6 NIMMT - CARD CAME 2 T0 10 PLAYER

Report by Richard

Ali was back with us again and a rare gathering of more than four players !!. First up was another new game to most of us and therefore a briefing on the rules was definitely required.

The object of the game is not to collect cards and therefore collect points against you. First player to collect enough cards to accumulate 66 points is the loser and the player with the least points at this time
is declared the winner.

The cards consist of 104 numbered 1 to 104 (no surprise there then !!). In addition on each card is a number of "ox heads". It is these "ox heads" that are used to accumulate the scores against you not the number of the card.

Briefly on the "ox heads", we had everything from people thinking that they actually looked like devils, beetles or bats and I have to say "ox heads" is the very least what they look like, however I digress !!!!

Most cards have 1 "ox head" (OH) on them others have 3, 5 and one card 7.

Cards are shuffled and 10 are dealt to each player. Four additional cards are turned face up in four rows. These are the starting cards for the round.

Each player secretly selects one of their cards to play for each turn and places it face down on the table. When all players have selected a card all are turned over and the real fun begins !!!

The player with the lowest numbered card places their card in one of the four rows. The row has to be the one, which has the card that is closest in number to the one you had chosen BUT higher than the row card.

For example the 4 row cards were numbered, 14, 45, 67, 88. If you were the player who turned over the lowest card for all players, say 48, you would have to place it next to the 45 card. This is because you have to place it on a row card that is lower than your own card AND is closest in number to it. In this case you could not place it on the row with the card numbered 14 as your own card is further away as a number than the 45 card.

Once this has been done the player with the next lowest numbered card places their card in a similar manner. If for example the next player had a card numbered 49 he would have to place it next to the previously played 48 card.

This continues around the table and the rows gradually fill up with higher and higher numbered cards. The rub comes when a row reaches 5 cards long. If a player is forced or plays a card on this row making it 6 cards long then they are forced to take ALL FIVE CARDS below it. The 6th card is then placed at the beginning of the row to start it all again. The player who received the five cards adds up the number of OH's on them and that is their score so far.

There are times of course when a player will be unable to legally place their card on any row because the card they have to play is lower than all four row cards. It also may be that the player decides to deliberately choose a card that is lower than all four rows. This is useful sometimes to take a cheap hit early on is the row formation to just have 1 OH against you but allow more building space for later. Particularly useful if you have 2 sequential numbered cards.

In these cases the player can select any of the four rows of cards and take those cards, placing his lower card at the start of that row. The player would choose the row that has the least OH's as these will score against them.

Play proceeds until all 10 player cards have been played, this then ends the round.

All cards are collected, reshuffled and dealt out again and the round is repeated.

More rounds are played until such time as one player reaches 66 points against them and the game ends.

So onto our game

The first round was a little learning curve and took possibly longer that expected as we found our collective feet. Ann managed to come off best accumulating no OH's whereas Ali managed 28 !!!

2nd round and this is where we thought we would try to use strategy and think about the game more, convincing myself at this point that there is some in it.
To be fair there is but there is a large luck element as well but interestingly second guessing is quite skilful and this is a factor.

Results for this round saw myself grab no OH's but now Liesel and Ann amassed over 20 each !!! It was all levelling out.

3rd round and we all managed to get some OH's here and it was becoming clear to me that luck is a big factor !

4th round was almost the end of the game but it was hard fought for but Liesel has managed to get to 65 points with the rest of us not that far behind. Clearly the wise money was for Liesel to pick up one more OH to win/lose the game.

5th round, the very first player to have to take a row was unfortunately Liesel ! so the game ended there and then.

Final Scores

Bill 45, Ali 46, Richard 57, Ann 59, Liesel 73

The winner is therefore Bill, congratulations !

Having said the game has a high luck factor I still enjoyed it even though there was little scope to play with some judgement and skill. So all in all an easy game to play and for me it felt more enjoyable than Bohnanza last week.

Richards Rating:- 7/10, will play again and see how it goes

MODERN ART - CARD GAME - 2 TO 6 PLAYER

Report by Richard

No time unfortunately for Union Pacific, a game I have wanted to play again for some time now but I was happy to see Bill had brought along this classic game.

Only Ali had not played before so the rules were run through by Bill our resident "Rules Meister".

Liesel started us off and away we went.

I love to winge on how unlucky I was not to have any double cards in these games but Lo I actually started with one !! (Mind you I used all my luck it all up because I never got another !!)

As always the game is about spending wisely and on the right artist(s) !

Round 1 was to end up the same way as all four rounds and that was with Ann managing to have paintings worth loads more than anyone else. Question was though did she buy cheaply enough to win ?

Krypto won the race with Christian P and Karl Gitter in third. We all received money for some paintings but clearly Ann was bidding most and winning most.

Round 2 was Bill to start and for once in my turn afterwards I managed to lay a painting down that made Bill utter "I was not expecting that" in fact Bill did this twice, was he seeing more in this game than us ? Who knows !

The round was again full of interesting bidding and was quite fun this time round. In contrast Ann received 180 for her painting sale at the end whereas Liesel got only 20. Krypto again was the winner and Lite Metal and Karl Gitter in the remaining places. Clearly Krypto was looking very tasty !!

Round 3 saw Karl Gitter be the most popular and boosted his worth to 50 per painting but Krypto got second making them worth 80 with Christian P third now being worth 30.
This time Ann received 210 for her sale and Ali only 50 such was the spread. My feeling was that Ann was spending over the odds or with small margins in mind so all was not lost.

Final round time. Strange ending here with Ann once again in buy mode. She bought 2 Lite Metal, added to it by buying the next card out for auction which was another Lite Metal. Ali then bought the next card.....a Lite Metal
On Ann's turn she played another Lite Metal to end the round and game before any of us could really get involved.
So only Lite Metal in the frame making them worth now 50, Ann again with 150 for her paintings and Ali with 50.

Time to add up the coin...................

I think we all felt it was Ann's game but I knew that I had bought quite well but possibly a little too conservative.

Final Scores however revealed:-

Richard 391, Ann 366, Bill 303, Ali 256, Liesel 210

By a whisker I had snuck in with Ann second and Bill with a good score also in third.

I was pleased and surprised to win but it does actually beg a question here. Ann had a lot more fun in the game than I did from the point of always being in the auction action and this proactive way of playing can obviously also win you the game on occasion. For myself I played steady and enjoyed the game but won from behind the scenes so to speak. So is it better to have won and had some fun or to have had a chance of winning, had shed loads of fun and got second ?

Mmmmmmmmm Of course silly me, it's about winning !!, fun's optional !! Now all we need is a game that is both....let me see.........

Richard's Rating:- 8/10 A classic

Liesel 8/10, Ali 6/10, took a while to get into