Years ago, game designer James Ernest and some friends were sitting in a bar joking that marching British cows across French fields could be quite helpful in solving two problems at once. The end result is a humorous little card game designed by Ernest and Paul Peterson. Built for two to six people, Unexploded Cow plays in about a half-an-hour.
The basics of play are simple. Players draw from a single deck which has both willing and able cows and events. For a cost, the player lays their cows out in their own personal herd. Once they have readied their herd they send it marching across a field and make a dice roll. Starting with their own cows, they count off the number on the dice and that cow explodes earning its owner the profit listed on the card. Complications come from a number of action cards and cows with special abilities scattered throughout the deck.
If I have one small quibble with the rules, it is with the way the game starts. At the beginning of the game each player antes $500 into a pot from which all the players are paid when one of their cows explodes. As written, the scoring system is a zero sum system. Those who do poorly are guaranteed to end with less money than when they started, and those who win will have the other player’s money in their pockets.
A simple change in wording could have eliminated this player experience. Rather than an ante, each player could start with $500 less. The pot could be created from the bank. In this way, one could use the exact same rules but create more room for players to feel that they improved their position at the end of the game. It is a small quibble, but one which could improve the player experience in a significant way. (In fact, when I play this game with my family, I will explain it this way to my kids.)
Unexploded Cow provides a player experience which would work well with a family game night. The game can be quite hilarious at times and is simple enough to understand, so that even young children could play with some adeptness. While there is a great deal of choice involved with the game, it is also somewhat luck based and will often reward the player who doesn’t over think matters. It rewards the subtle player. Setting up the perfect herd with only high value cows, a player suddenly becomes nothing but a target for the other players at the table, having no chance to execute one’s great plans. Timed at around a half-an-hour, Unexploded Cow is one of those “just play and have a laugh” kind of games.
Originally released as a five dollar black-and-white game, Ernest and Paul Peterson have just re-released Unexploded Cow in a deluxe, full-color, print edition. That edition is currently available in your local game store.
