Goat n Goat

The Game

Goat n Goat is a game from Hisashi Hayashi, designer of Yokohama, Trains and Sail to India. It is a card game with an interesting hand management aspect. It reminds me a little of the classic Lost Cities. 

During game setup, you lay out the mountain cards in three colours at the centre of the table. Mountain cards are worth points, and players will compete to claim them. You will also lay out a row of six goat cards (right side of this photo). This is the card row from which players refill their hands. 

The numbers on the mountain cards indicate the requirements to claim them. You need to have a flock of 7 goats to claim the mountain numbered 7. 7 is at the same time the point value. Some mountain cards have different values on the two sides. You use the side relevant to your player count. With two players, the mountains 8 and 9 are in play. 

With higher player counts, the mountain values are lower. 

On your turn, the two mandatory actions are playing cards and refilling your hand. You may play any number of cards of any colours, as long as they all have the same value. Cards come in three colours, and they are numbered 1 to 5. 1's are most common, and 5's are the rarest. When you play cards, you set them before you to form up to three flocks of goats, according to colour. When adding a goat to a flock, the value must be equal to or larger than the previous goat. If you add a goat with a lower value, the whole existing flock must be abandoned. They go to a penalty pile which you keep until the game ends. This penalty is an important aspect of the game. 

As you grow your flocks, eventually you will use them to claim the mountain cards. You may only do this once per turn. It is an optional action. When you use a flock to claim a mountain, you discard the whole flock to the common discard pile. After this you will need to collect goat for the flock of that colour all over again. 

Trading a flock for a mountain card is optional on your turn. You can decide when the best time is to cash in. Refilling your hand is mandatory. The number of cards you must take from the card row is based on the value of the card or cards you have played this turn. For example, whether you have played a single 1, or three 1's, or five 1's, you will take just one card from the card row. If you have played a 5, you must take five cards from the card row. This is an interesting twist. You have a hand limit of eight. If you go beyond that, the surplus cards go to your penalty pile. Taking more cards is not always good. 

The game ends after the draw deck is exhausted twice. Your score is based on the mountains you have claimed, and you deduct points based on the number of cards in your personal penalty pile, i.e. for discarded flocks and surplus cards. 

The Play

The game looks simple, but once you start playing, you will realise it is not as simple as it appears to be. There are a few aspects that make you think. You need to plan carefully and think a few steps ahead. Instinctively, playing many cards is a good thing. Not necessarily so in this game. If you play many 1's on your turn, you are only going to replenish your hand with one card. Then suddenly you feel short on options. The hand management is tricky. The 5's feel precious, since they are rarer, and they let you take many cards. However I found out that they can be dangerous. They can easily make you go over your hand limit if you are not careful. When planning how to add goats to your flocks, you need to do so carefully too to avoid being forced to abandon a flock. 

One important rule is when the game ends, any cards left in hand go to the penalty pile too. When the draw deck runs out, everyone still has one more chance to play cards and to claim one last mountain. Because of this leftover cards rule, you want to plan for that last turn to be able to play every card in your hand. That's not exactly easy to orchestrate. 

In a two-player game, the game already ends when the deck is exhausted for the first time. 

The Thoughts

There is more to Goat n Goat than meets the eye. The rules are still simple, but the challenges it throws at you make you go mmm... I see what you did there. It is not as innocent as it looks. I like how clever it is. It is a pleasant surprise for me. You can't fully appreciate the trickiness until you play it yourself. Thumbs up!