Mootual Benefits

Mootual Benefits is a 2 player cooperative game about reuniting two best friends, two best COW friends!

Research done by Krista McLennan of Northampton University indicates that cows do indeed have ‘best friends’. For the study, cows were penned for 30 minute intervals twice, once with a preferred partner, a ‘best friend’, and once with a cow that they did not know. During this time, the heart rates of the cows were measured. As it turned out, when paired with their best friend, the cows’ heart rates were significantly lower and they experienced less stress overall.

BUT UH-OH!! Our Cows have become seperated and are now on two different sides of the field. They'll be reunited once they reach home, but Farm life is getting in the way. Can you help remove obstacles, spend your flower cubes wisely and gain enough Cow Power to help these best friends reach home safely?

Set-Up

1. Place the game board in the centre of the play area and each choose a cow. Place the cow on the starting spot that matches its colour. Take the Cow Power Tile of your colour

2. Take 2 Combine Harvestor Obstacles and 2 Tractor Obstacles and place them on the board following steps 3-7.

3. Place the 24 coloured cubes into the bag and shake.

4. Pull a cube from the bag (blind). Whichever colour you drew, you must find a flower of that colour on the game board and cover it with a Combine Harvester Obstacle = 3.5x3.5 tile. You may choose which flower and how you cover that flower, but the flower must be covered entirely and the tile must fit within the lines on the board.

5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 placing a 2nd Combine Harvester Obstacle = 3.5x3.5 tile.

6. Repeat steps 3 & 4 placing a Tractor Obstacle = 2.5x2.5 tile.

7. Repeat step 4 placing a 2nd Tractor Obstacle 2.5x2.5 tile.

8. Place the remaining Tractor tiles to one side (2.5x2.5) They will not be used until later in the game.

9. Seperate the remaining 6 types of tiles into 6 piles. Sort them from left to right, lowest area covered to highest. Hay would be the first tile, followed by Human Debris, Farm Dogs, Farm Equipment, Haybales and Scarecrows (0.5x0.5, 1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 2x2, and 2x4)

10. Place the die by the six piles of tiles.

11. Shuffle the countdown cards and place them face down near the play area.

12. Shuffle the Meadow of Dreams cards and place them into a 3x3 grid near the play area, each stack in the 3x3 grid will consist of 9 cards.

13. Leave a small area for the Compost Heap (Flower Cubes that cannot be used).

The player to most recently have consumed milk goes first. Plant-based milk counts!

Winning the Game

To win Mootual Benefits both players Cows must reach Home! When a players Cow is Home they continue to take turns as before, now their sole focus is removing Obstacles, which they will still acquire Hay/Cow power for.

Both players lose Mootual Benefits if one of the following occurs:

1) The Countdown Deck runs out of cards

2) An Obstacle cannot be placed to the Field because there's not enough space

3) All flower cubes are removed from the bag, meaning a flower cube cannot be selected

Taking A Turn

In Mootual Benefits turns consist of 4 Phases.

1) The Obstacle Phase

2) The Action Phase

3) The Power-Up Phase

4) The Countdown Phase

The Obstacle Phase : During the obstacle phase you will roll a die which will indicate which obstacle must be placed to the board. Next you will select a coloured flower cube which will denote which colour of flower that must be covered. You then keep that Flower cube and can spend it on Meadow of Dreams cards during the Power-Up Phase.

The Action Phase : During the action phase you have 3 Actions to use. An action is:

1) moving YOUR cow by 1 space.

2) Moving any obstacle by 1 space

3) Consuming Hay from a space next to YOUR cow (orthagonally).

All movements must be orthagonal. If you manage to manouevre an obstacle through the gaps in the fence and out of the field, you gain the amount of Hay referenced to on the back of the tile. Add this to your Cow-Power tile.

The Power-Up Phase : During the Power-Up phase you may spend any Flower cubes you currently have on Meadow of Dreams cards.

You may also spend any Cow-Power you have acquired either by eating Hay or by removing obstacles from the main field.

The Countdown Phase : During the Countdown phase, you must flip the top card of the Countdown deck and action it. Most of these cards add extra obstacles to the field.

It is now your teammates turn.