Woolly Thinking

The first night of my four nights flying solo, and without an opponent in sight, what could I do? Keep the boys up late playing Scripts and Scribes (it's their new favourite)? Teach Finn the vagaries of Navegador? Neither of these opportunities sounded like they'd end - or even begin, in Finn's case - well, so instead I did what I've been promising to do for ages, which was revisit Year of the Sheep, my third attempt at game design and the one that got the furthest in terms of theme, design and intricacies of rules, without ever really becoming more than the sum of its parts. Less, in fact.

To recap, players sit around a board with a central tower, representing the Highland Clans who the aristocracy are about to kick off the land of their forefathers in order to raise sheep. When the clans resist, the Black Watch come scurrying out of the tower, wrecking their crops and ruining their homes.

So far, so good. But the two play-tests we did swung about like an indecisive gourmand at an all-you-can-eat buffet; first it was too easy to survive the clearances, then it was too hard. Looking at it again tonight, I decided that basically I'd tried to build a thematically strong game around the central (literally) USP that belonged to something like Mousetrap. The tower was silly, and random, and (supposedly) fun, so the complex system around it - Protest cards and Clearance cards, each with their own actions - didn't fit.

Inside my head it's even worse

Having gone through the feedback on the blog, I've come up with a much simpler, quicker game. No cards at all, and a defined number of rounds. On their turn players can still sow, harvest, go fishing, or go to market. They can also choose to pay rent as an action (as opposed to using a worker up choosing not to), and not taking this action means the Black Watch will come and get you - just one cube hurtling from the tower in the first round, and then an additional cube will be added over each round until the twelfth and final round. The player sitting opposite you gets to chuck the cubes in one at a time, so you'll likely suffer the consequences - but it's also possible the Black Watch will - deliberately or not - target other players.

If your crops and cattle are disturbed in their field, you need to take them back to the safety of the village. If they are knocked from the field they're gone forever.

If you paid rent on your previous turn, however, you'll be safe from them.

The other issue to fix was the market, which I have adjusted but won't go into here.

There are still three special actions your septs can take: Rebuild (costing money to repair Black Watch damage) Repopulate (costing money and food) and Clear Sheep (costing nothing).

Finally in the second half of the game your village is moved closer to the tower, representing the Black Watch roaming further and further afield in their search for you. If they clear your field they put sheep in it, hampering you further (though you can get rid of them with a special action)

That's pretty much it. If you can't feed your septs (workers) you lose them. I'm sure it's not wrinkle-free and there will be further amendments, but it'd be nice to break it out again at GNN one night as I think it'll play quite quickly. And even if it's terrible there will be some fun shredding peoples crops, like some giant unfeeling corporation napalming everyone from the sky...