Counting sheep is the oldest trick in the book to bring on the dreamy Zzzzs. But the companionship of these fleecy friends doesn’t always guarantee staying asleep or enjoying a night of rest free from NIGHTMARES!
Sheepy Time is one of this year’s most clever and adorable board games for 1-4 players, ages 10+. YOU play the part of the countable sheep and every time you jump the fence, you help someone drift off to dreamland and stay there. Here’s how to play:
First, decide which Nightmare to use. Each nightmare presents a different challenge to the sheep and the sleep.
Next, place the 30 dream tiles in a face-down stack near the board. Two dream tiles are placed around the board immediately. The rest create the Dream Market.
Turns are played in 2 phases, the RACING phase and the RESTING phase. In the Racing Phase, players complete 4 steps per turn:
1. Play a card. Choose one card from your hand of two cards to play face-up and resolve. Cards usually indicate how many spaces a sheep token may advance and/or how many Zzz tokens to catch.
If the Zzz token option is chosen, a player can place a Zzz on any dream tile on the board or move a Zzz from one dream tile to another. Players can put multiple Zzz tokens on a single dream tile or divide them among several.
2.Use dream tiles. When a player lands on a space with an attached dream tile AND that dream tile has at least one of their Zzz tokens, that player can remove 1 Zzzz token and use the ability of the dream tile.
3.Resolve fence crossing.
When a player plays a movement card that moves their sheep token across the fence between spaces 10 and 1, the player gains 5 winks AND decides if they want to continue playing this round or “Call it a Night” and end the round by removing their sheep token from the board and discarding their hand. That player no longer draws or plays cards until the next racing phase begins. The player who Calls it a Night is safe from the Nightmare, but also can’t gain any more winks, so make this decision carefully!
4.Draw cards
If the active player is still in the round at the end of their turn, he draws cards back up to the 2 card hand limit.
If a Nightmare card is drawn, it must be revealed and resolved immediately. Nightmare cards either instruct the nightmare to move in the same way as sheep, but it does not use dream tiles. If the Nightmare moves onto a player’s space, it scares that player, who lays their sheep token on this side. The Nightmare card can also instruct the nightmare to jump and only players occupying the space the Nightmare lands in will be scared.
If a player is scared a second time, that player Wakes Up, takes their sheep token off the board, return their head score marker to the 0 position on the scoreboard, and discards their hand. Players who wake up don’t take any more turns in the current racing phase.
If the Nightmare crosses the fence, all players wake up and the racing phase automatically ends.
At the end of a racing phase, if any player’s head scoring token is at or past their pillow token, they win the game! If not, the game continues to the resting phase and then on to another racing phase.
During the resting phase, players can add new dream tiles and Zzz tokens to the board. After each player has had a chance to do this, play returns to the beginning of a new racing phase.
Racing and resting phases continue to alternate until one player’s head scoring token meets up with his pillow on the scoreboard.
GAMESCHOOLING
Use Sheepy Time for addition (moving around the board) and subtraction (calculating the difference between the sleepy head token and the pillow = how many winks needed to win). Other reasoning skills are utilized in a fun way to strengthen logical thinking and problem solving!
Thanks to AEG for this family-friendly, brainy game!!
