Fleece Your Friends with Herd!

What is the sound of one geep...speaking? Well, I guess I don't really know. Oh? You don't know what a geep is, you say? A goat-sheep hybrid of course! And you've been tasked with herding them up and keeping them safe from wolves! With a little bit of luck and strategy you can play your cards just right and have the greatest of all the herds! Let's check this out.

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What Is It?

A quick and simple competitive card game for 2 - 5 players where you are trying to collect herds of the same type of geep and keep them safe from wolves as much as possible. It plays in 3 rounds and only takes a few minutes to learn and teach!

Who Is It For?

I would recommend this one to gamers who like light card games that play quickly and allow you to have some TV on in the background or carry on a conversation - no heavy thought or attention required. I would also say it's great for families that like to game together and would recommend ages 8 and up!

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Quality of Components

I have a prototype copy of the game so that definitely needs to be kept in mind for my comments. I thought the cards were nice though and the victory point tokens, though simple cubes, were fine as well. I also liked the box a lot, but it does stick open a little bit due to the amount of components.
To get you pumped for the final version, I will mention that I was told the finished product is planned to have sheep-shaped victory tokens, a glossy paper rulebook (mine is just a print out), and, hopefully, a magnetic box - which I'm definitely a fan of. Looking forward to it all!

PROS

• Quick, light, simple, and great for families
• The rules are clear and easy to follow
• You always have a choice of card (top deck or the 1 flipped over) which is nice. I'm never big on just drawing from the top of the deck
• I liked that the discard pile was kept separate from the flipped over card you could draw. That helped to avoid players taking advantage of what's discarded (like the pink geep)
  
• A fun take on hand management because you need to plan the best time to play herds versus trying to get your wolves, if you have them, out on opponents.
  

CONS

• A few more examples/images in the rulebook would be helpful for those visual learners playing
  
• There's no tie breaker which I think needs to be added or at least home-ruled. My first play we both had 2 victory points and in the 3rd round both had 5 points at the end of the round, so we assumed we tied. We thought the tie breaker for a round should be either least pink geep (because it means you had more herds), or least negative points. There are options here, it just needs to be added.
• Another thing that's mentioned in the rules is that you can't "go out" by using a Shepard card, but it doesn't say if you should draw immediately after you use one (and then again at the beginning of your turn as normal) or only draw still at the beginning of your turn, and that also needed to be defined in my opinion.
  

Difficulty

I'd give this one about a 1.5 out of 5 for difficulty. As I've mentioned, it's not very hard to learn or play, and it's definitely great for families or younger kids. But, there is some light strategy in knowing what your best move is if you have a few options, so that's important to keep in mind as well.

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Final Thoughts

Overall I think it's a cute little game for kids/siblings that they can get a bunch of enjoyment out of. I think parents could also join in the fun or play themselves as well, but I'd mostly recommend it as a filler game, as that's how it sat in my personal taste. But definitely a cute theme and everything seems to fit together well overall, other than those few things I mentioned in the cons above. Check it out if you have the chance!

Additional Information:
Publisher - Magic Helmet Games
Designer - Dave Kinkade
Website - www.herdthegame.com/

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*