Description
A game for the whole flock!
Designed by Jeb Havens.
Contents: a Mother Sheep, a Playing Area, 10 Sheep Pawns, 10 Sheep Tiles, 80 Fences, A Fence Bag, 18 My Sheep Cards and instructions in English, Spanish and French.
Each player is required to pen in five sheep but only has a limited supply of fences with which to do it. Every fence is uniquely colour coded and must be made to match other fences. Be the first to pen in all of the sheep on your list. But pay close attention because in MOTHER SHEEP other players may need to pen in some of the same sheep as you.
Players must co-operate while competing with each other to fence in all of their sheep. Will you be the first to bring back your five sheep to Mother?
Supplied with English/Spanish/French instructions.
* visual perception
* encourages spatial thinking skills
* strategic planning
* social interaction play
Ages 8 to adult, 20 minutes playing time, suitable for 2 – 6 players.
Review by Ben Rainbird; Actor and Games enthusiast:
Mother Sheep is a funny one, and it defeats my attempts to describe it as anything but a very odd strategy game. Seems rich coming from a strategy nerd who misspent his formative years deciding the fate of hordes of alien warriors with the throw of a few dice, but I never found myself having to rustle sheep in those games…
A game for 2 to 6 players, your principal concern in Mother Sheep is a race to be the first player to capture 5 of the adorable even-toed ungulates, using colour-coded fence tiles. The game contains Mother Sheep herself, 10 Sheep Tiles with various cute sheep names on them, 80 colour-coded Fence pieces in a bag, a Corral Board, 18 My Sheep cards, and best of all, 10 seriously cute plastic Sheep Pawn playing pieces.
To begin the game, Mother Sheep is placed in the centre of a fairly spacious spot on the table. The Corral board is placed off to one side and the Sheep Tiles are scattered face down around Mother Sheep, with a decent amount of space in between them. Once all the Sheep Tiles are placed, they’re flipped face-up to reveal the names printed on them, and a Sheep Pawn is placed on each one.
Now, the My Sheep cards are shuffled and each player takes one, and doesn’t show it to anyone else. On each My Sheep card you’ll find the names of five of the different sheep. These are the sheep you’ll be trying to capture later in the game. Each player draws three of the Fence tiles from the bag, which will be their own secret fences. Appropriately, the player wearing the most wool goes first, and draws another three Fence tiles from the bag. These are placed in full view of everyone as the ‘Community Fence’, and can be used by any player on their turns. When a player uses one of the tiles, it is replaced with another one from the bag so that there are always three on the table.
Now the players take it in turns to place fences down, in attempt to capture their particular sheep by completely encircling the tile they’re standing on. Sounds easy, but there are some rules for placing fences. The fence has to start with Mother Sheep herself and build outwards, and wherever the fences touch each other, the colours must match. When a sheep is fenced in, he or she is removed from the tile and placed in the Corral, in the appropriate space with the sheep’s name. The first player to fence in all 5 of the sheep on their My Sheep card wins.
As simple as it sounds, Mother Sheep is certainly a strategy game. Strategy enters the proceedings when you consider the fact that you can place tiles to make it harder for other players to reach their sheep – however, if you do that you’re using up a turn in which you could be building a fence round your own sheep, so good judgement is required.
Distributed by David Westnedge Ltd., London.
