Animals: Chickens

Legend has it that a long time ago, mankind was ignorant to the extent of not knowing how to count or tell the years apart. The ever-benevolent Jade Emperor wanted to help mankind out. From there, the idea of a twelve-year cycle and the naming of each year in the cycle after an animal was born.

But how should the Jade Emperor choose twelve animals from among so many animals in the living world, while remaining impartial? To resolve this equitably, the Jade Emperor decided to hold a race involving all animals on his birthday. The first twelve animals to cross the river and reach the Heavenly Palace will have a year named after them, in the order of how they finished the race. The race became known as The Great Race and the twelve-year cycle was named the Chinese Zodiac.

Race for the Chinese Zodiac is a board game that recreates The Great Race. Each player has a hand of eight action cards (numbered 1-8) as well as energy cards of different values and karma tokens. Each player selects one animal token and takes the corresponding animal card, which grants the player advantages during the race. All players place their animal token on the start space of the racetrack. Players assemble the dual-layered and double-sided action wheel that's used to determine the effectiveness of each action and place it in the center of the table.

On a turn, all players select an action card and an energy card from their hand, then they reveal these cards simultaneously. If the action card selected is one value lower than the player's previously played action card, the player must spend one karma token; if two or more values lower, they must spend two karma tokens. Players then resolve all played actions based on the orientation of the wheel, ideally gaining movement, new energy cards, and karma. Everyone places their played cards face up in front of themselves, then rotate the wheel clockwise by one space and start a new turn.

The first animal to complete the race earns the coveted right of having the first year of the Chinese Zodiac named after it!

—description from the publisher

A cooperative board game of farming and friendship based on the Stardew Valley video game by Eric Barone. Work together with your fellow farmers to save the Valley from the nefarious JojaMart Corporation! To do this, you'll need to farm, fish, friend and find all kinds of different resources to fulfill your Grandpa's Goals and restore the Community Center. Collect all kinds of items, raise animals, and explore the Mine. Gain powerful upgrades and skills and as the seasons pass see if you're able to protect the magic of Stardew Valley!

The goal of the game is to complete Grandpa's Goals and restore the Community Center, which requires you to gather different types of resources represented by tiles. You have a fixed amount of turns to accomplish this. This is driven by the Season Deck of 20 cards, one of which is drawn each turn to trigger certain events. Cooperatively the players decide each turn where they will focus their individual actions and place their pawn in that part of the Valley. Using their actions, they visit specific locations, trying to gather resources to complete their collective goals. Actions include things like: watering crops, trying to catch fish, rolling dice to explore the mines, and many more. When the Season Deck is exhausted, the game ends.

Theme: Chickens are learning to dance ("cha cha") by completing circuits around the yard.

Goal: To "cha cha" your chicken past every single other player's chicken, stealing each one's "tail feathers" as you go by them. The first player to collect all of the tail feathers wins.

Setup: There are two sets of large, thick cardboard tiles. One set of 12 are shaped as octagons, and the other set of 24 are shaped as eggs. Each octagon shows a different chicken-related image, and the same image appears on two of the eggs. The octagons are spread out randomly on the table, face down. The eggs are then arranged randomly, but face up, in a large circle around the octagons, creating a kind of "pathway" of egg tiles that is encircling the "yard" (of octagons). Each player has a single large wooden chicken in their color, and each chicken has slots on its backside into which wooden "tail feathers" may be stuck. Each chicken begins with only one tail feather, in its color. The chickens are then placed randomly on the egg tiles, with an equal number of unoccupied tiles separating each chicken from the next chicken "ahead" of it on the pathway as separate it from the next chicken "behind" it, with the goal that they be well spread out on the pathway.

Gameplay: The game is then played in turns, with players attempting to move their chickens clockwise around the pathway. On a player's turn, she looks at the image on the next egg tile in front of her chicken. The player then turns over one of the 12 face down octagon yard tiles. If the tile turned over shows the same image as the egg tile, the player moves forward one space on to that egg tile, turns the octagon back face down, and then repeats the process with the next egg tile. When the player turns over an octagon with an image that does not match the next egg tile in front of her, her turn ends and her chicken goes no farther. If the next tile in front of a player is occupied by someone else's chicken, then the player looks at the image that is on the egg tile in front of the other chicken, and then attempts to turn over the octagon showing *that* image. If the player succeeds, her chicken "leapfrogs" over the chicken in front of her to land on that egg tile, and in the process steals all tail feathers that the other chicken had - including those it stole from other players in the same manner. When one player has all of the tail feathers, that player wins the game.

In Sum: A creative memory game that ties memory to pawn movement. The first player to successfully memorize the images on each of the 12 octagon tiles, both from their own turns and from watching other players flip the octagons on their turns, will be able to move their chicken around the yard without stopping, and in doing so will win the game. The placement of the octagons is random, so the challenge is fresh each game.

This game is part of The Chicken Family of Zoch

The Zicke Zacke Igelkacke version has the same rules but hedgehogs instead of chicken, and it's in a smaller box.
The Hasbro version has the same rules, but is a Dragon Tales re-theme with large cardboard dragons as player pieces.

Two to seven players, ages 8 and up try to obtain fried worms for their chickens, so that they don't go hungry. Of course, anyone who doesn't manage to grab a worm off of the grill can help himself to those of his opponents. This fast-paced game by Reiner Knizia is, like Hick Hack im Gackelwack, a gambling game in the finest chicken tradition."

Each turn players roll their dice and set aside all those matching any single value. The remaining dice are rolled and any value is set aside again until the player stops and takes a tile or busts and puts their last tile back. When a player busts and fails to take a tile they must also turn the highest tile face-down.

Interestingly, the German edition from Zoch has English rules in the box.

The Dutch edition is part of the Jakkie & Bak Collection
The German edition is part of The Chicken Family of Zoch.

Try to land any part of your Flickin' Chicken on the target within the least of throws as possible. The player with the lowest score after nine-rounds is the winner.

SETUP
1 - Each player chooses a Flickin' Chicken. Pay attention to the color, this is YOUR chicken!
2 - Designate someone to be the score keeper. This person will keep score during the game using the included Score-Keeper and pencil. Write each player's name in the Score-Keeper.
3 - The youngest player takes the Target Disc first. They will be the first to throw the disc and their Flickin' Chicken.

PLAYING EACH ROUND
1 - Flickin' Chicken is played in 9 rounds. The person with the lowest score after nine rounds is the winner.

2 - At the start of each round, throw the Target Disc as far as you can. For the first round, the youngest player throws first. For subsequent rounds, the winner of the previous round, play paper-scissor-rock, flip a coin or other tie-breaking ritual to determinate the thrower. Greco-Roman Wrestling is not reccomended.

3 - Taking turns, and starting with the Target Disc thrower, each player throws their Flickin' Chicken at the Target Disc, trying to land any part of their chicken on the disc. If you land any part of your Flickin' Chicken on the Target Disc on your first throw, this is a "Pollo-In-One". Everyone should congratulate you, as it's quite a feat.

4 - After everyone has thrown, it is now time for your next throw (if needed). The player whose chicken landed furthest from the target disc will go next (throwing from where the chicken landed) continuing with the next furthest player, so forth and so on.

5 - Repeat this until everyone has landed any part of their Flickin' Chicken onto the Target Disc. Once you hit the target disc, remove your chicken from play. Keep track of your throws as each throw is equal to one point.

6 - When every player has landed their chicken on the target the round is over. It is now time to score the round.

7 - Repeat the above until you have played all nine-rounds.

SCORING
1 - The target Disc has 2 sides, a Bonus side and a Penalty side. Each round is different depending on which side of the Target Disc is facing up after it lands!

2 - If any part of your Flickin' Chicken is TOUCHING the center white circle of the Target Disc then score accordingly and as follows:
"Penalty +1" - Add one point to your score if any part of your Flickin' Chicken is touching the Penalty Circle.
"Bonus -1" - Deduce one point from your score if any part of your Flickin' Chicken is touching the Bonus Circle.

3 - After determining if any Bonus or Penalty points apply to a players score, write their score in the Score-Keeper using the including pencil.

4 - After 9 rounds of play, tally up the players' scores. The player with the lowest score wins! (from the Rules-book)