You are all farmers fighting over a donkey which you all supposedly have equal claim to. The first farmer who can get the donkey over the border into their farm wins ownership of the donkey. Each players bid for first pick of possible foodstuffs to entice the donkey with. A die is rolled to decide which food the donkey moves towards. (which is nearly always the apple) The players also bet on which color hexagon the donkey will actually land on. Most of the tactics around the game reside around determining which bets will pay off the most in order to pay just enough to outbid the competition for the top foodstuffs.