CATTLE BARON

A dice game of cattle ranching and rustling.

MATERIALS:

To play, you'll need a bunch a 6 sided dice (you know, the normal kind). The dice should be of different colors (you'll need at least one color per player). Make sure that you have the same number of dice for each color! Other than that, you can use as many or as few dice as you like. I personally play with 8 colors, with 8 dice per color (for a hefty herd of 64 cows).

You'll also want a large, flat surface to play on (like a table), and you may want to get some trays to represent your gathered up cows or "stock".

TERMINOLOGY:

• COW: Each die represents a cow. The higher the number on the die, the more valuable the cow.

• STUD: A very special die- this is the die you roll in order to get stuff done. Until the game ends, you will always have a stud.

• BRAND: Each color represents a different brand. Whatever color your stud is represents your current brand.

• HERD: This is the big clump of cows in the center of the board. The goal of the game is to collect cows from the herd and get them into your stock. The game ends when all the cows are gone from the herd.

• STOCK: This is where you keep the cows you have rounded up. They are mostly safe once in your stock -- unless someone rolls a three and rustles your cattle...

• SWISS STOCK: Cows you have put into Swiss Stock are unstealable, even by cattle rustlers. Unfortunately, the only way you can get cows from your regular Stock into Swiss Stock is by rolling a three, and even then you can only "swiss" cows of one "brand", or color. This gives you incentive to collect one brand.

STARTING A GAME

1. "Roll out the Herd". Each player must select a different color. Then, ALL the dice are rolled on the table, forming the herd. You may want to group colors together just to make it easier to see what is going on out there.
2. "Choose a Stud". Each player must pick one die of their elected color to use as a stud. It is recommended that a low-numbered die is picked, since it's just going to get rolled anyway.
3. "Put up your fences". Make sure everyone knows where their stock and Swiss stock are located. You don't want your stock to get mixed up with the herd or anyone else's stock. Also, be sure to keep track of your stud -- don't let it get lost in the herd or confused with your stock!

PLAYING THE GAME

Each turn, players roll their "stud", generating a number from 1 to 6 (duh!). You can then do different things based on what you rolled. The turn order is very important though- it goes from the LOWEST roll to the HIGHEST roll.

For example, a player that rolled a 1 goes before a player that rolled a 2. In the case of a tie, the YOUNGER player goes first (don't worry, age has it's advantages too). Once each player has gone (or chosen not to do anything), the turn is over and everyone rolls their stud again.

THE ROLLS:

1. "Single Grab" You may take 1 cow of your color from the herd and place it into your stock.
   
   
2. "Double Grab" You may take 1 or 2 cows of your color from the herd and place them into your stock.
   
   
3. "Rustle" You must yell out "THREE!" so that everyone hears you. Then, you can choose to RUSTLE or you can choose to SWISS. If you RUSTLE, you may switch your regular stock with anyone else's! So if you have nothing in your regular stock, and they have a buncha fat cows, you make a tidy profit.
   
   Note that if several players rolled threes, it goes from youngest to oldest (which means stock can change hands several times). If instead you choose to SWISS, you may take all the cows of one color from your regular stock and move them into Swiss stock. Once in Swiss stock, no one can ever touch them! This is a good strategy for long games.
   
   
4. "Switcheroo"- you may exchange your stud for any cow of any color in your regular stock or in the herd. Unless you switch with a low number in your stock, no profit can be made, but it's a good way to change colors.
   
   
5. "Raid"- Grab any cow of any color from the herd and put it into your regular stock!
   
   
6. "Putting Out To Pasture" Wow, a big fat six- gotta save that! Put the six into your stock, and select a new stud from the herd of any color. If there are no more cows left in the herd, the game's over, and you won't need a stud anymore.
   
   

ENDING THE GAME:

When the last cow has been taken from the herd, the game is over. Players who rolled a six may put the six in their stock. Everyone else must roll their stud one final time, and add it to their stock. Now each player adds up all the numbers in their regular and Swiss stock to determine the total value of their haul. Highest number wins! Wanna play again?