How to play Goat Lords

On your turn, choose 1 of the 5 possible actions: Birth!, Assisted Birth!, Duel!, Action!, Discard!

Add goats to your herd by picking two identical cards (or one wild card) from your hand and placing them in front of you. The first played pair can never be stolen.
Stacking Tip: Stack the first pair vertically, then the next horizontally, alternating, keeping the corners aligned in an ‘L’ shape. This helps organize for Dueling.

If the discard pile’s top card matches a card in your hand, you can use it to create a pair on your goatherd. If the discard pile runs out, do not automatically replenish it. Wait till more player discards occur.

Attack an opponent’s top GOAT PILE (or stack) by playing a goat from your hand (or a wild) that MATCHES the opponent’s top Goat. The opponent can defend with an identical goat or a wild card. If successfully defended, you can attack again with another matching card. The duelling alternates until someone can no longer play or chooses not to.

Attacker wins
The Attacker collects the duelled cards, including the opponent’s top pile, and adds them to their goatherd stack.

Defender wins
The defender collects the cards used in the duel and adds them to the top (defended) pile.

Goat Lord Duelling Rules
You must have at least one birth pair in front of you before duelling.
The first birth is protected. You cannot duel an opponent until at least two pairs of goats are on their pile.
Attacker must have a card matching the opponent’s top pile goat, or a wild card.
Only an opponent’s top stack can be attacked

If none of the above can be done, player discards one card and draws a new card from the Draw Pile.

When each turn ends, draw from the Draw Pile until you have the same number of cards you started with at the beginning of the game (4 or 5). The player who completed the turn picks first.

When the Draw Pile is empty, players keep playing until their hands are all played. If the discard pile has 5 or more goat cards when the Draw Pile becomes empty, shuffle the remaining discard pile and continue drawing from it as the Draw Pile.

You add up your herd’s total value by summing each goat’s points in your hand. You may play multiple rounds keeping a running total of points until one player reaches 1000 Goat Points. If multiple people pass the 1000 goat points in the same round, then the highest score wins.