Ewetopia (2017)

A storm has blown through the sleepy, fairy-tail hamlet of Ewetopia, releasing the sheep from their barns and now they’ve all congregated into a massive, mixed-up herd in the middle of the valley! Players step into the role of village farmers, who must use their feisty canine companions to help them herd back the lost flocks.

Ewetopia is charming, fast-paced, easily-to-learn, and hard-to-master. With warm, friendly graphics that have appeal for kids, it will also appeal to older audiences with it’s deceptively tactical game play: A strong denial game, board control, and a playing field that can change with every turn means Ewetopia enjoy plenty of play-time with old and young alike.

Players command their trusty dog around a 5x5 grid filled with tiles containing numerically ranked sheep, pushing rows and columns of them, adding the tiles that get pushed off the grid to their collection. The dogs are very fast and will always move at least 2 squares during their turn, so although they can be made to change direction after their 1st move, they can’t then move back into the square they just came from: Players will need to plan their turn to avoid collecting the wrong tiles or ending up out-of-position.

Opponents’ dogs can’t be pushed and will create obstacles on the board, but if this happens, or if a player wants to create a better move for themselves, fences can be built in the way of the charging sheep, diverting their path in a direction of the player's choice. Since these fences remain in the ground until the end of the game --and act the same for every player-- the result is a maze-like meadow where creative, zigzag moves aren’t just possible, but become the norm.

Adding to the brain-twisting mix are special tiles, including:
Motivating Bones: When collected, can be consumed at any time to “motivate” a dog to move an extra square. Useful to push your dog to get a rare sheep, or to force an opponent to make tough choice if their dog is in a bad position.
Wild Sheep: A mythical breed with technicolor wool, these sheep can count as any rank at the end of the game, making them especially versatile.
Wolves: A snarky, stenchy wolf-pack have sneakily donned sheep costumes in order to blend into the herd. Their own rank, having them at the end of the game will reduce your score by stinking up your other sheep’s wool.
Wood Carts: Contains enough lumber to build an additional fence on the board when traded in, and may be used immediately after being collected.

At the end of the game, points are awarded based on sizes of unbroken, numerical sequences AND sets of same-ranked sheep, allowing players to pursue different paths to victory if their original plans are foiled. Point values scale logarithmically with size, meaning a single big set or sequence will always be better than several smaller ones. After separating their sheep into the largest sets and/or sequences possible, totaling their values --and subtracting points for wolves-- the player with the highest score is the victor!