Attacke (FX Schmid)

Translation by Peter Wotruba (pete@chem.UCSD.EDU), October 25, 1994.

Who has the most powerful card?

The fanfare resounds, the great tournament is about to begin. A practical opportunity for all knights to show off their skills. Cunning, tactics, and a good blade will help to win today. In five different contests, there are other participants with higher cards to outdo, because you have to overcome them to accomplish your task - to win the tournament! On to the attack!

The object of the tournament is to win four of the five contests.

Contents

• 90 knight cards - the colors symbolize the five different contests. The values [2, 3, 4, 5, & 7] represent their strength.
• 6 shield cards - with the values of 7 & 10.
• 25 victory chips - in the colors of the five contests.

Preparation

• All 96 cards are shuffled, then distributed as follows:
• The first player is determined randomly; he recieves four cards.
• All other players are dealt five cards.
• The rest of the cards create the draw pile, and are placed in the middle of the table.
• The victory chips are laid out on the table.

The Tournament

• The starting player opens the tournament, and determines the first contest (color). He then places one or more cards of the corresponding color face-up in front of himself.
• The total of the played cards is announced, because the others will now try to exceed this total.
• A card is now drawn from the deck, and taken into your hand. Only ONE card is ever drawn - this is independant of the number of cards played.
• The following players now determine for themselves: whether to CHALLENGE (ie. to remain in the contest), or to PASS (ie. to take themselves out of the contest).

Challenging

• Challenging requires playing a higher total than the predecessor in the contest color.
• A player's total equals the sum of all card values played in the contest. The contest often lasts more than one round. Newly played cards will then simply be added to the total of the previous cards.
• At the end of a contest, everyone draws one further card from the deck. If anyone forgets this card - too bad - one is not permitted to take any more cards.

Passing

• There are two reasons to pass:
  1. A player must pass if he does not have any of the correct color cards, or if the cards he does have in the contest color total to a lower ammount than a previous player.
  2. A player may pass if he wants to for tactical reasons - to keep his cards of that color for a possible later contest. Every player may keep as many cards in their hands as they want.
• To pass, you must say it out loud. If the passing player has already played knight cards, they are placed in the discard pile. That player leaves the contest, and may no-longer reenter.
• Immediately after passing, a player draws a card from the deck, even though he has not played a card.
• Once a player passes, his turn will be skipped until a new challenge starts. (You only get to pass once per contest).

Shield Cards

Shield 7

This card can be inserted as a wild card in every challenge. One or more of these cards can be played as an alternative to the appropriately colored knight cards.

Shield 10

This follows the rule above, but with two exceptions.

• A player is permitted to play only one per challenge.
• If a player does not win, in spite of playing a shield 10 card in the challenge, he must put back one of his previously won victory chips. If he does not have a victory chip, it costs him nothing.

From Victory to Victory

• A Victor is declared when all other players have passed. This is also the case, even if all other players immediately pass. The victor puts aside his played cards, and does not draw a card.
• The contest winner is rewarded with a victory chip of the corresponding color. The chip is placed in front of the winner, for all to see. If a player wins further contests in the same contest color, he does not earn any further chips.
• The next contest begins. The champion of the last contest starts. He must play one or more cards of his choice of colors. He may also choose to use the same contest (color) as before.
• If the deck is depleated, shuffle the cards in the discard pile to create a new deck.

The End of the Tournament

• The game ends as soon as a player wins his fourth victory chip. He was successful in four of the five different contests.
• Especially persevering contestants can, at the beginning, agree that all five contest must be won in order to become the champion of the tournament.

The Concealed Tournament - A Varient

• Differing colors play an important role in this varient.
• Once per contest, every player is permitted to play as many cards as they want, even if they do not correspond to the contest color. These cards can be played alone, or be placed with previously played knight cards or shields.
• Play the cards face-down. Which colors and values are player therefore are not known, and must not be revealed.
• The worth of concealed cards equals one. These cards are added to the total to determine who wins.

The Game Cabinet - editor@gamecabinet.com - Ken Tidwell