Animals

Designed by Reiner Knizia and illustrated by the incredibly talented Ursula Vernon, In BlackSheep, players try to corral the best combination of cows, horses, chickens and more while avoiding the mischievous black sheep. BlackSheep is perfect for two to four players ages eight and up. -From the FFG website.

There's a lot of randomness here, but also room for elementary strategy. Players make poker hands from two shared cards (figurines of ranked animals) and three of their own (these are actual cards). There are three such hands playing simultaneously, with players adding one or two cards at a time to any hand on their turn. When all players have played three cards onto a hand, a winner is chosen, based on the poker ranks. The winner takes the two shared cards (animal figurines), and new shared cards are added. At the end of the game, scores are calculated by summing numbers printed on the bottoms of the figurines they captured and some bonuses. The black sheep figurines are worth negative points.

From the publisher's catalog:

"Who will be the first player to get rid of the dangerous eggs of the Rattlesnakes?

Rattlesnake is an easy, fun game for kids of all ages. The game will challenge their strategy and dexterity!

Players will compete to be the first to place all their 'snake eggs' on the board, but these funny magnetic 'eggs' will clash if you make the wrong move, and then you will have to pick them all up!

The first game published by Nexus for family entertainment, Rattlesnake will be a sure hit with parents and younger players, as well as seasoned gamers looking for a fresh, quick dexterity game."

Contents
- 12 magnets
- A special die
- Playing board
- Rulebook

Microbadges

Rattlesnake fan

As the first winner of the Spiel des Jahres award in 1979, Hare and Tortoise or the German Hase und Igel (for Hare and Hedgehog) will always be regarded as a classic game. It is a cunningly designed race to the finish in which your fuel (carrots) must practically run out (all but 10 carrots or fewer) at the moment you hit the finish line. You also have three lettuce cards you must spend during the course of the race. The farther you move, the more carrots you spend, and there are a variety of ways to gain or lose carrots as you go around the track. It's a very clever exercise in arithmetic which David Parlett has fashioned into an entertaining and unique perennial favorite.

There have several variations between the multiple prints of Hare & Tortoise by different publishers. Most variations come from methods of adding randomness that favor lagging player via cards, dice, or dice charts when landing on a Hare square.

Parlett Strategic Variant--The designer's preferred way of playing the Hare square is that "... you can land on them [Hare square], but must miss a turn. This would be the equivalent of the hare taking a nap, as in Aesop's fable. This is the rule I most favour and would prefer it to simply not landing on them at all..."

A racing game with a twist.

Players secretly get a horse (of a particular color) assigned before the game starts. The player with the horse in last place at the end of the game wins.

On your turn - sequence of play is decided by auction - you play a card that controls two different colored horese. When every player has put down cards, the horses move; but only horses with an odd number of cards on the table! If the number of open cards is even, the horse does not move.

But, true to the spirit of horse racing, each player has a chance to play a "dirty trick", including Change Horses. This can affect the game dramatically.

The best detailed description of the game is here.
{This is one of the few multiplayer games that plays equally well with only two}

From the Playroom Entertainment website:

"They're cute, they're fluffy, and they're on the loose! Be the first player to fence in Mother Sheep's flock in this exciting game of family fun. Each player must make the best use of the color-coded fences as they try to corral all five sheep on their list. But you must pay close attention, because in Mother Sheep, other players may need to fence in some of the same sheep as you. Will you fence in your sheep the fastest?"

Expanded by:

Mother Sheep: The Wolf