Review by Bordspelwereld

Written by Brigitte den Hartog | Full review: https://bordspelwereld.nl/nl/reviews/sheep-showdow n

Herding sheep with your shepherd dog. I saw this game as a prototype at Growly Games as 'What the Flock!?' at Zuiderspel in March 2024. I knew right away that I had to keep an eye on this one. Fortunately, we can now already write a review of a prototype.

The artwork is fantastic. I love cute sheep. I can't help this deviation. Add images of a wolf in sheep's clothing, a bomb sheep or a sheep with a rocket strapped to its back and I'm sold.

In this game you try to collect as many sheep as possible with your shepherd dog. Everyone starts on a card with a shepherd. When it is your turn you move 1 step (orthogonal) and you immediately get the card you end on. That can be 1, 2, 3 or 5 sheep, but there are also many other cards and then something else happens.
If you step on a wolf in sheep's clothing, you take this card (unfortunately 1 minus point) but you can move a shepherd dog of one of your opponents and really tease someone with it.
If you land on a rocket sheep, you can immediately make a jump of 2 cards further.
If you come up with a blocking sheep, take it and immediately place the card face down on one of the other cards in the field.
If you step on a map with a shepherd again, you can teleport yourself to another shepherd. Be careful that there is no other dog there, you can never end up in the same place together in this game.
Using a sliding sheep (with bananas) you slide one card further, also diagonally, and you get the card you end up on, or you perform that action. Cards can therefore cause chain reactions.
If someone lands on the bomb sheep, he himself, but also all the other cards around it (the 8 cards directly next to it) are out of the game. Also if there are other dogs on those cards at that moment, they also leave the playing field.
Fun to throw an opponent out of the game via a wolf via the bomb. If you block or explode another player and his dog can no longer continue, you can also draw one of his collected cards.
This game is not mean, but very mean!

If the last player is still on the field, he must still walk 2 steps, even if this results in negative points (a wolf).

If you like a game of bullying and being difficult, then this is the game for you. The standard field is 7x7, but with 5 or 6 players it is 9x9 cards. This means that with the extra cards and still only 2, 3 or 4 players you can also make variations for even more chaos in the field.

It is a short game, so the advice is to play it at least 3 times and the player with the most points wins. It is also fun with 2 players, you play with 4 dogs, each 2 pieces.

This game is not fun, but it is fun! And did I mention how beautiful the artwork is? One sheep farts. Two sheep at the table, five sheep in party hats.

The rules are simply explained, quick to play, easy to carry.
I would recommend the game to play at the end of the evening. But hey, with children during the day (if they are not overly sensitive to exploding sheep) it is also very fun! That is why I give it an 8.