Aliens vs Cows

A print and play game of unexplained bovine abduction for two players by Jonathan Leistiko. One player represents the Alien Leader whilst the other is the Top Cow.

The goal of the Alien Leader is to abduct enough cows of sufficient quality to complete the experiments necessary to ensure success in the upcoming invasion before the space-time fold device runs out of power and transports them back to Dimension Aleph-Zootie. The goal of the Top Cow is to prevent as many cow abductions as possible.

To start 20 cows from the cow deck are laid out face down in front of the Top Cow and a cow marker placed on top of them. The 20 cow pawns (each matched to one of the cow markers) are placed on 20 of the 160 spaces on the playing board – which represents a pasture. The Alien Leader’s flying saucer token and 3 x alien pawns are placed, together, on any other vacant space.

At the start of each round, the alien and the cow player each roll two dice. There are four phases in each round - Cow Cards, Alien Research, Alien Activity, and Cow Movement. The Alien Leader gets to allocate one of the dice he rolled to one of those four phases, then the Top Cow gets to allocate the dice he rolled to two phases that have no dice. By default, the Alien Leader’s last die gets assigned to the last phase without a die.

Cow Cards Phase: If you’re the Top Cow: Draw cards from the Cow Deck equal to the number on the die assigned to the Cow Cards Phase. Look at the cards you drew. Put each card face-down under a cow marker in front of you. No cow may have two cards more than the cow with the least cards on the field.

Alien Research: If you’re the Alien Leader you get research points equal to the number on the Alien Research die. You may spend a research point to look at the letter on the bottom of any cow in the field or look at one face-down cow card that’s attached to a cow. You may spend any number of points to look at that many cards on the top of the Cow Cards deck and put them back on top of the deck in any order.

Alien Activity Phase If You’re the Alien Leader the number on the Alien Activity die indicates how many aliens you can command this round and how many actions your alien(s) can take. When an alien acts, it can take the following actions: Move, Recover, Abduct, Fly Saucer, Repair Saucer. The main aim of this phase is for the Alien Leader to manoeuvre pieces around the board with the intent of abducting cows.

Cow Movement: If you’re the Top Cow you get movement points equal to the number on the Cow Movement die. You can spend a movement point to move a cow one space. Cows may not move into occupied spaces.

Once the last cow card is drawn, the Cow Cards phase no longer occurs and cannot have dice assigned to it at the start of a round. The Alien Leader does not get to assign his second die at the start of each round.

If there are no cow cards at the start of a turn and you’re the Top Cow, roll a die. If it’s odd, the game continues. If it’s even, the game ends.

At the end of the game, tally the victory points of the cows in the flying saucer. The Alien wins if he has 45 or more Victory Points.