Stack Numbers, Collect Antiques and Avoid Chickens, Courtesy of ABACUSSPIELE

Stack Numbers, Collect Antiques and Avoid Chickens, Courtesy of ABACUSSPIELE
Board Game: NMBR 9
• German publishers have returned from holidays and have started pouring out information about their releases, with ABACUSSPIELE announcing three new titles as well as a German edition of the BANG! The Dice Game – Old Saloon expansion that dV Giochi debuted at SPIEL 2016.

The biggest release from ABACUSSPIELE is Peter Wichmann's NMBR 9, the title of which immediately makes me want to step away from the computer and start reading David Mitchell's number9dream again. Such a good book!

Ahem, NMBR 9 is chock-full of tiles numbered 0-9, and each player will get their fair share during the game, with everyone trying to build up these numbers — or at least certain numbers — as high as they can. In more detail:

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The game includes twenty cards numbered 0-9 twice and eighty tiles numbered 0-9; each number tile is composed of squares in some arrangement. After shuffling the deck of cards, draw and reveal the first card. Each player takes a number tile matching the card and places it on the table. With each new card drawn after that, each player takes the appropriate number tile, then adds it to the tiles that they already have in play, with each player building their own arrangement of tiles.

The new tile must touch at least one other tile on the same level along one side of a square. A tile can also be placed on top of two or more other tiles as long as no part of the new tile overhangs the tiles below it; new tiles placed on this same level must touch at least one other tile, while also covering parts of at least two tiles and not overhanging.

Once all the cards have been drawn and the tiles placed, players take turns calculating their score. A tile on the bottom level — the 0th level, if you will — scores 0 points; a tile on the 1st level above this is worth as many points as the number on the tile; a tile on the 2nd level is worth twice the number on the tile; etc. Whoever scores the most points wins!
Board Game: NMBR 9



Board Game: Das Vermächtnis des Maharaja
Michael Schacht has two releases with ABACUSSPIELE, with the core gameplay of the card game Das Vermächtnis Des Maharaja ("The Legacy of Maharaja") being similar to his California from 2006. Yes, Schacht and ABACUSSPIELE have a long history together, so it's no surprise to see them continuing to collaborate. Here's an overview of play:

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You need to collect antiques in Das Vermächtnis Des Maharaja, a.k.a. Maharaja, but more than that you need proof that those antiques form a collection and aren't merely a hodgepodge of old trinkets.

To set up the game, shuffle the 36 antique cards (six types in six colors), lay out four on the table, give each player 4-5 rupees (depending on turn order), and lay out the fifteen collection cards. Place the trade cards — numbered 4-3-3-2-2 in a four-player game — on the table in a row, then place a gold coin worth 3 rupees on each trade card.

On a turn, a player either takes the leftmost gold coin from a trade card or pays the cost shown on the leftmost trade card bearing a coin to purchase one of the antique cards on display. After doing either of these, the player can claim a collection card as long as they own the antiques depicted on that card; many collection cards force you to discard one of the antiques depicted, which then sets you back toward claiming other collection cards. To end your turn, pay taxes so that you have at most 8 rupees. As soon as all the gold coins are claimed or the antique cards purchased, the round ends, after which you refill the trade cards and lay out four new antique cards.

Once the antique cards run out, the game ends and players discard any antique cards they hold if they have only one card of that color. Then they tally their scores based on their collection and antique cards and the money they still hold. Whoever has the most points wins.
Board Game: Blindes Huhn extrem
Blindes Huhn extrem is a new version of Schacht's twenty-year-old card game Blindes Huhn from Berliner Spielkarten. Perhaps chickens should be the avian symbol for eternal rebirth instead of phoenixes...

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In the card game Blindes Huhn extrem, players must do their best to avoid taking the blind chickens home with them. Who wants a blind chicken, after all? They just peck at things randomly, making a mess of the house.

The game consists of fifty number cards (0-49), seven penalty cards, and three reward cards. Adjust the number deck based on the player count, then deal cards evenly to all players. After receiving their cards, players order the cards in their hand however they wish, but then cannot change the order during play. Each round starts with the active player playing the leftmost or rightmost card in their hand, then everyone else does the same in clockwise order, again playing only their leftmost or rightmost card. Whoever plays the highest valued card takes the trick, then leads to the next trick. If you take a trick with more than one chicken in it, you take a penalty card equal to the number of chickens you took; if you take a trick with exactly one pig in it, then you receive a reward card that gives you a bonus in the next round, such as playing your card face down or playing from any spot in your hand.

Once all the cards have been played, players tally their scores: each chicken claimed in -1 point, penalty cards are -3 to -15 points, and reward cards are +3 points. Whoever took the last trick can choose to ignore all chickens they took or all penalty cards they took other than those taken on the last trick. If someone uses the 0 to beat the 49 in the last trick, then they can alternatively erase the entire score from a previous game.

Play as many games as the number of players, then whoever has the highest score wins!

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