OUR REVIEW

The Sheep of Glenkill

SHEEPLAND

HOW DOES a SHeep cross the road safely?

Questions upon questions, the second one is easily answered by employing a shepherd. That does not take into account the psychotic black sheep which puts freedom above everything and therefore permanently breaks away and crosses roads and paths in a suicidal manner, and, mind you, of course unaccompanied.

Do you know the Sheep of Glenkill? This is the title of a novel by Leonie Swann, which is no more than average, when closely looked at, if it were not for the main characters, who are a flock of sheep and their shepherdess Rebecca. The sheep engage in painstaking investigative legwork and solve a murder case, or at least contribute a lot towards the solution, and all that is written from the view points of the sheep.

These musings entered my head during the game, sheep, flocks and what goes on in the mind of the black sheep, because the novel not only deals with murder but also with the question of how do sheep cross a road – but now to the game, because this is not a book review, but a review on the new game by Cranio Creations.

Sheepland – land of sheep; the board shows an island in the ocean, strongly reminding me of Sardinia. May the Sardinians pardon the publisher for the really ugly presentation of their beautiful and wonderful island! In the center of the island we find the town of Sheepsburg, surrounded by diverse terrains which in turn are divided into three regions each. Mountains, fields, meadows, forests, desert or swamp are the different types of terrains that we encounter on the island.

The regions in the terrains are created by roads that divide the island; each of those separation lines shows a number between 1 and 6. At the start you put one white sheep into each region and one black sheep into town. There are six starting tiles, one for each region, each player is assigned one randomly and the rest is set aside.

For each terrain type there are five tiles showing values from Zero to Four, these numbers are also the cost for the tiles when you want to acquire them. You set them out in a column, in ascending order, lowest one on top. Each player is given 20 Dinars and one shepherd whom you put on any road on the map.

At the start of each turn you roll the dice and the black number is moved across the road into the corresponding area, but only when there is no fence and no shepherd on the road.

In his turn the active player has three actions and chooses from this selection: Move your shepherd; move one sheep; buy a landscape tile. You have free choice among the actions provided that you move the shepherd and with the stipulation that you cannot choose the same action a second time unless you did move the shepherd first.

The shepherd moves from one number space to the next. For the payment of one Taler you can choose any free road on the island. On the number spot that the shepherd vacates you place a fence and this road is now closed; it cannot be used or crossed.

In order to move a sheep – you can also select to move the black sheep – you move a sheep into an adjacent region, provided your own shepherd stands on the road connecting/between those two regions. The last action, buying a terrain tile, results in exactly this, you buy one the tile from one of the stacks, for the price noted on the tile; the first tile is free, for each successive tile the price rises by 1 Taler.

The final phase of the game is triggered with the placement of the last fence tile. You continue to play until all players have had the same number of turns, so the last turn is played by the player to the right of the starting player. Should players in that phase have to place fences they use the stack of dark-colored fences that are only used in this final phase.

Then you score the game: Each terrain tile that you own takes on the value of the total number of sheep in all regions of that terrain type. The Black Sheep is counts for two sheep. Each Taler that you own is also worth one point, and in case of a tie all involved in the tie are joint winners.

In the special set of rules provided for two players, each player is given two shepherds of the same color and 30 Taler. In the action phase you must choose one of your shepherds and may only use this one in this phase.

Sheepland reminds me a little bit of Wildlife, published by Clementoni, albeit you having to move herds of mammoths from one area into the other. Here, too, the designer managed to get across and on the board the flair of herding sheep, of assembling single animals into a flock. A road must be controlled by a shepherd at any time, without a shepherd on a road there is no crossing. And at the rear, the shepherd closes the pen and, by and by, each region is fenced in.

The areas on the board are clearly separated and all regions have the same value. The graphic design is a matter of taste and open for discussion; I believe it could be improved, to put it mildly. Because graphics is art and this is always a wonderful opportunity for discussions. In any case the box makes you expect something quite different from what you then find in the box.

But what irritated me most is the Cranio Creations logo. It depicts a skull and Sheepland is a family game. Maybe the publisher should ponder the question if the Corporate Identity fits the target group. My children were a bit frightened and I would think that in a shop you would not pick up a game bearing a skull for a family game.

When talking about components I must mention the bad cutting of pieces, the board is extremely stiff and unyielding and even after a few games we did not manage to make it lie flat on the table.

One of the positive aspects of the game surely is that it allows for quick access to the game and that it also plays quickly and easily. A follow-up, second game is quickly played, but, what we noted in our games, the allure of the game dims rather quickly and after four or five games it would not be the first one to be selected for playing, but will be one of those that you play for the lack of alternatives; in the long run the flow of the game is too “dry”.

The rules are short and concise, one question remains unanswered: What do you do when you are out of money and there are fences on the adjacent roads? This situation would imprison the shepherd who could not move anymore, but you must do three action and one of them must be a move of the shepherd.

That you score points for each Taler left at the end is a good detail mechanism, because before you spend money you calculate if spending a Taler is worth losing a victory point.

Sheepland is a proper tactical family game, but do not expect lots of tactical depth; the game for two is not really worth playing and for us, the greatest attraction came in a game for three players, because in a game with four players inevitably two teams did evolve which herded the sheep together, but Sheepland definitely is not game for team play.

Kurt Schellenbauer

Players: 2-4

Age: 8+

Time: 30+

Designer: Simone Luciani + Daniele Tascini

Art: Giulia Ghigini

Price: 30 Euro

Publisher: Cranio Creations 2012

Web: www.craniocreations.com

Genre: Placement and movement

Users: For families

Special: 2 players

Version: de

Rules: de en fr it

In-game text: no

Comments:

Simple rules

More tactical in a game for two

Tendency for team formation

Very nice family game

Compares to:

Share mechanism in railway games, Wildlife

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 4

Kurt Schellenbauer:

An entertaining, easily accessible family game which offers something for all the family, even if there is a tactician among the players, but don’t expect too much substance – it’s wooly, sheepy, bleaty!

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 1

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0