Game Setup:
Shuffle the Rooster Pile (green backed) and the Action Deck (blue backed). Deal everyone a starting hand of 5 cards from the action deck. Decide who will go first (perhaps the player that got up earliest).
After you have starting hands, deal each player a starting coop of Roosters, determined by number of players (See below), and everyone chooses a starting Rooster. If Sunny is in your coop and you choose him as your starting Rooster, you may choose to go first. Those roosters not in a coop are Free Ranging.
Starting Coop Size
2 Players: 6 Roosters
3 Players: 5 Roosters
4 Players: 4 Roosters
5-6 Players: 3 Roosters
How to play:
Attacking: Starting with the first player, each player on their turn picks a single Rooster other than their own to play an attack or special card/ability on, or they may discard all cards from their hand and replace them with 5 new cards from the action deck. Play continues clockwise until the end of the game.
Note(s): All cards are discarded after being played. All players redraw up to their max hand size (starting is 5) at the end of every turn, starting with the player whose turn it is. Any time you play a card, draw a new card after doing what it says to do. Once a card is drawn it can be played from your hand when it says. This can lead to some back and forth action between an attacker and defender. If at any time there are no cards left in the action deck, reshuffle and continue playing.
Defending against attacks: The player of the Rooster being attacked may play either a dodge or a counter (but not both) in response to the attack. There are special cards that may be played at this time. There are also cards that can be played by players that are not attacking or defending. The card text will let you know what they can be played in response to. An attack has its attack value compared to the feather value (life) on a Rooster. If the attack is greater than or equal to the feather value (life) of the Rooster, that Rooster is killed (see scoring below). If the Rooster is not killed, just use some means to track the loss of feathers on that Rooster. We like just stacking the attacks on a rooster until it’s killed.
Note: Any time one of your Roosters is killed, you choose another Rooster from your coop to take up the fight.
Scoring/winning: When a Rooster is killed, place it into a score pile and add a number of eggs to your score as shown on the Rooster. If at the end of any players turn there is a player with (12) or more eggs, the game ends then with that player winning. In the case of a tie or in the event that no player has gained (12) eggs you continue playing until a player has Rooster(s) left the game ends and you check to see how many eggs each player has gained to determine the winner. If even after playing until no other Roosters remain, there is still a tie for the most eggs, the person last eliminated of those players that tied is the winner