Cactus Town: Stampede
Cactus Town: Stampede Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 4 action cards
- 4 x 4 player aid cards (4 languages)
- 2 basic building cards (blue back)
- 2 advanced building cards (red back)
- 2 cows
- 1 bull-riding cowboy
- 3 standee bases
- 3 corral tiles
- 1 cattle train tile
- 1 die
The Cowboy's Objective
The cowboy needs to take his herd from the corrals to the cattle train. "It's time for whiskey, dang, but first I'll have to deliver them cows!" He wins immediately when the 3 cattle train wagons are occupied by 1 animal each.
Preparing the Game (Basic Mode)
Follow the town setup rules of the Cactus Town base game. The Stampede expansion works with all variants of the game, so feel free to choose any (basic or advanced buildings, reverse order or straight programming).
Standee Positions and Player Setup
Take setup card B, it shows which new party combinations are possible, depending on player number, and which clockwise seating order must be maintained. Choose your parties (being aware of the seating order) and continue with character and town setup as described in the Cactus Town base game.
After setting up the 5x5 town grid, place the 3 corral tiles below the central edge buildings at the bottom of town, and the train tile above the central edge buildings at the top.
Note that the cows and the bull-riding cowboy start on the corral tiles outside the town, they will have to enter town with their first movement. They cannot return to the corral tiles for any reason.
The cowboy party has 2 kinds of standees, 1 bull-riding cowboy standee and 2 cow standees. Whenever the rules refer to "cow standees", it refers to just the 2 cows without cowboy, unless otherwise stated.
How to Play
Play the game exactly as you play the Cactus Town base game, with planning phase and action phase, and stop the game immediately when any player has fulfilled their objectives.
The deadlock of the game's golden rule #2 (page 3 of the base game rulebook) only applies to the standee of the bull-riding cowboy; the cow standees neither cause deadlock nor are affected by it.
Action Icons
The cowboy's party is very different from the others, with most of its actions being new and unique. Despite having an objective that is independent of other players, the cowboy will want to use his actions to wreak havoc and tamper with his opponents' plans.
Golden Rule - Herding
The cowboy needs to keep his herd together, preventing cows from straying off too far; cows have to stay within a range of a maximum of 2 spaces from the cowboy. You cannot voluntarily move your cowboy or your cows if the movement would result in any cow being out of range.
Whenever a cow is out of range through other events, the following movement restrictions come into play:
- SNEAK actions by the cow are no longer allowed (the visual contact is broken and the cows refuse to move).
- If the action card allows, the cowboy has to RUN in the direction of any out-of-range cow. If that movement would leave an in-range cow out of range, do not move.
RUN (Bull-Riding Cowboy)
Carry out a RUN action with the bull-riding cowboy.
SNEAK (Bull-Riding Cowboy)
Carry out a SNEAK action with the bull-riding cowboy.
SNEAK (1 Cow) / SNEAK (Both Cows)
Carry out a SNEAK action with 1 / 2 of your cows.
REGROUP
REGROUP your cows. All out-of-range cows move until being in range of the cowboy, using the shortest possible route. If there are various options, the player decides. If during this movement a cow enters a building occupied by an opponent's standee, stop the movement and enter the STAMPEDE MODE (see STAMPEDE action).
STAMPEDE
The STAMPEDE action has two consecutive steps:
-
Identify targets: Each of your 3 animals looks for standing opponents to gore in their current buildings. In case there is no standing opponent in its current building, but in an adjacent one there is, it must move there. The STAMPEDE overcomes the golden rule of herding, but the animal standees may still not share a building space. You may choose the building, if there are various options. Do not reveal the building cards you move to.
-
Enter STAMPEDE MODE (except in buildings adjacent to the corral):
-
If any of your cattle (including the bull with the cowboy) share a space with one or more standing opponents, they try to gore them. The cowboy chooses the order of goring attempts, but any chosen animal has to complete its full gore action before going on to the next.
-
GORE: I. Each standing opponent's owner, and the player controlling the cowboy, roll a die, everyone at the same time. Players may not use the second shot feature, nor any tokens, to modify their results.
II. The cow/bull manages to gore all standees with a lower or equal roll result. Move the opponents' standees 1 orthogonal space, up (towards the train) or sideways. You may move it to another cow/bull. Do not reveal the building card(s) the standee(s) move to.
III. If there are any opponents with a higher roll result than the cowboy player, those opponents manage to dodge. In this case, move the cow/bull 1 orthogonal space, down (towards the corral tiles) or sideways. This overcomes the golden rule of herding. If possible, move to a space with a new goring target. Do not reveal the building card the standee moves to.
IV. Repeat goring attempts with this animal in any building it moves to until it is either alone in a building, has gored all present opponents, or has reached the buildings adjacent to the corral.
-
Note: All movements in the stampede (animals and opponents) are carried out by the player controlling the cowboy. With the mayhem of the stampedes it is possible that a single character is gored by various animals, but a character must not be gored by the same animal twice in a turn. In some cases it is possible that the only place for stampede participants to be moved to is already occupied by a standee of their own party. In that case, do not move the standee: animal and opponent may end the stampede in the same building.
Duel Action of Other Players
The cowboy does not have a duel card, he is not looking for trouble, but both he and his cows will participate in a duel played by other players, if they share the duel location. Follow the base game duel rules, pushing cowboy and cows up to 3 spaces in case of losing. Only the bull-riding cowboy may use the second shot feature.
Note that duels are the only way to interrupt the herd's movement, so they are important for the cowboy's opponents. The special duel outcomes of the Can-Can dancer (win a duel to flip duel token) or the Native Americans (draw a target card or take an exploration token) only apply when faced with the bull-riding cowboy, not with the cows alone.
Entering the Train
To win the game, the cowboy will have to lead his cattle into the train at the top of the town. Each standee has to move to a single wagon, and each wagon can only be entered from the building spaces as shown here.
The bull-riding cowboy standee must be the last to enter the train. Once in a wagon, a standee may not reenter town.
Building Cards
This expansion features 2 new buildings. If this is the first time you use alternative building cards, take note that each building has a building type icon on the left of its title, the icon's only use is to help create your building line-up at the beginning of a game, while maintaining balance.
Groups (mostly pairs) of cards with a matching icon must always be used together when creating your building line-up for a game. Add the two cow buildings, replacing any pair of matching icon buildings from the base game. Keep in mind that card replacements have to be made both in the basic and the advanced building card deck, assuring your target building deck represents the buildings in town.
If you have additional building cards from other expansions, promos, or Kickstarter content, you can mix and match groups for a huge building combination variety.
Special Effects Gunslinger Mode
| Building action | When to use it | Effect when used |
|---|---|---|
| (unlabelled building action icon) | On revealing building | Carry out a STAMPEDE action. |