Overview

Bauernschlau (also known as Crooked Shepherds in English) is a family strategy game published by FX Schmid in 1991 for 2-6 players. Each player is a farmer who owns a farm consisting of hexagonal spaces radiating out from the center of the board. Players use trickery to place fences around their farms and collect the most valuable flock of sheep. The game combines hidden information (face-down sheep tiles) with area control through fence placement, and features a wooden sheepdog used to herd sheep between farms.

Components

• Hexagonal game board with farm areas for each player
• Sheep tiles (with hidden point values on their undersides)
• Wooden fence pieces (shared between adjacent farms)
• Wooden sheepdog figure
• Player markers

Setup

Place the game board in the center. Each player claims a farm area radiating from the center. Shuffle the sheep tiles face-down. Place the sheepdog on the board in a neutral position. Distribute fence pieces nearby. Each farm starts with no fences and no sheep.

Turn Structure

On each turn, the active player performs exactly one action:

1. Place a Sheep: Draw a sheep tile from the supply, secretly look at its value, then place it face-down on any empty space on the board.
2. Flip a Sheep: Turn a face-down sheep tile face-up in its current position, revealing its value. It remains there permanently.
3. Herd with Sheepdog: Use the wooden sheepdog to move a face-down sheep from one hex to an adjacent hex. The sheep is then flipped face-up and cannot be moved again.
4. Place a Fence: Lay one fence piece along one of the two fence positions surrounding your farm. Fences define farm boundaries and cannot be moved once placed.

Actions

• Place a Sheep (Blind): Take a tile from the supply, peek at its value, and place it face-down anywhere on the board. This is how you seed valuable sheep near your farm or worthless ones near opponents.
• Reveal a Sheep: Flip any face-down sheep to reveal its point value. Once revealed, a sheep is locked in place.
• Sheepdog Herding: Move the sheepdog to a face-down sheep tile, then blindly move that sheep to an adjacent hex where it is flipped face-up. This lets you move sheep without knowing which one you are herding.
• Fence Building: Place a fence to close one segment of your farm boundary. Each fence is shared between two adjacent farms, so fencing in your farm also affects your neighbor.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

The game ends when any one player has fully enclosed their farm with fences. At that point, all players reveal any remaining face-down sheep within their farm boundaries. Each player totals the point values of all sheep inside their enclosed farm. The player with the highest total wins. Sheep outside any enclosed farm do not score.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Shared Fences: Each fence piece borders two farms. Placing a fence helps close your farm but also closes part of your neighbor’s farm.
• Triggering Game End: The player who places the final fence to fully enclose any farm triggers the end. This may not always be advantageous for that player.
• Hidden Information: Sheep placed face-down retain their secrecy until actively flipped or herded. Players must remember where they placed valuable sheep.
• Sheepdog Movement: The sheepdog herding action is “blind” in that you move a face-down tile without knowing its value first (unless you placed it and remember).
• Strategic Bluffing: Players can place low-value sheep near opponents’ farms to trick them into enclosing worthless flocks, or place high-value sheep near their own farms to be revealed later.

Player Reference

Action	Effect
Place Sheep	Secretly place face-down tile
Flip Sheep	Reveal a tile’s value permanently
Herd (Sheepdog)	Move face-down sheep, then reveal
Place Fence	Close one farm boundary segment

Game End Trigger	Scoring
Any farm fully fenced	Total sheep values inside each farm