''Battle Cattle'' is a light-hearted combat

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

published by Wingnut Games in 1997.

Publication history

In 1997, Wingnut Games published a

Battle Royale Battle Royale may refer to: * Battle royale, or battle royal, a fight among many combatants ** Battle royal (professional wrestling) Fiction and literature * Battle royale genre, a narrative genre of films, manga, anime and visual novels inspire ...

miniatures game called ''Battle Cattle'' in which players rolled up statistics for warrior cows armed with weapons, and then engaged each other in combat. In 2001,

Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''. History Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...

turned the miniatures game into a

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

called '' Battle Cattle: The Card Game''.

Gameplay

Players first choose a breed of cow from a list, then generate statistics for the cow to determine Health Points, Weight Allowances, and Tipping Defense numbers. Players can then choose offensive and defensive accessories. After combat starts, the last cow remaining is the winner.

Reception

In the January 1997 edition of ''

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'' (Issue 237),

Rick Swan Rick Swan is a game designer and author who worked for TSR. His work for TSR, mostly for ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'', appeared from 1989 to 1995. Swan also wrote '' The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games'' (1990), published by St. Martin' ...

found the game enjoyable, saying, "Despite the udderly stupid premise, it's a credible miniatures game, albeit one that's easy to win if you choose the right accessories." David Wise for ''

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'' called the game "hilarious" and described the gameplay "in which vicious and malevolent sheep must rightfully be blown to smithereens by the PC (and I definitely ''don't'' mean 'politically correct') cattle, armed with cattle-pults, s'cud missiles, udder turrets, steak knives, and other weapons of extreme- prejudicial destruction."

Reviews

*''

Valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ( or ; from ) is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become ('single fighters' or 'once fighters').Orchard (1997:36) and Li ...

'' #14 (1997) *''

Shadis ''Shadis'' is an independent gaming magazine that was published in 1990–1998 by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). It initially focused on role-playing games. Publication history Shadis was conceived and started by Jolly Blackburn as an inde ...

'' #32 (1996) *''Backstab'' (Issue 3 - May/Jun 1997)

References

{{reflist Board games introduced in 1997