Sheep & Thief Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Credits
• Set up
• The Landscape Board
• The Landscape Cards
• Goal
• Sequence of Play
  • 1.) Card phase
  • 2.) Placement phase
    • Rule 1: Place adjacent!
    • Rule 2: Rivers must be continued!
    • Rule 3: The thief blocks spaces!
    • Details which may be ignored when placing cards
    • If you can't place any card because of these three rules
• You've placed your card! What can you see on it?
  • Sheep
  • Dog
  • Fox
  • The Barn
• End of the Round
• End of the Game
• Scoring
  • River scoring
• The Modules
  • Missions
    • The mission cards
  • Black Sheep

Components

• 4 landscape boards
• 50 white and black sheep
• 4 wooden foxes (Fritz)
• 9 mission cards (only used in the "Mission" module)
• 56 landscape cards
• 4 farmyard cards, double-sided: 1 side with a white sheep-image, 1 side with a black sheep-image (for the "Black Sheep" module)
• 4 paddocks
• 3 starting-player cards
• 4 overview cards

Credits

Author: Yuichi Sakashita • Illustrations: Wee Yee Chong • Graphic Design: Jens Wiese • Translation: Neil Crowley • Production: Benjamin Schönheiter and Stefan Stadler

© 2017 Pegasus Spiele GmbH, Am Straßbach 3, 61169 Friedberg, Germany, under licence from Power 9 Games.

Many thanks to Pierre Schwan, Daniela Kawan, Thorsten and all the other play testers!

Set up

1. Each player takes 1 landscape board, 1 farmyard card, 1 wooden fox, 1 paddock and 1 overview card.

2. Put your landscape board in front of you. Put your farmyard card in the top left space, the side with the white sheep-image face up.

3. Place the sheep within easy reach in the middle of the playing area, forming the supply. Each player takes 1 white sheep from this supply and places it on the white sheep-image on his farmyard card. (Leave the black sheep in the box, you will only need them when playing the "Black Sheep" module.)

4. Place your wooden fox on its starting space.

5. Place your paddock and your overview card beside your landscape board.

6. The player most like an adventurous sheep goes first. He takes the 3 starting-player cards and puts them in front of him in a face-up stack, with the Round 1 card on top, the Round 2 card beneath that and the Round 3 card at the bottom.

7. The starting player shuffles the landscape cards, deals 5 face down to each player, then places the rest on the table as a face-down deck.

In two-player games deal each player 6 landscape cards.

The Landscape Board

Your landscape board consists of 4 x 4 spaces. In the top left is your farmyard, from where you can look over your landscape. In the top right is the town of Sheepville, in the bottom left lies Woolington. In the bottom right lies Baabourne. During the game, you will try to connect these towns to your farmyard with roads by placing landscape cards in the landscape board's spaces.

The Landscape Cards

Using the landscape cards and the rivers and roads shown on them, you build your own small world on your landscape board. On these cards you will also find sheep – of which you can never have too many – as well as your faithful hound Gustav and his son. On some cards you will find Fritz the thieving fox and his offspring, who want to steal your sheep. Luckily, there are also barns* in which, with the help of Gustav, your sheep can find safety.

The rivers and roads only matter at the end of the game, but placing a card showing animals has an immediate effect. More on this later …

Important! The landscape cards have only one correct orientation: you may only place them on your board right way up.

* "Barn" is a slight understatement: The S.H.E.E.P. shelters (Safe Haven, Essentials & Entertainment Point) offer all the luxury the modern sheep could hope for, from bar to home cinema.

Goal

By cleverly placing 12 landscape cards, you try to earn as much gold as possible over 3 rounds. You earn gold by building roads from your farmyard to the 3 towns and by forming the longest river. At the same time, you gather sheep and try to steal your opponents' sheep.

Sequence of Play

The game is played over 3 rounds. Each round has two phases:

1. The card phase, and
2. The placement phase

In the card phase, the players choose the 5 cards they will compete with in the placement phase.

In the placement phase, starting with the starting player and going clockwise, the players take turns placing one of their chosen cards onto their own board, until each player has placed 4 of his 5 cards.

1.) Card phase

Using a selection process known as "drafting", each of you builds your own hand of cards at the same time as follows:

• Look at the 5 cards you were dealt, choose one of them and place it face down in front of you.
• Place the remaining 4 cards face down between you and your neighbor.
• The direction in which you pass the cards depends on the round.
  • In the first and third rounds, place the cards between you and your left neighbor.
  • In the second round, place them between you and your right neighbor.
  • The direction in which you pass is shown on the top starting-player card.
• Next, each player takes the 4 cards that his left or right neighbor (depending on the round) placed beside him. From these he again chooses one card, which he likewise places face down in front of him. He places the remaining 3 landscape cards between him and his neighbor.
• Continue until each player has 5 face-down cards in front of him. These 5 cards are the landscape cards with which you will compete in the placement phase.

Note: When drafting, you may look at the face-down cards in front of you at will. Just be careful not to mix them up with the landscape cards you are choosing from.

In two-player games, drafting is slightly different: you choose 2 cards, which you place face down in front of you, then pass the remaining 4 to your opponent. From the 4 cards your opponent passed you, you choose another 2, passing the last two to your opponent, who places them face down in front of him.

2.) Placement phase

Each player picks up and looks at the cards he has drafted. Starting with the starting player and continuing clockwise, each player places one of his landscape cards onto his board, until each player has placed 4 of his 5 cards.

With two players, each player places 4 of his 6 cards.

Note: You don't have to place your cards in the order in which you drafted them. You may play them in whatever order suits you best!

Bear the following 3 rules in mind:

Rule 1: Place adjacent!

You may only place your landscape cards onto free spaces that are vertically or horizontally adjacent to a card you have already placed. Additionally you may only place them on your board right way up.

Rule 2: Rivers must be continued!

A river may never flow directly into a road or pasture. If you place a card showing a river section, you must place the card in such a way that the river

• joins a river you have already placed, OR
• joins a free space on your landscape board, OR
• joins the edge of your landscape board.

Exception: A river may flow into a town, as they are on the edge of your landscape board.

Rule 3: The thief blocks spaces!

You may not place cards onto spaces on your landscape board that contain the wooden fox.

Example: As long as Fritz remains in this space, you can't place a card there and must instead place it on another space permitted by the rules.

Details which may be ignored when placing cards

When placing a card, you do not have to continue roads, they may run directly into pastures. The forests on cards have no meaning in the rules, they are there only to help you place the card the right way up.

If you can't place any card because of these three rules

When the rules prevent you from placing any card, you don't skip your turn. You must place a card. Choose one of your cards and place it face down on your board, ignoring rule 2. This card counts as a landscape card without a river or a road. When you place another card adjacent to this card, you must follow all the rules on placement described above.

You've placed your card! What can you see on it?

Sheep

For each sheep-image on your card, take one sheep from the supply and place it on that card.

Dog

For each dog-image on your card (Gustav or his son), you may move the sheep on any 1 card on your landscape board. For each dog, you can either move a single sheep or a herd of sheep (any number) from any 1 card to 1 horizontally or vertically adjacent card.

Sheep can only move onto cards and never onto empty spaces, nor onto cards that contain the wooden fox.

Rivers, roads and forests have no effect on movement.

Example: Ronja places a card with two dog-images. With the first dog-image she moves her solitary sheep from the card with the river onto the adjacent card containing the herd. With the second dog-image she moves the herd onto the card with the barn.

Fox

For each fox-image on your card (Fritz or his son) you must move the wooden fox on your landscape board one space. The wooden fox can move in any of the four directions (up, down, left, or right). He can move onto empty spaces as well as spaces containing cards.

Important: Whenever you move the wooden fox, everyone else must move the wooden fox on his board in the same direction.

Note: The wooden fox will always be in the corresponding positions on each landscape board.

Fritz steals all the sheep on any card he moves onto. Each player must give you all the sheep on any cards on his landscape board that you make Fritz enter. Put all these stolen sheep into your paddock.

If Fritz enters a card on your own landscape board that contains sheep, he steals them too, but put these slaughtered sheep back into the supply, rather than into your paddock.

The Barn

Stealing sheep is fun, but it's not that simple… Some cards have barns. Sheep on cards with barns are safe. If the wooden fox enters such a card, any sheep there stay where they are, he can't steal them.

Example: Ronja places a card with two fox-images. First she moves her wooden fox 1 card up, then 1 card left. Peter must do the same. The first card Peter's wooden fox enters contains 3 sheep. Unfortunately, there is also a barn. The sheep there are safe! The second card contains 2 sheep but no barn, so Peter must give these sheep to Ronja, who places them in her paddock.

Had she first gone left, where Peter has 1 sheep and no barn, she could also have stolen this sheep. But she has 2 sheep on that card on her own landscape board, and she would have had to put them back in the supply.

Attention: If the card you place shows more than one type of animal-image, you can carry out their actions in any order you like.

End of the Round

When every player has played 4 of his 5 cards, the current round ends. Each player will have 1 card left.

Skip the following in the third round as this will be the game's last round.

The starting player deals each player 4 new cards face down from the landscape card deck, so that each player has 5 cards in hand again.

The starting player returns the topmost starting-player card to the box and gives the remaining starting-player cards to the player to his left. Then the next round begins.

With two players, you will have 2 cards left at the end of the round. From these, choose 1 and return it to the box. The starting player deals each player 5 new cards face down from the landscape card deck, so that each player has 6 cards in hand again.

End of the Game

The game ends at the end of the 3rd round. Each player will have placed 12 cards (plus his farmyard card), meaning 3 spaces on each landscape board will still be empty. Leave the last card in your hand, it won't be played!

Now to the scoring.

Scoring

Each player earns gold for sheep on his landscape board, sheep in his paddock, connections from his farmyard to the towns, and for the rivers on his landscape board.

• Each sheep on your landscape board is worth 1 gold.
• Each sheep in your paddock is worth 1 gold.
• If your farmyard is connected by continuous roads to the towns you earn gold. If you are connected to Woolington you earn 5 gold, if you are connected to Baabourne you earn 5 gold, and if you are connected to Sheepville you earn 10 gold.
• Each river earns you gold, depending on the number of landscape cards it flows through (see the table, below).
• If you are playing with the "Mission" module, you may earn gold from those rules. See below.
• If you are playing with the "Black Sheep" module, you may earn gold from those rules (see below).

The player with the most gold wins the game. Ties are broken in favor of the player who earned more gold from sheep on his landscape board. If still tied, the victory is shared.

River scoring

Cards	1	2	3	4	5	6	each additional card
Gold	1	3	5	8	11	15	+5

The Modules

Missions

At the start of the game, each player draws 1 of the 9 mission cards, keeping it hidden from his opponents. You earn points at the end of the game if you have completed your card's task.

The mission cards

Mission 1 – Longest river: If the longest river on your landscape board consists of more cards than the longest river on any other landscape board, you earn 3 gold. If at least one other landscape board has an equally long river you earn only 1.

Mission 2 – Longest road: If the longest road on your landscape board consists of more cards than the longest road on any other landscape board, you earn 5 gold. If at least one other landscape board has an equally long road you earn only 2.

Mission 3 – Most barns: If there are more barns on your landscape board than on any other landscape board, you earn 3 gold. If tied you earn only 1.

Mission 4 – The most sheep in the lower 2 rows: If there are more sheep in the two bottom rows of your landscape board than there are in the two bottom rows of any other landscape board, you earn 5 gold. If there are as many sheep in the two bottom rows of at least one other landscape board you earn only 2.

Mission 5 – The most sheep in the 2 rightmost columns: If there are more sheep in the two right columns of your landscape board than there are in the two right columns of any other landscape board, you earn 5 gold. If there are as many sheep in the two right columns of at least one other landscape board you earn only 2.

Mission 6 – The most cards with a fox: If your landscape board contains more cards showing at least 1 fox-image than does any other landscape board, you earn 5 gold. If there is at least one other landscape board with as many cards showing at least 1 fox-image, you earn only 2.

Mission 7 – The most cards with a dog: If your landscape board contains more cards showing at least 1 dog-image than does any other landscape board, you earn 5 gold. If there is at least one other landscape board with as many cards showing at least 1 dog-image, you earn only 2.

Mission 8 – The most cards with a sheep: If your landscape board contains more cards with at least 1 sheep-image than does any other landscape board, you earn 5 gold. If at least one other landscape board contains as many cards with at least 1 sheep-image, you earn only 2.

Mission 9 – The thief stands right next to a city: If your wooden fox is on a space or card that is adjacent to a town, you earn 3 gold.

Black Sheep

At the start of the game place your farmyard card with the side showing the black sheep face up. Each player takes 1 black sheep from the supply and puts it on the black sheep on his farmyard. This is instead of the white sheep you start with in the normal game. Black sheep act in the same way that white sheep do with regard to Gustav, barns, and movement.

If the wooden fox moves onto a space containing a black sheep, the black sheep returns to his farmyard card. You cannot steal black sheep!

At the end of the game, you earn gold depending on your black sheep's position. Refer to the following table (the table matches the 4 x 4 spaces of your landscape board; the top left space is the farmyard):

	Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4
Row 1	0	1	3	5
Row 2	1	3	5	7
Row 3	3	5	7	10
Row 4	5	7	10	15