Please feel free to send your comments to myself or Gordon.

All rules are the same except:

Set up (assuming players are playing with blue and red):

Front
R Y B
B Blck R
G Y G

The three player timer is used for this variant.
Take one of the unused control mats (not one each) and place it between the two players at the side of the playing area. Both players take five mutton buttons from the remaining, unused colours (one takes green, the other yellow). Each player covers five actions on the extra control mat: 2 x 1 timer movement actions, 2 x 2 timer movement actions and 1 x 3 timer movement action (the specific action is unimportant, only the timer movement is used).


Play
Between step C (The timer is moved) and step D (points may be scored) there is now an extra small step.
Step C.5 - A player may remove one of his mutton buttons from the extra control mat and add on the corresponding timer movement.

e.g. Fraser has completed a ewe-turn and moved the timer on one space. Before scoring, he decides to remove one of his mutton buttons from the extra control mat. He chooses a 2 timer action space. The timer is moved on an extra 2 spaces.
Scoring now occurs (if any).

A Player must not be left with less free actions on their control mat than mutton buttons on the extra control mat by the end of their turn.
i.e at the end of the round, actions left must always be more than or equal to unused mutton buttons on the extra control mat.

If a player's normal action causes them to finish in a pen, they are unable to play extra timer movement that round. An extra timer movement doesn't have to be exact to finish in a pen (a higher number than required can be played).

N.B. The extra timer movement can cause the timer to move off, or onto, a sheep panic symbol. Remember that the sheep panic is the last thing to happen in the players turn.

Scoring
Any unused mutton buttons left on the extra control mat at the end of the game count -2 points each.
If a player manages to shear both of the opposing player's sheep, during the first shearing, it is an automatic win.

Happy herding!

Fraser & Gordon
Fragor Games

Thanks for the official 2 player variant. We will have to try it soon.

I take it we use the 3-player side of the scoring track? That makes the most sense. Just wanted to make sure.

Thanks for the variant! My wife and I will have to try it out soon.

Eric,

Just to confirm - it is the 3 player track you use

Cheers,

Gordon

Wow, couldn't this be quite a bit easier (and more intuitive) if there were a 2-player timer page? By just removing more circles?

I understand that adding yet another timer board would cause a cost if added in the box, but it seems like someone more artistic than me could create a PDF with fewer steps and remove the need for this (in my opinion) hacky extra timer movement. Is there a reason a 2-player timer would not work?

No need for anything new. Just use the 3-player board and add 1 to each movement number or the 4-player board and add 2. That's the average of what the "other" player (i.e. the 3rd and/or 4th player) would add to you and your opponent's combined movement. That's how we've always player with 2. It's fine.

There's 24 points on each player board; if you play with the 3-player side of the score board, you need 24 more points, so each of you gets 12 (+1 to each of your 12 possible actions); if you play with the 4-player side of the score board, you need 48 more points between you, so each of you gets 24 (+2 to each action).

This is, for the most part, what the official variant accomplishes, only that it allows you to control when you take the "added" movement. You don't get to control the 3rd or 4th player's actions in the multi-player game, so I don't see any reason why you should get any more control over the flock movement in the 2-player game.

A d3 might be an interesting way to handle this needed additional movement in an even more unpredictable fashion; each player would just roll it after their turn is over (and scored) and then move the flock marker that much further (perhaps doing any further panics, since the 3rd or 4th player would have had to).

Hmm. I just thought of it off-the-cuff, but I really do like this d3 idea.