of them are innocent mistakes like "in" instead of "is", but some of them also quite serious like an entirely misplaced/replaced sentence in the section on how the game ends. There are also a few things, like Mad Sheep, that aren't addressed in the rules at all (it's explained on one of the action cards you will discover). Still, the game itself is simple enough to figure out, even with some rulebook issues. The only gameplay mechanic that is mildly confusing is illustrated with pictorial examples.

- Gameplay -

The game begins by selecting one of two starting setups. The setups indicate where each player's six normal sheep should begin, all standing side up. The green grass tokens are turned face down, shuffled, and then used to fill the remaining 24 spaces. The action deck is shuffled and placed off to the side. The mad sheep are also placed off to the side for now (where they will sit for most of almost every game).

The gameplay itself is rather simple. Players take turns back and forth until one of four things occurs: one player no longer has sheep on the board (that player automatically loses), one player plays the Truce action card, all of the grass tokens have been removed from the board, or four consecutive turns pass where no sheep or grass tokens are eaten by either player. If that sounds like a lot of end conditions, it certainly is. In truth, the end conditions are a sort of list of "what if this happens?" type situations. There's no elegance here. The rules even flubs up on explaining the first one of them (although it can be inferred from other places in the rules).

On a player's turn he must take two actions. The five action choices are go on recon, move a sheep, move a wolf, camouflage a sheep, or play an action card.

When a player chooses recon, they select one or two face down grass tiles, which must be adjacent to one of their sheep. The player looks at these tiles and replaces them face down.

When a player moves a sheep, it may only move orthogonally. A player may only move his own sheep. The sheep does not move a single space, however. Instead, it moves as far as it possibly can in the direction it is going. Only when it bumps into an obstacle (the wolf, another sheep, the edge of the board or a face down grass tile) does the sheep stop. It's sort of like rooks in chess, but they always move as far as possible. In addition, any sheep directly behind the moving sheep will tag along with him. Essentially, when you move your sheep you will drag along any chain of sheep directly behind. This makes for an interesting way to either move extra sheep of your own or to move the opponent's sheep around.

If the sheep hits a face down grass tile, he stops his move on that space and flips up the tile. If it is a point tile, the player may take the tile until the end of the game. Additionally, if the tile was a 5 the sheep that ate it is removed (he has to digest all that grass). If the tile was a 1, the player draws an action card (magic weeds I guess). If the tile was a wolf, it is flipped face up and the sheep is eaten. So it's a good idea to do some recon before grazing!

Once a wolf is face up, either player may move it. It moves identically to a sheep, except that it doesn't drag anything along with it. It will move until it bumps into a grass token or a sheep. If the sheep it hits is not camouflaged, the sheep is eaten and removed from the board. In addition, if a player knows the face down location of a wolf due to recon, he may flip it up and move it at any time. The wolf movement rules make for some interesting tactical maneuvering, since players will have to use various obstacles to steer.

A player may also place a sheep into camouflage. To do this, he flips his sheep over to the hiding in grass side. A player may only have one sheep in camouflage at a time. A sheep in camouflage may not recon or move. It is also protected from the wolf.

Finally, a player may play an action card. He follows the instructions on the card and discards it after use.

The cards themselves do various things. A few of the cards are red Binge cards. If you draw one of these you must immediately reveal it and discard your hand. Hoarding cards can become a dangerous prospect. The other cards are played as an action and do various things. Barbeque lets you remove any enemy sheep, camouflaged or not. Bad Hideout lets you flip a camouflaged sheep face up. Reinforcements lets you put an eliminated sheep back on the board. Truce immediately ends the game. Mad Sheep puts your mad sheep into play (he may move diagonally, sort of like a queen in chess). And so on. The cards are all extremely powerful and add a good dose of chaos to the game.

At the game's end, the winner is the player who has accumulated the most point tokens. A player that lost all of his sheep, however, automatically loses.

- Impressions -

In the end, this game is light fair. The basic game flow is quite simple and obvious: recon some grass, munch the good stuff and try to find the wolves first. Once the wolves are out there is some tactical play due to the way that sheep and wolves move. It becomes necessary to plan moves around obstacles in order to turn at the right spots. You need to try and keep your sheep out of the range of a wolf dual move (since a player gets two actions in a turn). You want to watch for dual wolf moves yourself, should your opponent slip up and allow one. The neatest part of the mechanics is the sheep chaining, which you can use to move your opponents sheep into places where they can be eaten. Still, this chaining is much more rare than it should be. There are only 12 sheep on the board, after all, and they die pretty quickly. A lot of the maneuverings are rather pointless, anyway. The sheep coagulate fairly easily and often eating an opponent's sheep means you're leaving the wolf right next to yours. The game seems to have an abundance of rather boring one for one trades.

In truth, War & Sheep feels more like an abstract game. Imagine chess where all of your pieces were rooks that have to move as far as possible, but there are obstacles (which can be strategically removed) to stop them. The abstract-feeling tactical play is somewhat strange considering the game is heavily reliant on its silly theme. In fact, even though the theme is ingrained in the game, it still feels a bit dry. The meaty part of the game is almost entirely about outmaneuvering the opponent with your sheep and the wolves, or waiting for them to make a mistake. Theoretical, even Chess is a game with themed pieces like kings, bishops and knights, but it's still an abstract game.

Taken as just that, the game would be a light maneuvering game with some randomness due to the exploration theme. The action cards, however, add the traditional French chaos to the game. In fact, they're so powerful that they often make the tactical play on the board rather pointless. One card point blank kills a sheep. Another lets you reposition the wolf, which is a certain kill with your second action. There's all this room on the board for tactical maneuvering and then a card just throws it out the window. It's rather frustrating. Imagine a card in Chess that said "before you take your turn, move your rook to any spot on the board". It would kill the importance of almost all of the tactical board play, and that's exactly what happens here. These cards don't have anywhere near the balance and elegance of comparable cards in a game like Battle Line.

Still, this game is all about theme. The mediocre gameplay with a heavy does of game breaking randomness will really only be tolerated due to the thematic aspect. Let's face it, a game titled "War & Sheep" immediately catches the eye. There's very little warring between the sheep in actuality. It's more of a cat and mouse game of trying to keep your sheep alive while you try to score points and use the wolves to eat the opponent's sheep. It's all quite ridiculous. Any real success of the game must be solely attributed to the artwork and the silly card concepts.

Overall, War & Sheep is a marginal game at best. The tactical play can be interesting, but is often overshadowed by the cards. The only real strong point of the game is its theme and its artwork, but realistically these will only take a game so far. I liken it to games like Munchkin, where the theme is the initial selling point. However, if you get sick of Munckin-esque games after the allure of the theme wears thin, you're going to have the same problem here. I should state that the game isn't terrible. It's intended to be light and fast fun for two. It achieves that goal to a degree, and for $10 to $15 in the US it isn't going to break your pocket book. Still, there are plenty of other two player games in the same price range that are just plain better (such as most of the titles in the Kosmos line). Depending on your tolerance for the cards and your interest in the theme, this game rates around a 5 or 6. It's okay, and I won't turn down a game, but there are so many better two-player games out there. It's a matter of if this one is worth a small bit of shelf space. Without the theme it definitely wouldn't be. With the theme, it becomes a decent light diversion in a world with a lot of very good light diversions.

I give this game a "try before you buy". After a few plays you'll be able to tell if the theme is going to carry the game or not for you.

- Justin Lang

Thread: Re: Recon Question

relic10 — 2005-06-25T18:40:17+00:00

I asked the game's designer that exact same question in a post and he said just what you and I concluded: There is no tactical advantage to looking at one when you can look at two. However, when deciding on recon (I'm paraphrasing his response here), you must declare which sheep you will be reconing with before looking at any tiles. You then must pick which one or two tiles you will be looking at before you actually look at any, and cannot change your mind about which tile(s) you will recon after you start looking. The whole concept about looking at one tile instead of two would only realistically occur if the sheep you chose to recon with was only adjacent to one facedown tile, thus you could not possibly recon more than one tile with that sheep.

The first few times I played this game, we always seemed to recon two tiles on our first action, and then eat the better of the two on the second action. However, with more plays, my opponents and I have gotten into a more aggressive approach, finding that if we take the time to recon every turn, the other player is simply going to eat without a recon and claim two tokens per turn to the more careful player's one token. It turned out to be a very fun game if played this way.

To answer your other question, you could, theoretically, use your entire turn to look at four tiles, but again, if your opponent is playing without recon, you will probably find yourself way behind in points.

Thread: User Review

RedMonkeyBoy — 2005-06-13T20:46:50+00:00

Let's get one thing clear... I bought this game because it looked funny and I thought it would make my girlfriend laugh. I didn't really think it looked that good. However, as it turns out, this is a lot of fun, and is now my girlfriend's favourite two-player game - one she is always happy to play.

The game comes in a nice, sturdy box, with great colour artwork. The box is way too big for the number of pieces you get, but I'm not too worried about that. There are two compartments in the box, one for cards and one for counters. You might want to bag up the different counters, but if you don't, it only takes about a minute to sort them out anyway.

The board is colourful, and the counters are good quality (a little bit too small and fiddly for my liking, but perfectly functional). The cards have some really great artwork on them, which is really fun and adds to the flavour of the game - it's just a shame there aren't more cards in the deck.

The only other thing to come in the box is the rules sheet, which is obviously written for a young audience (as, I suppose, the whole game is) yet still manages to be a little bit confusing.

The game itself doesn't appear to be particularly strategic. You move your sheep counters around the board eating grass. The more grass you eat the more points you get. Some grass is good (lots of points), some grass grants you special powers (!), and some grass hides nasty wolves that eat you.

Once all the grass is eaten (and assuming both players still have sheep left on the board), points are added up, and the highest score wins. It's a very simple concept, and not particularly taxing, but it's absolutely LOADS of fun.

Like I mentioned before, I play this game with my girl, and we aren't particularly competitive. We don't mind games with heavy doses of luck involved, or only a small amount of strategy, so this is a game we both enjoy. We really don't care who wins, and we usually both laugh when a sheep gets picked up by a giant eagle and dropped next to the hungry wolf, or a sheep eats too much and gets indigestion (I'm serious, it happens).

What I really like about the game, is it really makes good use of its comedy theme. For example, when one sheep moves, any sheep behind it will follow like... well, you get the picture. It is always fun to march your opponent's sheep into the path of a wolf. Evil, but fun. Another example: if a sheep eats some of the really high-points grass, then it is removed from the game to digest its meal in piece. All of the cards also work well, and give the impression of sheep at war. The artwork never fails to raise a smile.

Okay, the game is not particularly intricate, and is usually finished quite quickly, but that makes this a great game to play over a few drinks, or at the end of the night when you are done playing with the hardcore games.

Overall, I was impressed, and will be checking out the other games in the Eurogames series for sure.

Thread: Recon Question

RedMonkeyBoy — 2005-06-10T18:34:05+00:00

I think I may just be being a bit thick here, but thought I would check: If you go on recon, you can look at up to two face down tokens on the board, so if you choose to do two recon actions in your turn, you can look at four tokens. Is that right?

If that's so, how can there be any tactical advantage to only looking at one token when you go on recon?

I expect I will read the rules again later and regret having asked such a dumb question (smacks self in side of head).

Thanks all.

Thread: Re:User Review

mmitchell_houston — 2005-05-02T16:08:43+00:00

TomVasel (#9452), Thanks for the detailed review. You really went into detail on game play and components. I picked this up (along with Tony & Tino) because it's a two-player game and my wife and I can kill a few random minutes with the TV turned off. "War & Sheep" is a light game, but it's fun.

Thread: Session Report

godard — 2004-04-09T22:40:27+00:00

Never played this despite owning it for a year, because I bought the Molly & Lore version at an online closeout and mistakenly thought I could figure it out without knowing German. Wrong! Thank you to whomever accepted my geekgold and posted the translated cards.

Set up everything easily enough, and Tara and I got into a pattern of going on recon for the first action and then eating the best grass patch for the second action. Once the wolf was found, however, everything changed. Suddenly, the action cards were being used for both defense and offense, and sheep were scurrying far from the wolf. Recon was less neccessary with only one more wolf out, so the sheep were blindly eating up grass, including those delicious 5s.

However, because the wolf ate two of her sheep after coming out of hiding, Tara was more cautious, and it cost her in the end. Final score was 28 - 21.

This game was a lot of fun, and I like the bit of randomness that makes it seem less like checkers and more of an adventure.

Thread: Session Report

elevenbutnine — 2003-12-04T02:11:52+00:00

Had another 3 games of War and sheep.
Results - Lou 29 Kieron 19
and then two draws 26 each.

It was OK but didnt exactly set the world on fire. Lou commented that the action cards seemed to unnecessary as the best strategy always seemed to be start the sheep a chompin' without wasting any time. The person who gets the 'hyperactivity card' seems to have a big advantage.
We have modified the rules so that you can make two actions plus playing a card.
I suspect the prototype of this game was on a bigger board, to justify the amount of action cards

Thread: Session Report

elevenbutnine — 2003-11-04T00:20:39+00:00

Lou and Kieron.

Played four games.
1st misplayed first until I had eaten all of Lou's Sheep..wolves marauding around the board
Result - Void Game..as rules quite clearly state game ends with last grass token being eaten.

2nd I started with risky grass eating strategy without going on recons..chomping it down as fast as possible. it paid dividends
RESULT Kieron 27 - Lou 23

3rd Tried the chomping strategy agin and ran into a wolf straight away..Lou laughed an did the same but beat me anyway
RESULT Kieron 20 - Lou 30

4th Played too cautiously this time and lost again.
RESULT KIeron 19 - Lou 28

Will play this again.It's not brilliant but it's nice and quick and has very good artwork

Thread: User Review

TomVasel — 2003-06-11T14:49:55+00:00

Something draws me when I hear that there’s a game about sheep declaring war on one another. It sounds like a unique idea for a game. The strange fact is that there are two games on the subject, the upcoming Wooly Bully, and the two-player Bruno Cathala game War & Sheep. War & Sheep is a fight between two rival gangs of sheep, with some mercenary wolves thrown into the fray. The theme sounds promising, as we all want to play sheep that knock each others teeth out and sheer one another for shear (pun intended) pleasure.

So is this sheep war game worth getting? The short answer is that if you want to own every Bruno Cathala game, you will enjoy this one. However, Tony & Tino and Drake & Drake are better, and even they are fairly light, fluffy games.

And now for the verbose longer answer:

First, a short description of game play:

Each player picks a color, yellow or red. They take the six round sheep tokens in their color. These tokens show a standing sheep on one side, and a sheep hiding in the grass on the reverse. The rules then show two different setups for the board. The board has 36 round spaces arranged in a 6 by 6 grid. The sheep of each color are placed on the grid according to the setup in the rules, along with 24 green tokens that are shuffled and placed face down on the remaining spots. These green tokens are made up of the following mix: 3 “Lush Grass” tokens, worth five points; 8 “Common Grass” tokens, worth 3 points; 11 “Fermented Grass” tokens, worth 1 point; and 2 wolf tokens. Twenty-one action cards are shuffled and placed face down next to the board. Each player then takes his turn.

On his turn, the player must do two of the following things:

1) Camouflage: A player can flip one sheep to the facedown side (with the picture of the sheep hiding). This protects the sheep from the wolf. Only one sheep can be camouflaged, and cannot move when camouflaged.
2) Go on Recon: A player can look at one or two of the facedown tokens that are adjacent to one of their sheep.
3) Move a Sheep: A player can move a sheep in a straight line (orthogonal) which must keep moving until it hits a green token, a wolf, or another sheep. All other sheep behind the sheep that moves must follow it like dumb idiots. If the sheep hits a green token, the token is flipped over. If it is grass, the player gets the amount of points indicated, and puts the token face up in front of him. If they hit lush grass, the sheep is also discarded. (The sheep is having such a good time eating that he quits the war). If they hit fermented grass, the player draws a card. 18 of the cards have good actions that can be played in future turns. Three of the cards, called “Binge” must instead be played immediately. They cause a player to discard his entire hand. If a wolf is found, he eats the sheep immediately.
4) Move a Wolf: A wolf moves just like a sheep, and stops when it encounters any obstacle. If it his a sheep, it eats the sheep – yummy!
5) Play an Action Card. The action cards allow you to do a variety of things, from killing a wolf, to adding more points at the end of the game, to retrieve other cards, to create a “mad” sheep (can move diagonally), and many other useful things.

If all your sheep are killed, the game is over, and the player with surviving sheep wins.
If a player plays the “Truce” card, the game ends and points are added, with the higher point total winning.
If all grass tokens are gone, the game ends and points are added, with the higher point total winning.
If four turns go by with no sheep being devoured by the wolf, and no grass being eaten, the game ends, and points are again totaled.

The winner is the player with the most points!

Some comments about the game:

1). Components: The board is looks acceptable, but it’s not very exciting, just a grassy meadow surrounded by some rocks and fences. The sheep tokens are of good quality and have some nice artwork. It’s very easy to distinguish between the yellow and the red tokens. The wolves and grass tokens are also very clear and distinguishable. The box is nice and sturdy, although I recommend plastic bags for all the tokens. All the colors look nice, and the game is a draw with it’s good looks.

2). Tally Ho!: If you’ve ever played Tally Ho!, the two-player Cosmos game, you will get a strong feeling of deja-vu when playing this game. They are very similar, with the cards being a major difference. The player has much more control in War & Sheep, and even though there is a lot of luck, the better player should win more often.

3). Randomness and Strategy: Yes, there is strategy in the game: Should I pick up that lush grass worth five points and lose a sheep in the process? Should I kill his sheep with the wolf, putting the wolf near my own sheep? There are a few tactical decisions to be made during game play. They are nothing hard, however, and people who have little strategy or tactics can play this game and not worry about losing. The game is so full of random cards that vary in power and use, and random token draws, that it is quite possible for a superior player to lose just because they get the wrong cards and tokens. I get no real satisfaction out of winning War & Sheep, because I know that maybe I just got lucky that day.

4). Fun Factor: Even though I like Cathala’s other games better, I have to admit that War & Sheep is more fun to most people. Most people aren’t huge fans of tile laying games, but they do like to move the little sheep and wolves around, chasing one another all over the board. The idea of sheep fighting is ludicrous, but makes for a clever theme that is enjoyed by all. Although the game itself is not that big a deal to me, I have to give the game credit for giving the players a good time with it’s fun factor.

5). Rules: The rules are fairly clear, but there are some discrepancies. The rules do not clearly state what happens when all your sheep die (you lose!), and aren’t as easy to follow as most Euro games. The illustrations are nice, and there is a FAQ on the last page, however, so they are better than many games. As with the other Cathala games, there is a complete list of the contents in the rules – something that should be in every game.

So, this game isn’t one that I ask to pull out all the time, as I’d rather play a game with a little more strategy. However, it is fun, and I won’t deny a game to someone who requests one. The game is a lot of fun, just don’t go in expecting to win. If you want a fun game to play with people who don’t want to game very seriously, then this is an excellent choice. Me, I’d rather go play Hera and Zeus.

Tom Vasel

Thread: Session Report

hinj — 2003-04-01T14:05:59+00:00

This is a lovely romp in the meadow which shares many
similarities with Tally Ho/Halali. On your turn, you have two action
points. You can either Recon (look at one or two tokens orthogonally
adjacent to one of your sheep), move a Sheep (which may involve eating
grass or being eaten by a wolf), move a Wolf (the better to eat opponent
sheep with, my dear!), put a sheep into hiding, or play an action card.
It is perfectly acceptable to do the same action twice, but only one
sheep may be in hiding at a time. If your sheep ends up eating grass,
it can be either extremely rich grass (5 points) which gives the poor
lambikins indigestion and he has to leave the board fror the rest of the
game to digest, normal yummy grass (3 points), or fermented grass (1
point) which may have some euphoric after effects (draw an action card).
The game itself is light and quick, but not quite fun enough to qualify
as pure fluff. It may not even be fun enough to hit the table again.
What it is, however, is nowhere near as frustrating as Tally Ho. The
Recon action saves quite a bit of frustration. We did play it twice to
be sure we weren't missing anything. Angela's rating after two plays:
5.2

Thread: Session Report

bengkohn — 2002-12-17T15:50:23+00:00

War & Sheep: BRAD, Art

I've been playing this one with Carla, and since Art arrived before everyone else we decided to give it a go. Part of the new "Games for 2" series from Euro Games, it consists of a board with sheep in two player colors and many face down grass counters.

Two of the grass counters are wolves, the rest are grass worth 1, 3, or 5 points. When your sheep eat 1 point grass counters, you claim but one point, but you also get to draw an action card, most of which are beneficial (the 3 non beneficial ones merely require you to discard your action card hand). The 5 point grasses net 5 points, but are so sating that the sheep eating them retires for the game (and is removed as if it had been slain by the wolf).

Each player alternates taking two actions: moving a sheep (which is how you eat grass), recon some grass counters, hiding one sheep (turn it over to the hidden side making it unable to take actions or be eaten by the wolf), play an action card, or moving a wolf (which is how you kill enemy sheep).

Turns continue until all of one player's sheep are slain, a Truce card is played, all the grasses are eaten, or no one has eaten a grass or sheep in 4 moves. The person who has sheep on the board and the highest number of points wins.

I like this game, although I don't know if it will stand up to the test of time. For now, and probably for as long as my wife is happy to play it, it remains a happy pastime.