PLAYED FOR YOU

Sheep & Thief

Cottages and rivers

A few days ago, we were pleased to receive some new Japanese games, among them Sheep & Thief: You place tiles, move sheep and thieves or extend roads and rivers.

You start with a house card on your personal board and five cards, which you then draft until you hold five cards again. Then, in turn, you place a card from your hand orthogonally next to a card already there. When the newly placed card shows sheep, you put the depicted number of sheep from stock on the card. Sheepdogs on the card allow you to move all sheep on one of your cards, as many steps as there are sheep dogs. The number of thieves on a card indicates the number of steps that each thief must take, including the thieves of other players. When, because of such a move, a thief on another player’s board enters a card with sheep, the active player receives all sheep on this card for his pen. When your own thief enters a card with sheep, you put them back into stock. Sheep that you move onto cards with cottages are safe from thieves. When four cards have been played, the round ends and each player is again dealt five cards, which are then drafted. After three such rounds, the game ends. You score 1 point for each sheep on your board and in your pen, 5 or 1o points respectively for roads connecting the house to the towns in the right-hand upper and lower corner of the board as well as 2 points for each river tile connected to at least one other river tile.

Nothing new, but an attractive tile placement game in the Carcassonne-alike family, with cute fluffy cotton wool balls for sheep and interaction from the thieves despite individual player boards.

Players: 2-4

Age: 10+

Time: 30+

Designer: Yuichi Sakashita

Artist: U-i, Tansan

Price: Please inquire

Publisher: Power 9 Games 2014

Web: http://powernine.blog

Genre: Tile placement, collecting

Users: For families

Version: multi

Rules: en jp

In-game text: no

Comments:

Basically a multi-player solitaire game, but offering interaction from thieves

Pretty components

Good, concise rules

Compares to:

Carcassonne and other tile placement game with effects of placed tiles

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 0

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0