Wool Rules
Wool Rules Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Materials and Preparation
A mutton-minding dice game to get the best cards for 2 to 6 sheep connoisseurs, 10 years and up.
60 playing cards — 8 sheep dogs, 1 bone, 51 sheep cards — are shuffled together and placed in the middle of the table face down as a card supply.
25 Wool chips — Each player takes two wool chips and places them in his play area (on the table near his seat). Put the remaining wool chips on the table as a wool chip supply. Each wool chip counts as one victory point and may be used to improve the outcome of a dice roll.
6 bidding tables are shuffled face up. Each player takes one of them and takes, in addition, one of the 6 miniature clips. Place the remaining bidding tables and clips back in the box.
3 dice — Place one 12-sided die, one 10-sided die and one 8-sided die on the table. The total maximum amount of the dice is 30.
Game Objective
You roll dice for the most valuable sheep cards. Whoever dares to bid the highest dice result may begin. If he reaches it, he has first choice from the best cards. But if he stays under his own chosen target, the other players — with lower dice results — may now "graze" those cards. Whoever goes last does not roll at all, but simply takes whatever is left.
At the end of the game you count sheep (points). You also get points if a sheep dog is guarding your flock. If you have several dogs, you should provide them with a bone...
Whoever has the most points wins.
These rules explain the game for 3 to 6 players. Wool Rules for 2 players can be found at the end of these rules.
Sequence of a Round
In each round you play these 3 actions in the following order:
- Lay out cards
- Place bids
- Carry out dice actions
1) Lay out cards
From the face-down stack, one more card is laid face up than there are players in the game. (At the start of the last round in a six-player game, you lay out the remaining four cards in the middle of the table.)
2) Place bids
Each player secretly marks a bid on his bidding table using his clip. Then all players reveal their bidding tables at the same time and announce their bid aloud. You must reach this bid during the dice action. The height of the bids also decides the turn order for the following dice actions: players with a higher bid go before players with a lower bid.
What happens if bids are tied?
If several players have set the same bid, the sheep number decides the turn order: players with a lower sheep number roll before players with a higher sheep number. As long as you have not yet received any sheep card(s) from the middle of the table, you find your sheep number on the back of your bidding table. As soon as you have collected your first sheep card, the sheep number of the top card on your flock's collection pile applies instead (see "What You Do With the Cards" below).
What does the bid 26+ mean?
Whoever sets 26+ puts one of his own wool chips back into the supply and then goes before all other players. A player who owns no wool chip may not choose the bid 26+. If several players set the bid 26+, each first puts a wool chip into the supply. Then, here too, the sheep number decides the turn order.
3) Carry out dice actions
The player with the highest bid begins, followed by the player with the second-highest bid, and so on. The goal of the dice action is to reach or beat your bid exactly. Whoever manages this receives cards from the middle of the table. (For the bid 26+, the same applies as for the bid 26: whoever achieves a result of 26 or more receives cards from the middle of the table.)
Every player — except the last player — has three dice attempts for this:
1st attempt
You roll with all three dice. Then you determine your result (see below). If you reach at least your bid, you take three cards of your choice from the middle of the table. This ends your turn.
2nd attempt (only takes place if you received no cards on the first attempt)
You set aside one die from the first roll and roll the other two again. If you now reach at least your bid, you take two cards of your choice from the middle of the table. This ends your turn.
3rd attempt (only takes place if you received no cards on the second attempt)
You also set aside one of the two dice from the second roll and roll the third die one last time. If you now reach at least your bid, you receive one more card of your choice. This ends your turn.
If you have not reached your bid after three dice attempts, you receive no cards, but instead one wool chip from the supply. This ends your turn.
If you are the last player to go, you do not roll and you do not receive a wool chip either. Instead, you immediately receive all the cards remaining in the middle of the table. If none remain there, you get nothing.
How You Determine Your Result
- You always add up all three dice.
- After every one of your dice attempts you may "dress up" your result with a bonus or with wool chips:
- If you have a bonus on the top card of your flock, you may add it to your dice result.
- You may also always improve your result using your wool chips. Every wool chip that you put back into the supply increases your result by one point.
- If you have a malus (penalty) on the top card of your flock, you must subtract it from your result.
Attention! If your result is still under 14 after the third dice attempt, you must take all the black sheep from the middle of the table, if there are any there. In this case too you receive a wool chip. You may of course use a bonus and wool chips to try to reach 14.
What You Do With the Cards
Out of all the sheep cards you receive over the course of the game, you form a collection pile in front of you. This pile is your flock. Whenever you receive sheep cards from the middle of the table during a round, you sort them as you like right away and place them on top of your flock.
If you want to know whether you already own certain sheep cards, only your memory can help you: looking back through your flock later is not allowed.
If you receive sheep dogs, you place them individually next to your flock's pile, visible to everyone. If you receive the bone, you also place it face up next to your flock.
Sheep cards can show a bonus, a malus, or a bone symbol in the upper right corner.
- The bonus or malus on the topmost card of your flock always applies.
- If you receive a sheep card with a bone symbol from the middle of the table, you may immediately, and only once, take the "bone" away from whoever currently owns it — of course, only if the bone is already held by an opponent. If the sheep card with the bone symbol is on top of your own flock, the bone symbol has no effect.
When do I get what?
- If fewer cards are on display than you are entitled to, you only receive the cards that remain.
- If there are no more cards in the middle of the table, your turn is skipped. You receive neither cards nor a wool chip. A new round begins.
- If you reach your bid without using wool chips or a bonus, you must take all the cards you are entitled to — even if you may not want some of the cards.
End of the Game and Winner
The game ends as soon as the players have received all the cards from the middle of the table. Now each player adds up the points of his collected cards and adds the number of his wool chips. Whoever has the most points wins and may be certain of his wool.
When adding up, you must take care to determine the actual value of the following cards: the 3-7-0 card, the 0-0-7 card, the sheep dog, the bone.
The Special Cards in Wool Rules
Sheep card 3-7-0 — If you own this card once, you get three points. If you own it twice, you get twice seven = 14 points. If you own it three times, you have completed a "trio" (three cards) and get zero points. (The 14 points from the first two cards are thereby lost.) If you own a fourth copy of it, you start a new "trio". For this fourth card you again get three points, and so on.
Sheep card 0-0-7 — If you own this card once, you get zero points. If you own it twice, you also get zero points. If you own it three times, you have completed a "trio" (three cards) and get three times seven = 21 points. If you own a fourth copy of it, you start a new "trio". For this fourth card you again get zero points, and so on. (You keep the 21 points for the first three cards, however.)
Sheep dog — If you own exactly one sheep dog, you get nine points for it. If you own no sheep dog, you put two sheep of your choice (no black sheep, no 0-0-7 and no 3-7-0 sheep) from your flock back in the box. If you own more sheep dogs than your opponents, you must subtract five points from your result. If several players own the most sheep dogs, each of those players subtracts five points.
Bone — Bones make dogs happy. If you have the bone at the end of the game, you get four points for every sheep dog in your possession. The bone itself is worth nothing and does not prevent you from having to subtract five points if you own the most sheep dogs.
Examples
Example: Conni gets a card
Conni has already rolled 12, 10, 3 on her first roll, a total of 25 points, which would beat her bid of 24 — except that she has a malus of -3 on the top card of her flock. So she must first subtract three points from her result, bringing her down to only 22 points. That is not enough. Even with the one wool chip she owns, she would only reach 23. So she needs a second dice attempt. She sets aside the 12 and rolls the other two dice again (7, 3). Her result is now worse than before: after subtracting the malus she only reaches a total of 19. She now also sets aside the 7 and rolls the yellow die a third time (7). Her dice result (26) is reduced by the malus to 23, but she improves her result to 24 by putting a wool chip back into the supply. With that she has reached her bid. Since this was her third roll, she takes one card of her choice from the middle of the table.
Example: Kathrin uses her bonus deliberately
Kathrin has set the bid 24 and wants exactly two cards. She does not want the black sheep or the sheep dog. After her first roll she reaches a total of 21. She could now use her bonus of "1" and pay two of her wool chips to reach her bid — but then she would get three cards, which she does not want. So she sets one die aside and rolls the other two again: she again reaches 21. This time she uses her bonus and happily pays the two wool chips. Since this was her second roll, she receives her two desired cards.
Example: Robbi wants to use his dice deliberately, but stays under 14
Robbi is on his turn. He does not want to reach his bid before the third roll, because otherwise he would get one or even two black sheep. So from his first roll he sets aside the 4. From his second roll he must set aside one of the two 5s he rolled. On the third roll he rolls a 6, giving him only 15 - 2 (malus) = 13. Since he owns no wool chips, he stays under 14 after his third roll and must now take both black sheep. Bad luck. However, he does receive a wool chip from the supply for this.
Example scoring
Five players total up their collected sheep cards (27, 0, 14, -10, and -5 points respectively), and the player with the most sheep dogs (4 dogs × 4 points = 16) adds that bonus to reach a combined overall result. In this example the total is 42 points.
Wool Rules for 2 Players
In a two-player game, the same rules apply as described above, with the following exception: even when you are the second (last) player to go, you still try to roll your bid — if there are still cards in the middle of the table. If there are still cards left after your turn, your fellow player now receives them — without rolling again — even if he already received cards when it was his own turn (before you).