Prime Yourself for Trick-Taking Challenges with Yokai Septet and Mit List und Tücke

Prime Yourself for Trick-Taking Challenges with Yokai Septet and Mit List und Tücke
Board Game: 7 Symbols, and 7 Nations
Board Game: セブン (Seven)
Yokai Septet is a new version of the little-known trick-taking game 7 Symbols, and 7 Nations from designer Muneyuki Yokouchi, which first appeared in early 2015 from Japanese publisher Takamagahara and was re-released in late 2015 as セブン (Seven) from Yirli'kumde.

Yes, two editions in the same year! Those JP publishers move quickly, and it often (far too often) seems like nothing sticks around in print, but if you wait another year or two, maybe you'll get another shot at yet another new edition. Sure, you might have wanted the artwork in an earlier one, but shopping at Game Market in Tokyo is akin to buying from one of those Art-o-mat vending machines: You just need to put in your money and take what you're given because the slots might be empty the next time you visit.

In any case, Ninja Star Games released Yokai Septet in December 2018 following a Kickstarter funding campaign in May 2018. The game is played with three individual players or with four players in teams of two. The game has a unique deck of 49 cards in which the cards are in seven suits with one suit going 1-7, the next 2-8, and so on up to the final suit of 7-13. Thus, the deck has seven 7s in it, and in general you're trying to capture the most 7s while playing by standard trick-taking rules. (One card remains after you deal cards out to players, and that card determines the trump suit; you must follow the suit of the lead card in the trick, if possible.)

You must keep won tricks separate from one another, and you turn captured 7s face up so that everyone knows who has what. The game ends when a team has captured four 7s (winning the round), when a team has captured seven tricks without capturing four 7s (losing the round), or when the final trick is taken (with the team taking this trick winning the round). You can play best two-out-of-three or use a point system that leads to a longer game.


Board Game: Yokai Septet


Board Game: Plotters, Inc.
• Another trick-taking title that has taken an international journey for a new edition is Mit List und Tücke from Klaus Palesch. This game first appeared in 1999 from German publisher Berliner Spielkarten, and now nearly two decades later it's seen a new edition: 知略悪略, which possibly translates as "Intelligent Strategy" from Japanese publisher Suki Games. Here's an overview of the gameplay:

Quote:
Mit List und Tücke ("With Cunning and Treachery") is a trick-taking game with quite a few twists. The deck consists of cards in four suits, and the deck is adjusted based on the player count so that everyone receives a hand of 14 cards to begin a round. At the start of a trick, the lead player plays any card, setting trump for that trick. Each other player plays any card that they like — except that once three colors of cards have been played, the fourth color cannot be played. Whoever plays the highest trump card wins the trick and collects two of the cards played (or three cards in a game with five or six players), placing these cards in front of them. Whoever plays the lowest non-trump card collects the remaining cards; this player leads to the next trick.

Once a player has cards of all four colors in front of them, they must choose two colors and leave cards of this color face up, placing all other cards face down. As they collect more cards, they place them face up or face down based on their colors. The round ends after 14 tricks or when a player would be forced to play a card of the fourth color to a trick; in this latter case, the round ends immediately. Each player then scores the cards they've collected. For their two face-up colors, they multiply these numbers together; they then divide this product by the number of cards that they placed face down, rounding this number down. For example, if you have 6 yellow cards, 4 red cards, and 2 blue cards, then you have (6 • 4)/2 = 12 points. If you collect cards of only one color, then you score 0 points!

Play as many rounds as the number of players. Whoever has the highest total score wins!
Board Game: Plotters, Inc.


Board Game: Prime Number Lv.0
Prime Number Lv.0 from designers Fukutarou and Shin'ichiro Seki and publisher Fukuroudou is a climbing game in which you care only about ridding your hand of cards, but to do that you must create prime numbers from those cards. An overview:

Quote:
Shuffle the deck, then deal ten cards to each player. The leader plays any prime number from a combination of 1-3 cards (see below), then in clockwise order, players may pass or play a larger prime number than the most recently played prime using the same number of cards as the leader. (A player can optionally draw a card from the deck prior to playing.) The round continues until no player wants to play. The last player who played a valid number leads the next round. If you get rid of all cards in your hand, you win the round and whoever first wins two rounds wins the game.

To play a prime number, take 1-3 cards from your hand and arrange them to create a single number by using all the digits on those cards. If the number is prime, your play is valid. For example, if playing "3" and "5", you may arrange their order and play them only as "53" because "35" is not a prime number. To play three cards, all of the cards must have single digits on them (so you can't use "10" or "12") and at least one of the cards must feature a "play three" icon.

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