Gamehelpmow

Summary of the Game

The players are farmers. They round up cows in the field and form them into herds ready to be brought into the stable. However, some cows are surrounded by flies, and nobody wants to be near those...

Aim of the Game

Have the fewest flies in your stable when the game ends.

Material

49 cards, made up as follows:

• 15 cows, numbered from 1 to 15, without any flies
• 13 cows, numbered from 2 to 14, with 1 fly
• 11 cows, numbered from 3 to 13, with 2 flies
• 3 cows, numbered 7, 8 and 9, with 3 flies
• 6 cows, with 5 flies and a superpower
• 1 MOW card showing the direction of play

Game Play

A game is played over several rounds

At the beginning of each round, shuffle the 48 cow cards and deal five to each farmer.

The farmer with the most flies starts the round (in the first round, the youngest player starts).

They put the MOW card arrow in front of them, pointing to the player on their left (the arrow shows the direction of play).

Player actions

On their turn, a player must :

1. Add a cow to the herd
2. Draw a card

1. Add a cow to the herd

During their turn, each farmer MUST add a cow to the herd at either end of the line.

The farmer who places the first cow can choose any number. Subsequent cows must be numbered higher or lower than all the cows already in the herd.

Example :

If the cards on the table are 3, 9 and 11, you can add a cow whose number is less than 3 (0, 1 or 2) or greater than 11 (12, 13, 14, 15 or 16).

Special cows

• Blocker: Play this cow to close off one end of the line.
• Acrobatic cow: Play this cow on another cow with the same number, no matter where it is in the line (this card cannot be played unless the requisite cow has been played previously).
• Slowpoke: Insert this cow into the line in place of a missing number (for example the 6 can be played between the 5 and the 7) (this card cannot be placed if there are no gaps in the line numbering).

If a player collects 6 special cows their points are NOT scored that round.

Note!

A farmer who plays a special cow with 5 flies can, if they wish, change the direction of play!!! In this case, they take the MOW card, pointing it left or right as they prefer. The game continues in the direction shown by the arrow.

New herd

A farmer who CANNOT or DOES NOT WANT to add a cow to the line, takes all the cards in the herd and places them face down in their stable... Then, they start a new herd by playing a card from their hand to the middle of the table.

Each fly in a stable produces 1 embarrassment point at the end of the game.

2. Draw a card

After a farmer has added a card to the herd, they draw a new card from the deck and add it to their hand.

End of a round

When a farmer takes the last card from the deck, the current round is played out until the herd is added to one of the farmers' stables.

Then, any cards remaining in a farmer's hand are added to their stable.

All the flies in a farmer's stable are added to any scored in previous rounds.

If a player has all 6 special cows in their stable, they score no points for the round, regardless of the total number of flies. (This is a good reason not to gang up on the same opponent!)

End of the game

The game ends when a farmer has amassed more than 100 flies at the end of a round.

The farmer with the fewest flies wins.