Blue Orange launches the operation Don’t forget your classics a fun expedition to bring out the nuggets buried under the piles of games! Come and learn more about these great games and discover or rediscover them! The first episode: Battle Sheep!
Divide your sheep to better rule the pastures… The sheep feel cramped in their small meadow. They decided to conquer the world pasture by Pasture! Battle Sheep is a placement game, each turn players must split one of their stacks in two (as they wish, provided they leave at least one sheep on site). They thus give birth to a new pile that they move in a straight line, as far as possible before being blocked by another sheep or the edge of the board. The objective is to block all of his opponent’s sheep so that he can no longer move a stack.
Draw me a sheep….
Francesco Rota tells us about him
“I’ve been inventing logic games since I was 7 years old, but I’ve been more actively involved in them since January 1, 1995. I have also been a vegetarian since I was 20 years old and a vegan since I was 45. Today, I am interested in designing logic games for one or more players. In addition to my involvement my main objective is to work with minimalism: games that have a too long explanation and where you have to use your memory to remember the rules do not please me too much. In my opinion, a game must be explained in 30 seconds and people between the ages of 3 and 99 must be able to play it without error. I like to discover new logics and use them to create an amazing product that is easy to explain and addictive. When I imagined Battle Sheep, I wanted to make a game with different boards, without any fixed initial placement of pieces in order to not to make it easier for someone with more experience in the game. I wanted it to be quick to set up, quick to play and where the pieces are not eaten so as not to weaken the beginner player of Battle Sheep (who was called Split at first).
Like the egg and the hen, I don’t know if Battle Sheep was born before or after my Jokinjiro puzzle (published in the Focus Brain teaser magazine, the Sunday Telegraph and local Italian newspapers). But both are very similar and were born at the same time. ” – Translated from Italian by Timothée
Jokingiro, the childhood of the sheep
Let’s play!
Enter all numbers from 1 to 36 in each of the quadrants so that you can Do full rounds of it 9 times (clockwise). In practice, given any number N in the sequence, the number N+1 will be in the next quadrant clockwise and must be in the same row or column, as well as the number N-1 will be in the previous quadrant (same row or column). The solution is unique.
Example with problem 1 :
A, the 2 is placed in the next frame, in the same row or column as the 1 (in blue).
B, the 3 is placed in the same row or column as the 2, in the next frame (in blue).
(Solutions at the end of the article)
Of The Sheep birth
Timothée, CEO of Blue Orange, remembers the discovery of the game
“The Cannes IFJ is renowned for its off game evenings, which are essential for authors and publishers who are looking for each other. One evening of the 2009 edition, I am with Jalal, we walk the aisles looking for promising games. A few meters away from us I spotted a table where a young author explained his game, without anyone remaining for more than a few moments. Intrigued, we approached, I quickly understood the problem: this author only speaks Italian. It’s Francesco Rotta, who crossed the Alps to present his game. I then have the chance to be the only publisher, at this time, to speak Italian. We were struck by the quality of the game and the chance of the encounter. That evening we signed up for a new game: Splits.
Like many abstract games published by Jactalea, this one was a success of esteem, without sales really taking off… We had then started to publish our abstract games by giving them a theme to overcome this problem, as with Blue Lion or Okiya. Of course we thought about doing the same with our games already published, including Split.
The name change to Battle Sheep will finally be made at the same time as our name change from Jactalea to Blue Orange. The game took off immediately and won several prizes around the world: recommended by the Spiel, game of the year in Austria, game of the year in Finland, Tric trac approved, Flip Trophy child category….
We are proud today to have Battle Sheep in our catalogue, a sure value that still knows how to find its audience! »
Battle Sheep a game by Francesco Rota for 2 to 4 players, published by Blue Orange, recommended retail price 26,90 €
