Our step-by-step guide to how to play Battle Sheep Board Game. Battle Sheep is an abstract strategy game that is quick and an all-out battle. You have to think three steps ahead when making your moves, but what is different here is that at every turn the other players are trying to box you in and cut you off. This game celebrates that cutthroat showdown and it does it with cuddly sheep. There are very few steps, learning how to play Battle Sheep is one of the easiest tasks out there.
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HOW TO PLAY BATTLE SHEEP – WHAT IS IT?
Rivaling sheep herds are battling it out to control the most space of Farmer Pat’s Pastures. Watch out for sneaky sheep and plan your moves carefully to advance your heard and fence out the foe. Conquer the most pastures to win this fast-moving strategy game.
The object of Battle Sheep is to move your sheep to claim the biggest portion of the field by blocking your opponents from moving in!
HOW TO PLAY BATTLE SHEEP – STEP BY STEP
Time Needed: Approximately 15 minutes.
This is a step by step guide for how to play Battle Sheep the popular abstract strategy space showdown board game. Additional notions and special rules can be found below the list. These will be referenced for your convenience.
1. SETUP | Give Out Sheep Tokens
To kick off how to play Battle Sheep setup, each player takes 16 sheep tokens of the same sheep color and stacks them into one stack, with all tokens face up.
2. SETUP | Form Game Board
Take the 16 pasture tiles from the game box and divide them evenly amongst all the players. Taking turns, put down the tiles one at a time wherever you want as long as it touches another piece. This doesn’t matter too much, it is just to assure fair randomization and that each game is different.
3. SETUP | Place Starting Sheep Stacks
Starting with the youngest player and then moving around the circle clockwise, each player puts their sheep stack on a space on the outside perimeter of the board. You should not place within 2 spaces of any other stack and it is best if people are generally spread out.
4. SETUP | Determine Start Player
Determine a starting player. The youngest player goes first. Change this if you want but whoever that is also picks the first sheep placement spot.
5. GAMEPLAY | Step 1 | Split A Stack
Take any of your stacks on the board and split them into two, any amount in each stack as long as each has one. One the first turn you only have one stack but eventually you will have many.
6. GAMEPLAY | Step 2 | Move Stack
You now move one of the split stacks with the intention of taking as much space as possible, setting yourself up for future turns and hopefully blocking your opponent. You can go in any direction down any straight line path. You keep going, filling each space you pass until you (a) reach another stack or (b) cannot go any further because you are at an edge or some other reason
7. GAMEPLAY | Pass & Repeat
After a player has made their move, the turn passes to the player to the left and then they do the two gameplay steps.
8. GAMEPLAY | Knock Out Blocked Players
Whenever a player’s available stacks are blocked on all sides and they cannot make a legal move, they are out and can no longer move. Their sheep stay where they until the end.
9. GAME END | No More Moves
When no players can no longer make any moves with any sheep, the game ends and you move to the final scoring.
10. WINNING | Most Pastures Covered
Everyone counts their total pastures covered. Whoever has the highest total wins. In a tie, the player with the largest consecutive grouping wins. As you can see learning how to play Battle Sheep is incredibly quick and easy.
HOW TO PLAY BATTLE SHEEP – KEY INFORMATION
MOVEMENT RULES & RESTRICTIONS
These are the key rules you need to adhere to when moving sheep:
- You must leave behind at least one sheep for every space you move.
- You can only move your sheep in a straight line.
- You may NOT have more than one sheep stack in a pasture.
- You may NOT combine or jump over sheep (even your own).
GAME CONTENTS
- 1x How To Play Battle Sheep Booklet
- 16x Pasture Tiles
- 64x Sheep Tokens (16x Blue, 16x Red, 16x Black, 16x White)
HOW TO PLAY BATTLE SHEEP – IN CLOSING
We hope you can now say you know how to play Battle Sheep. This quick and exciting part puzzle and part strategy board game is a ton of fun crammed into 15 minutes. You will need to leave your feelings at the door because this game is cutthroat. It is much easier, however, since the hostile moves are bring brought by adorable, albeit a little deranged, sheep. There are two steps to gameplay so this is an incredibly easy one to pick up.
