Components

• 40 Animal cards (10 x sets of four cards)
• 55 Money cards
• Rulebook

Object of the Game

Players attempt to acquire sets of animal cards. They do this by bidding on animal cards during auctions or by trying to bluff their opponents during a "cow trade" (Kuhhandel). The player with the highest score at the end of the game wins.

Setup

Shuffle the animal's cards and place them in a face-down pile in the middle of the table. Sort the money cards by their value (0, 10, 50, 100, 200, and 500). Each player receives the following:

• Two value 0 money cards,
• four value 10 money cards, and
• one value 50 money card.

The remaining money cards are placed face down in a pile. The players decide on a starting player. Players are recommended to keep their money cards face down and secret during the game.

Game Play

Players can choose between two possible actions::

1. Auction the animal card on top of the stack or
2. Offer to make a "cow trade" (Kuhhandel) with another player.

As soon as the player has concluded either of these two possible actions, their turn is over and their neighbor in clockwise order proceeds to play.

Note: At the beginning of the game there will only be auctions, as "cow trades" (Kuhhandel) are not yet possible. However, as soon as two players have cards from the same set of animals, a "cow trade" becomes possible.

Action 1: Auction

The current player turns over the topmost card on the stack. All other players bid simultaneously on this card. Each subsequent bid must be higher than the preceding one.

The auctioneer may not participate in the bidding. When there are no higher bids, the auctioneer accepts the highest bid by saying: "30 going first, 30 going second and gone for 30!"

It is possible to get a valuable animal card for the bargain price of 10, or in the same manner, to pay much more than the value of the animal! When the bid is accepted, the auctioneer hands the animal card to the highest bidder.

The winning player then pays the money to the auctioneer. However, after the auction, the auctioneer may pay the value of the highest bid to the highest bidder and take the card for themselves.

If nobody wants to bid on an animal, the player auctioning off the card gets it for free.

The players must display all owned animal cards openly in front of them on the table.

No Change

If a player doesn't have the exact amount of money offered and, instead, has more, the other player does not give back change.

Player is Unable to Pay

If a player cannot pay for their bid, they must reveal all of their money cards and the bidding process is repeated without them.

When nobody bids for an animal card, the auctioneer must call it out by saying: "A goose going first, a goose going second and a goose going third!" If no one has bid anything by then, the auctioneer may obtain the card for free.

However, if another player makes an offer, regardless of how low, the auctioneer passes the animal to them and receives the money (as normal), except when they choose to purchase the card for themselves.

The Donkey

Whenever the donkey is turned over for auction, the game is immediately interrupted. The current player deals everybody additional money cards.

One value 50 money card at the first donkey, one value 100 money card at the second donkey, one value 200 money card at the third donkey, and one value 500 money card at the fourth donkey. When everybody receives their money, the donkey is auctioned off as normal.

No more animal cards in the deck

When there are no more animals to auction off, players are no longer able to perform Action 1: Auction.

Action 2: "Cow Trade" (Kuhhandel)

As soon as two players own animals from the same sets, the player in turn may choose to offer the other player a "cow trade". If more than two players have animals from the same set, then the current player can decide with whom they want to make the "cow trade" with.

The "cow trade" begins by player A making a hidden monetary offer to player B and telling them which of their animals they wish to trade.

You are permitted to bluff. For example, you are allowed to play a hand on the table that doesn't have any money cards, to offer 0 value money cards, or to only include 0 value money cards in the offer. Once A's player as the offer is on the table, player B must decide how they want to react by choosing one of the following options:

Option 1 - Counter-offer:

Player B puts a hidden counter-offer on the table. Both offers are swapped and counted face-down and silently. The player who was offered the most amount of money from their opponent must hand over their animal card.

Both players keep the money received from their opponent. If it happens that both players offered the same amount of money, then player A must redo their offer. Player B must again decide how they want to react.

If they make a counter-offer and again it turns out to be the same amount as player A's offer, player B must give player A their animal card for free.

Option 2 - Accept The Offer:

Player B accepts the offer without making a counter-offer and hands player A the animal card that was being traded.

Special "cow Trade" (kuhhandel)

If both player A and player B own a pair of the same set of animals, then the trade will always be about the pairs. One of the players will trade off the pair of the opponent and complete his set of animals.

If one of the two players owns one card of the set and the other player owns a pair (or a three of a kind), then the trade will only be about one animal card //.

No more animal cards and complete sets of cards

If there are no more animal cards in the stack for auctioning, trading becomes obligatory. Players who only have complete sets of animal cards cannot participate in the trading and, therefore, will be skipped.

Example of Scoring:

A player has a set of 4 pigs, 4 dogs and 4 roosters.

Their score is 650 + 160 + 10 = 820 points.

Since they own 3 full sets, their score is tripled and their final score is 820 x 3 = 2460 points.

End of the Game

When the animal card stack has been depleted and there are no more possible "cow trades" (Kuhhandel) to be made, the game is over.

Every player adds up their cards and calculates their score: the value on the card is equal to the points for the whole set (for example: 4 cows = 800 points).

If a player has two full sets, they double their score, if they have three full sets, they triple it, and so on. Money isn't worth anything.

The player with the highest score is the winner!

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