Wild West Shepherds Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Phases of a Round
• Preparation Phase
  • 1. Choose characters
  • 2. Set locations
  • 3. Headman watch
• Shepherd Phase
• Scoring Phase
  • 1. Wolf attack
  • 2. Collect sheep
• Ending Phase
• Characters
  • 1. Basic characters
  • 2. Advanced characters
  • Rules for insurance contract
• Characters Scoring Example
  • 1. Example: Wolf attack
  • 2. Example: Collect sheep

Components

• 31 Location Cards: Back; Grass (8); Sheep (3, 5 and 4 cards); Wolf (3, 3 and 5 cards).
• 16 Character Cards (8 in English and 8 in Chinese), including a Turkey Mama back and a double-faced Headman card.
• 7 Player Cards of different colours (front and back; the back is the Insurance Contract side).
• 7 Cowboy meeples of different colours.
• 1 Wild token and 3 Shepherd's field tokens (double-faced).
• 30 "1 point sheep token" and 30 "3 point sheep token".

Setup

• Separate the 3 types of location cards (Wolf, Sheep and Grass) into piles. Shuffle each pile and take 6 cards from each to create 3 new piles of each type. Then mix and shuffle the remaining cards and create a final pile of 6 cards.
• Put the four location piles (Wolf, Sheep, Grass, and Mixed) on the table. Then, put the remaining location cards into the box without looking.
• Place 1 wild token and 3 Shepherd's field tokens (landscape side up) in the middle of the table.
• Each player receives two "1 point sheep token", a player card, and a matching cowboy meeple. Each player puts the player card front side up in front of himself.
• Use the remaining sheep tokens as the supply.
• The oldest player receives the Headman Character card.

Phases of a Round

This game is played over several rounds. Each round includes 4 phases:

1. Preparation phase. This phase includes the "Choose Characters", "Set locations" and "Headman Watch" steps.
2. Shepherd phase. Players choose a location card and place their cowboy meeple on top of it.
3. Scoring phase. Resolve wolf attacks and collect sheep.
4. End phase. Check everything and make sure the round is over. Then, set up for the next round.

Preparation Phase

1. Choose characters

Except Headman, shuffle all character cards into one pile. Starting from the player who sits on Headman's left, take actions in the following order:

• Draw 2 character cards. Pick one card and put the other on the top of the pile. Keep the character card info secret.
• Pass the pile to the next player clockwise.

When all players have a character card, set the remaining cards aside without looking at them.

2. Set locations

Headman draws a card from each location pile, shuffles them together, then places one facedown by each Shepherd's field and Wild token. See the picture below.

3. Headman watch

Headman looks at 2 location cards in the Shepherd's field area, and announces the number of wolves honestly, excluding the following situations.

• The "Wolf in sheep's clothing" can count as 1 or 0.
• When there are three or more wolves, choose and announce a number between 0 and 2.

Flip the Shepherd's field token by the location that was seen by Headman.

Shepherd Phase

Start from Headman's left and play clockwise. Each player takes actions in the following order:

• Look at one location card of Shepherd's field area that have no cowboy meeple on it.
• Choose a location and put your cowboy meeple on it.
  • If there is no location to look at, you can only choose a location and put your cowboy meeple on it.

Headman is the last one to place his cowboy meeple.

During this phase anyone can say anything they want.

Scoring Phase

Reveal all character and location cards. Scores are tallied for each location. Character abilities will impact the result. For more details please refer to the characters section below.

1. Wolf attack

Location cards with a wolf icon resolve in the following order:

• Affected players move their sheep to the location of the wolf attack. The number of sheep should equal the number of wolves at that location. If a player does not have enough sheep, move as many as he has.
• Affected players take back their cowboy meeples.
• Unaffected players receive sheep based on their character abilities, then take back their cowboy meeples.

2. Collect sheep

Location cards with a sheep icon (grass, sheep) resolve in the following order:

• Players who cannot collect sheep take back their cowboy meeples.
• Put sheep tokens from the supply on the location. The number of tokens should equal the number of sheep at that location.
• Players whose cowboy meeple is still remaining share the sheep equally. The formula is: sheep number ÷ cowboy meeple number (rounded down). If there are extra sheep left, place them beside the location.
  • Each character can only collect a maximum of 3 sheep except for Turkey Mama.
• Each player takes back their own cowboy meeple.

Example: The location card is a "Three sheep" card and there are two players collecting sheep. Take 3 sheep tokens from the supply, give each player 1 sheep according to the formula (3 ÷ 2 rounded down is 1), then place the remaining 1 sheep beside the location card.

Ending Phase

Resolve in the following order:

• Once a player has 11 sheep or more, the game ends. The player with the most sheep wins the game.
• Remove all used location cards and flip the field token to the landscape side (keep any leftover sheep tokens next to their field token).
• Pass the Headman character card to the next player.
• If you run out of location cards, set up location cards again.

Characters

1. Basic characters

The following characters are basic characters. It is recommended to use only these characters during your first game.

Each character card shows: the advanced character symbol (a star, for advanced characters only), the scoring symbols (affected or unaffected by wolf attack; can or cannot collect sheep), the minimum player number, the character name and the character ability.

• Headman (affected by wolf attack; can collect sheep): Look at 2 location cards in the shepherd's field area and announce the number of wolves. Place your cowboy meeple last.
• Turkey Mama (affected by wolf attack; can collect sheep): During collecting sheep, take all the sheep.
• Joe & Lucky (affected by wolf attack; can collect sheep): During collecting sheep, take 1 sheep from the supply.
• Hunter (unaffected by wolf attack; cannot collect sheep): During wolf attacks, take a number of sheep from the supply equal to the number of wolves + 1.
• Priest (affected by wolf attack; can collect sheep): During collecting sheep, if you get nothing, take 2 sheep from the supply. Then, place another 2 from the supply to the shepherded location.
• Banker (affected by wolf attack; can collect sheep; for 6 players or more): During collecting sheep, take additional 1 sheep from the supply for each sheep you collected this round.

2. Advanced characters

The following characters are advanced characters. When playing with these cards the game is more exciting.

• Billy (unaffected by wolf attack; can collect sheep; for 5 players or more; advanced): Shepherd first; look at 2 location cards. The 2 cards are the one at the wild and the shepherd's field that Headman did not look at. During wolf attacks, take at most 2 sheep from the shepherded location.
• Wild Head (unaffected by wolf attack; can collect sheep; advanced): Shepherd first; look at 2 location cards in the shepherd's field area and announce the number of wolves. During wolf attacks, take at most 2 sheep from the shepherded location.
• Insurance Agent (unaffected by wolf attack; cannot collect sheep; advanced): Choose a player at the same location and guess the location type (grass, sheep or wolf). If you guess correctly, take 3 sheep from the supply and give the player an insurance contract. He skips the scoring phase this round.

Special rules for Billy:

• After choosing characters, reveal Billy's character card.
• Take actions first in the Shepherd Phase.
• When you are finished, continue from the player on Headman's left as usual.

Special rules for Wild Head:

• If no one chooses Billy this round, flip the character card and turn Headman into Wild Head.
• After announcing the number of wolves, place your cowboy meeple first.
• Flip the character card to the Headman side in the Ending Phase.

Special rules for Insurance Agent:

• Reveal Insurance Agent's character card at the end of the Shepherd Phase.
• Choose a player at the same location, then guess what type the location card is. You can only guess "wolf", "sheep" or "grass".
• If there is no other player, take back your cowboy meeple and skip the following step.
• Reveal the location card. If your guess was right, take 3 sheep from the supply. The chosen player flips his player card over to the insurance contract side. Both players take back their cowboy meeples.
  • If your guess was wrong, take back your cowboy meeple and do nothing.

Example: The red player reveals his Insurance Agent card at the end of the Shepherd Phase. He chooses the green player and guesses the location card is a "sheep" type. The location card is a "sheep" so the red player collects 3 sheep from the supply. The red and green players take back their meeples. The blue meeple is the only one left beside the location.

Rules for insurance contract

• The insurance contract can be used during "wolf attack". Move the same number of sheep from the supply instead of from your own pool.
• Insurance contracts are one-time use. Flip to the front side after use.
• If you already have an insurance contract, you cannot have another one when Insurance Agent chooses you and guesses the location card correctly.
• During the Ending Phase, if multiple players are tied for the most sheep, the one with an insurance contract wins the game.

* Billy and Insurance Agent's abilities both activate at different moments. Headman should remind them to reveal their character cards.

Characters Scoring Example

1. Example: Wolf attack

1. The location card is a wolf card; there is a wolf attack.
2. Priest and Headman get attacked. Priest takes 2 sheep from his pool, then places them beside the location card. Headman uses his insurance contract and takes 2 sheep from the supply, then places them beside the location card. Both of them take back their meeples.
3. The location card has two wolves on it. Hunter takes 3 sheep (wolves + 1) from the supply. Billy can take a maximum of 2 sheep from a wolf attack. At the end of the phase, 2 sheep are left beside the location card.

2. Example: Collect sheep

1. The location card is a sheep card; players can collect sheep.
2. Hunter cannot collect and takes back his meeple. The card has two sheep on it. Take 2 sheep from the supply and place them beside the location card. There were 2 sheep from before, so there are 4 sheep in total.
3. Turkey Mama takes all the sheep. Joe & Lucky get 1 sheep from the supply. Priest did not collect any sheep, so he gets 2 sheep from the supply. Then, he places 2 sheep tokens next to the location card.