How to Play Carcassonne: Sheep & Shepherds

Game Objective

The objective of the game is to expand the world of Carcassonne by placing land tiles and positioning your followers and shepherds to score points. The Hills & Sheep expansion introduces new ways to score with sheep, resolve ties with hills, and earn additional points with vineyards. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

Preparation (Setup)

To play the Hills & Sheep expansion, you need the base game Carcassonne. Follow these steps for preparation:

1. Place all wolf and sheep tokens (4 with 1 sheep, 5 with 2 sheep, 5 with 3 sheep, 2 with 4 sheep, and 2 with a wolf) into the cloth bag.
2. Each player receives 1 shepherd of their color, which should be placed with their followers.
3. The 18 new land tiles (marked with a specific icon) are shuffled with the base game's land tiles.
4. With the exception of the changes indicated in this expansion, the rules of the basic Carcassonne game are maintained.

Game Flow

The game flow follows the basic Carcassonne rules, with some additions and modifications introduced by this expansion. A player's turn generally consists of:

1. Place a land tile: The player reveals and places a land tile adjacent to an existing one.
2. Place a follower or shepherd: After placing the land tile, the player can decide to place a follower or a shepherd on one of the segments of the newly placed tile.
3. Score points: If the tile placement completes a feature (city, road, monastery), scoring is performed.

Specific actions related to shepherds, sheep, wolves, hills, and vineyards are detailed in the "Actions and How to Play" section.

Actions and How to Play

Shepherds, Sheep, and Wolves

• Place a shepherd: If the player places a land tile with a field segment, they can decide to place one of their followers or their shepherd on that field.
  • If placing the shepherd, they must draw a token from the bag.
  • If it's a sheep token, they place it on the field next to their shepherd.
  • If it's a wolf token, the player must return the wolf token to the bag and retrieve their shepherd.
• A shepherd can be placed even if a farmer already exists in the field, but cannot be placed if another shepherd already exists in that field. The shepherd is a special figure and not a follower.
• Shepherd actions when expanding the field: Whenever, by placing a new land tile, the player expands the field where their shepherd is, they can choose between two actions (before performing the Place a follower action):
  • Increase the flock: The player draws another token from the bag.
    • If they draw a sheep token, the flock increases. The player will place the sheep token on the field, next to any other sheep already existing beside their shepherd.
    • If they draw a wolf token, the wolf attacks the flock! The player must return the wolf token and all sheep tokens existing in that field to the bag. Then, they must retrieve their shepherd.
  • Bring the flock to the fold: The player decides not to draw tokens from the bag, but instead scores their sheep. For each sheep they have in that field, they receive 1 point (each sheep token can be worth 1 to 4 points, depending on the number of sheep on it). Then, the player returns all counted tokens to the bag and retrieves their shepherd.
• Multiple sheep tokens in the same field: If multiple shepherds end up in the same field, all sheep in that field count for all shepherds present there.
  • If a shepherd decides to score the flock, the other shepherds receive the same points, and then those same shepherds are retrieved by their owners.
  • If a player draws a wolf from the bag, everyone loses the flock. All sheep tokens and the wolf token are returned to the bag, and all shepherds in that field are retrieved by their owners.
• Special case: Closing a field with shepherds and sheep: If a field with shepherds and sheep is closed with roads or city walls, the Bring the flock to the fold action is performed immediately.
• The shepherd is not affected by any other scoring nor serves for any other count.

Hills

• Place a tile with a hill: If a player reveals a tile with a hill, they immediately draw another tile, face down, and place it under the hill tile. No one can see this second tile. The player places the set of the hill tile plus the face-down tile on the playing area, following the usual rules.
• Hill effect: A follower placed on a hill resolves ties in favor of its owner. If a segment (city, road, or field) is being scored where there are an equal number of followers from more than one player (a tie), the player who has the follower on the hill tile receives the score. In this case, unlike what usually happens, the points would not be awarded to all tied players.
• If there is no tie, the follower on top of the hill has no other effect.
• Followers placed on a hill are returned to their owners' supply after scoring.
• You cannot place a follower directly on the hill (the illustration only serves to indicate that the entire tile is considered a hill).

Vineyards

• Place a tile with vineyards: A tile with vineyards is placed following the usual rules.
• Vineyard scoring: Upon completing and scoring a monastery, its owner receives 3 additional points for each vineyard on one of the 8 tiles adjacent to the monastery. A single vineyard can award points to multiple monasteries.
• You can place a follower according to the usual rules, but you cannot place it directly on the vineyard.

New Land Tiles

• There are special land tiles with city or field segments that can connect two separate segments when placed correctly.
• Some tiles may have houses that separate a road into two segments (like an intersection).
• There are also tiles where the fields between two city segments are not connected, or where the fields above and below will also not be connected, depending on the layout.

End of Game and Scoring

End of Game

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Scoring

• Shepherds and Sheep: At the end of the game, shepherds still remaining in fields with sheep will not receive any points.
• Hills: The tie-breaking effect of the hill also applies during the final game scoring (including farmers).
• Vineyards: Vineyards do not award any points to unfinished monasteries that still score in the final game scoring.

Tips for Winning

1. Manage your shepherds wisely: Decide the right moment to increase the flock or bring the flock to the fold. Trying to increase the flock too much can be risky due to wolves, but scoring too early can mean fewer sheep. Observe the map and the chances of your field being expanded or closed.
2. Use hills to secure points in ties: If you notice that a city, road, or field might be contested by other players, try to place a follower on a hill tile within that feature. This can ensure exclusive scoring for you in case of a tie.