Stubborn Sheep Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Round Structure
  • 1. Restock the Sheep
  • 2. Build and Activate Fences
  • 3. Optional: Score Sheep
  • 4. Draw a New Fence Card
• End of the Game
• Final Scoring
• Advanced Rule: Bonus Actions
  • Blue Sheep – Restock the Sheep
  • White Sheep – Movement Actions
  • Red Sheep – Manipulate the Fences
  • Yellow Sheep – Behaviour Modifiers
• Solo Mode
• Wolf Variant
  • Setup
  • Moving the Wolf
  • Restocking the Sheep

Components

• 78 Sheep cards in 4 colours: 18 blue, 18 red, 18 yellow and 24 white.
• 35 Fence cards.
• 1 wooden wolf figure (used only in the variant with the wolf).

Setup

Setup is designed for 2 to 5 players. See the Solo Mode section for changes to a solo game.

The play area forms a large circle on the table, made up of pens and meadows separated by fences. Each player has one pen directly in front of them, while the meadows lie between the players.

1. Shuffle the Fence cards and deal 2 fences to each player. Each player places their 2 fences face up in front of them, leaving enough space between them to place Sheep cards. The space between your fences is your pen.

   The spaces between the pens are the meadows.

   2-player setup: draw 2 additional Fence cards and place one in the middle of each meadow. This creates 2 meadows between the players on each side.

2. Remove a number of Fence cards according to the number of players (return them to the box):

   • 2 players: remove 13 fences.
   • 3 players: remove 8 fences.
   • 4 players: remove 3 fences.
   • 5 players: use all the fences.

   Shuffle the remaining Fence cards to form a face-down draw pile and place it in the centre of the play area.

3. Deal 1 Fence card to each player. The players take them into their hand.

4. Shuffle the Sheep cards to form a face-down draw pile and place it beside the fence draw pile. Leave space for a discard pile.

5. Draw Sheep cards and place: a. 1 face-up sheep in each pen. b. 4 face-up sheep in each meadow.

   After the sheep have been placed, each player may change the orientation of their fences.

Set the wolf aside if this is your first game. See the Wolf Variant section for its setup.

The most tired player starts the game.

The source includes an example of setup for a 4-player game, shown as a diagram.

Round Structure

Each round consists of four steps:

1. Restock the sheep.
2. Build and activate fences.
3. Optional: score sheep.
4. Draw a new Fence card.

1. Restock the Sheep

Meadows and pens must always contain a minimum number of sheep.

• a. Meadows: if there are fewer than 4 sheep in a meadow, add sheep from the draw pile until there are 4.
• b. Your pen: the minimum number of sheep in your pen depends on the sheep that have already been scored.
  • Look at the sheep scored by the player who has scored the greatest number of different colours.
  • Count how many more colours that player has than you.
  • Add sheep from the draw pile to your pen until it contains a number of sheep equal to that count.

Do not restock the pens of other players.

If the Sheep draw pile is exhausted, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.

The source illustrates this step with a diagram labelled "opponent who has scored the most different colours" and "your scored sheep".

Example from the source: restock your pen up to 2 sheep.

2. Build and Activate Fences

Placing a fence

Play the Fence card from your hand by placing it on any fence already on the table. You may orient the fence as you wish.

Activating fences in order

Activate first the fence you have just placed (see Activating a Fence) so that sheep jump over it.

Then, depending on where you placed your fence:

• If you placed it on one of your own fences, activate your other fence.
• If you placed it on a fence that does not belong to you, activate both of your fences, starting with the one on the left, then the one on the right.

Activating a fence

Move the sheep one at a time, in the following order:

1. Start with the inner row (the row closest to the centre of the play area), then move on to the outer row.
2. Within each row, start with the largest sheep, that is the one closest to the hoof icon.

For each sheep shown on the Fence card:

• A sheep of the indicated colour jumps over the fence to the opposite side.
• If there is more than one sheep of that colour, you choose which one jumps.
• If there is no sheep of that colour, simply move on to the next sheep shown on the card.

For clarity, announce the movement of each sheep, including when an indicated colour has no effect.

The source shows a diagram of the order in which the sheep jump, numbered 1 to 4 around the fence.

Sheep abilities

When you make a yellow, red or blue sheep jump over a fence, you must immediately apply its ability, if possible.

• Yellow sheep – Friendly. When this sheep jumps over a fence, it takes another sheep with it, whatever that sheep's colour. You choose which sheep accompanies it.
• Red sheep – Hot-tempered. After jumping over the fence, this sheep headbutts a sheep of the colour of your choice in the area where it has just arrived. The sheep thus bumped is sent over the fence, to the left or to the right. You choose which sheep is bumped and which side it is sent to.
• Blue sheep – Solitary. After jumping over a fence, this sheep continues to jump in the same direction until it reaches an area containing at least one other blue sheep. If the blue sheep starts its movement in the only area where blue sheep are present, do not apply this ability.

Sheep moved by the ability of another sheep do not activate their own ability.

For example, if a yellow sheep takes a red sheep with it, the red sheep does not headbutt another sheep.

3. Optional: Score Sheep

After all activations (and any additional actions):

If your pen contains 3 or 4 sheep of the same colour, you may score them.

• a. If you have 3, score 1 sheep and discard the other 2.
• b. If you have 4, score 2 sheep and discard the other 2.

You choose which sheep are scored and which are discarded. Place scored sheep face up in separate score piles by colour. Place each newly scored sheep on top of its pile. If you score two at the same time, you choose which of the two is placed on top.

You may score several groups during the same round. Scoring sheep is optional, but strongly recommended.

Advanced rule: the card at the top of each colour pile grants a bonus. During your first games, you may choose to play without these bonuses in order to become familiar with how the sheep behave. See page 10 of the source for the full set of bonuses.

White sheep – Flexible. White sheep are jokers when scoring points. When you score, you may use up to 2 white sheep as if they were any other colour. If you do this, you must discard the white sheep before discarding sheep of the chosen colour.

You may also score white sheep as a colour in their own right, if you have 3 or 4 of them.

The source illustrates this with the captions "score 1 sheep and discard 2" and "score 2 sheep and discard 2".

4. Draw a New Fence Card

Draw a new Fence card and add it to your hand. The turn then passes to the next player, in clockwise order.

End of the Game

When the Fence draw pile is exhausted, begin the final round of the game. Each player plays one last turn (without drawing a new Fence card), then the game ends.

Final Scoring

Count all the sheep you have scored, whatever their colour. The player who has scored the most sheep wins the game. In case of a tie, the winner is the player with the greatest number of complete sets of 4 different colours among their scored sheep.

If the tie persists, the tied players share the victory.

Advanced Rule: Bonus Actions

Use these bonus actions after playing a few games. The sheep you have scored grant you bonus actions. You may only use the bonus action of the card at the top of each colour pile. Each bonus action may only be used once per round.

Blue Sheep – Restock the Sheep

Use this bonus action during the restock step of your round.

• Increase by 1 the number of sheep restocked in your pen.
• Choose a meadow. Restock it up to 6 sheep instead of the usual 4.
• Restock all meadows up to 5 sheep instead of the usual 4.

White Sheep – Movement Actions

Use this bonus action immediately before or after activating a fence. Move a sheep of the indicated colour over one or two fences, in the direction of your choice. Its special ability does not activate.

The source shows the four sheep colours as the icons for this section.

Red Sheep – Manipulate the Fences

Use this bonus action during the Build and Activate Fences step of your round to influence the activation of fences.

• Rotate a fence before activating it.
• Activate a fence twice in a row.
• Activate a fence which, otherwise, would not be activated during this round.

You may use this action before placing your fence.

Yellow Sheep – Behaviour Modifiers

Use this bonus action during the Build and Activate Fences step of your round in order to modify the special abilities of the sheep.

• When you move a yellow sheep, it takes 2 sheep with it instead of 1.
• When you move a blue sheep, it stops jumping after crossing only one fence.
• When you move a blue sheep, move it by a single area, even if there is no other blue sheep in its new area.

Solo Mode

For a solo game, follow the usual setup rules, with the following changes:

1. Draw 4 fences instead of 2. Place them in a circle to create a pen (in front of you) and 3 meadows.
2. Shuffle the remaining fences. Take 10 of them to form the Fence draw pile, then return all the others to the box.

You have 10 rounds to score as many sheep as possible. On your turn, you may place a fence on any of the four fences. All the usual rules apply.

When you restock the sheep, add no sheep to your pen, or 1 sheep if you use the bonus action of the blue sheep.

At the end of the game, compare your score to the results table to see how you performed.

Solo scoring table

• 5 or fewer: Woolly disaster.
• 6–8: Not great, baa…
• 9–11: Occasional grazer.
• 12–14: Hoof honour.
• 15 or more: Wool collector!

The source gives the scoring table as printed; the French captions have been translated as above.

Wolf Variant

If you are looking for an extra challenge, you may add the wolf to the game.

Setup

Place the wolf in the meadow to the right of the first player.

Moving the Wolf

At the end of each round, move the wolf to the meadow containing the most sheep.

If there is a tie, move it clockwise to the first tied meadow it encounters.

If the wolf is already in the meadow containing the most sheep, it does not move.

In that meadow, discard two sheep of the most represented colour. If several colours are tied for being the most numerous, discard one sheep of each of those colours.

Restocking the Sheep

When you restock the sheep, add no sheep to the meadow where the wolf is located.

This rule also applies to the additional restock granted by the bonus action of the blue sheep.

In Solo Mode, if you play with the wolf, add 3 to your total of sheep before consulting the scoring table.