A good card game can make a great start to a game night. Something light and enjoyable but still strong in gameplay and fun is often a reciepe for success. Today we are going to look at Herd: Fleece Your Friends to see how it stacks up to that order!
Herd is a 54 card game that plays in 15-20 mins for 2-5 people ages 8 and up. It is published by Magic Helmet Games. Check out their Kickstarter campaign for more information on the game as well.
In Herd, the goal is to score the most points in creating herds of geep and keeping them safe from the wolves each round. Each round someone will be awarded a Victory Token-first to 3 wins!
To play, you shuffle the deck and give each player 3 cards. The remaining cards form the center pile with one card face up for the draw pile. On your turn you begin with a draw from the draw pile or the top face down card. You then may either:
-Form a herd
-Play a wolf card
-End your turn
To form a herd, you place 3 cards face down on the table that are the same type or 2 of the same with one pink geep. They remain face down until someone plays a wolf or the round ends.
To play a Wolf card, you chose to play a face up Wolf card next to another player’s face down herd pile. If there is no pink geep, the Wolf eats the geep one card at a time per turn. When the last herd card is discarded the Wolf is discarded also. If the herd contains a pink geep then the pink geep is eaten first.
Playing the Wolf card means you must discard the other player’s geep card at the beginning of your turn. If you forget to do it you must wait until your next turn to do so.
To play a Shepherd card, you play it on top of your wolf card that is played on your herd. Both are discarded from the game. If the Shepherd is played immediately, you do not reveal cards played. Shepherds may still be played even on partially eaten Herds.
There are special cards in the game as well, like the Wolf Pack that will immediately consume an entire Herd at once. Also the Greener Pastures card will allow you to steal another player’s Herd over to your side.
Play continues until someone is out of cards, then one more turn each play occurs to give one last turn each. Once the round is completed, cards are revealed and scored. Cards in play earn points, cards in hand lose points. Highest score gets a victory token for that round. Play continues until someone has 3 tokens and wins the game!
Impressions:
Herd: Fleece Your Friends is a fun, light card game that is sure to bring some laughs to the table for your family or friends. My family enjoyed the back and forth and the silly little geeps on each card. This game has some good “gotcha” aspects, so if you are playing with younger kids who don’t like that be prepared that it is an aspect of gameplay.
So if you are looking for a fun, portable game to throw into your next gaming night or casual moment with friends, make sure to pick up Herd and take it with you!