Battle Sheep First Impressions

Battle Sheep: Battle with Sheep… or not.

Just move them a bit.

In Battle Sheep, players start the game by constructing the board from identical four-hex tiles, then each player places his/her tall stack of discs on one of the border hexes. Players take turns removing some number of discs from the top of one of their stacks, moving that new stack of discs as far away as it can go in a straight line. Players must leave at least one disc behind when moving, so the board gradually fills up and movement opportunities become more and more scarce. The player occupying the most spaces at the end of the game wins!

If you read all that, that’s how you play the game. Pick up some from a stack of sheep, move it in a straight line and put it down.

In my first game, w weren’t playing that you have to move your stack ALL the way to the end of the board in a straight line. I have since and it made for a better game.

There aren’t too many abstract games like this. Ones that are quick and fun and play more than 2 players so this was nice. Abstract games in general tend to stick to 2 players so a good one that plays more than that is a nice surprise.

It has that every move is both an attack and defence feel like Kamisado but less so. In that, each of your moves is used to position you for a win but also to make sure you block your opponent from winning on their next turn.

Kamisado is one I’ve almost bought several times and I’m kinda glad I didn’t. I’ll prefer the re-playability of Pinata Party instead…

I’ll add a further update once I play with the correct rules.

Battle Sheep Update 13/06/2018

I’ve come from the future to say I have indeed played with the correct rules and I like it. I already updated the post to say this but I’m confirming it now.

It’s a very simple game, but stressful. You can literally back yourself into a corner and cost yourself a lot of points. That’s part of the attack and defence movement, you also don’t want to put yourself into a place where your opponents can close you out.

The stress comes from hoping you don’t make a mistake. It’s quite easy to cut a stack off into an area it won’t score. Also, from players hoping they don’t notice that you can cut them off on your next turn.

A nice simple game with solid components.

Jesta ThaRogue