Review by Bordspelwereld

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

Gathering sheep with your sheepdog. Back at Zuiderspel in March 2024, I saw this game as a prototype on the table at Growly Games as ‘What the Flock!?’. I knew right away that I had to keep an eye on this one. Fortunately, we are now allowed to write a review of a prototype in advance.

The artwork is fantastic. I love cute sheep. I can't help this weakness. Then they also 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 sheepdog. Everyone starts on a card with a shepherd. When it's your turn you move 1 step (orthogonally) and immediately get the card you end up 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 point) but you may move one of your opponents' sheepdogs and really mess with them.
If you land on a rocket sheep you can immediately make another jump of 2 cards further.
If you land on a block sheep you take it and immediately place the card face down on one of the other cards on the field.
If you step on another card with a shepherd, you can teleport yourself to another shepherd. Just make sure no other dog is standing there, you can never end up in the same place in this game.
Via a slide sheep (with bananas) you slide one more card, also diagonally, and you get the card you end up on, or perform that action. Cards can therefore cause chain reactions.
If someone lands on the bomb sheep, it goes out of the game, but also all the other cards around it (the 8 cards directly next to it). Even if there are other dogs on those cards at that moment, they also leave the playing field.
It's fun to knock an opponent out of the game via a wolf through the bomb. If you block another player or make them explode and their dog can no longer move, you can also draw one of their collected cards.
This game is not mean, but very mean!

When the last player is still on the field, they must take 2 more steps, even if that results in negative points (a wolf).

If you like a bit of teasing and messing with each other, then this game is really something for you. By default, the field is 7x7 large, but with 5 or 6 players it's 9x9 cards. This means that with the extra cards and only 2, 3 or 4 players, you can also make variants for even more chaos on the field.

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

This game is not fun, but very fun! And had I already said how beautiful the artwork is? One sheep farts. Two sheep at the table, five sheep with party hats on.

The rules are simply explained, quick to play, easy to take with you.
I would recommend playing the game at the end of the evening. But oh well, with children during the day (if they are not oversensitive to exploding sheep), it's also a lot of fun! That's why I give it an 8.