Players begin with a hand of animal and land cards which are played to claim land of the type shown on the card or play an animal card to place an animal tile on the board adjacent to previously played land tiles or animal tiles. In this way players build up a chain of land and animal tiles acros the board.

On a players turn they can choose 3 actions from:
A) buy a face up card for 3 pesos or draw a card from the animal or land decks for 2 pesos.
B) Play a land or animal card from their hand
C) Buy a hacienda and place it on their chain of animals or land tiles.
D) Buy a water feature and place it on the board
E) Harvest from a land tile chain to gain pesos.

Scoring is done twice in the game when the animal cards run out and points are awarded in different ways such as:
for how many markets their herds touch,
land tile chains of more than 3 tiles,
water features with adjacent animals,
chains with haciendas
and for every ten pesos a player has.
After the second scoring round, the player with the most points wins.

SUMMARY:
The game gives a player many decisions to make throughout the game, even though game play itself is quite straightforward. A player will need to plan their moves to play well and win. A 2 player game will feel very different to a 4 or 5 player game due to the way in which chains are built up..

Review by Brian