Game Review: Trump, Tricks, Game!

By Greg J. Schloesser
March 22, 2006

Publisher: Phalanx Games / Mayfair Games
Designer: Günter Burkhardt
Players: 3-4
Ages: 8 and up
Playing Time: 30 Minutes

Growing-up, I rarely played traditional card games.  As such, I was never exposed to the concept of “trick-takingâ€?.  When I first played a game using this mechanism, I felt completely lost as the mechanism seemed to provide little control.  If you are forced to follow the suit of the card led, then it seemed to limit a player’s options.  After playing one or two trick-taking games, I wasn’t a fan.

However, this slowly changed the more trick-taking games I played.  Gradually, I began to learn how to manage my hand, and I developed a greater sense of control over my own fate.  I began to see the hidden strategies and tactics required to play these games well.  I most certainly haven’t mastered the concepts, but I now thoroughly enjoy the mechanism, and am constantly amazed at just how many variations of it can be employed in games.

Trump, Trick, Game!, designed by Günter Burkhardt, is yet another entry into the trick-taking card game field … and it is a good one.  A “huntingâ€? theme is tacked on, with players attempting to capture prey by collecting the footprints they leave as they pass.  The 52-card deck contains four suits – twelve each of bears, wolves, boars and “mouflonsâ€?— and four “trumpâ€? cards, one of each suit.  The values 5 – 9 in each suit depict from 1 – 3 footprints, and in the first three rounds, players are attempting to capture these cards.

All cards are dealt to the players, and the four “trumpâ€? cards are shuffled and placed face-up in a line.  These four cards indicate which suit is trump in each of the four hands.  As in a traditional trick-taking game, the start player leads a card, and all players must follow by playing a card that matches the suit led.  If a player does not possess a card that matches the lead suit, he may play ANY card, including a “trumpâ€? card. 

Once all players have played a card, the player who played the card with the highest value, provided it matches the lead suit, wins the trick.  The exception to this is if one or more “trumpâ€? cards were played, in which case the player playing the trump card with the highest value wins the trick.

Standard fare so far.  Here come the twists:

1) Each player may only take THREE tricks per hand.  After a player takes three tricks, he continues to play cards, but his cards are ignored when determining the winner of a trick. 

2) A player will play the NEXT hand with the three tricks he won in the previous hand. 

These are critical twists that give the game a novel feel, and present players with numerous other considerations.  While players are attempting to collect cards with footprints, they must also keep an eye on which suit will be trump in the next round.  Further, they must also take into consideration that they will only be collecting three tricks in a round, so each trick must be analyzed to determine if it is worth taking, or deciding if it would be preferable to pass and hope a more valuable trick will appear later in the hand.  One must not forget that the cards taken as tricks will be the player’s hand for the next round.  The “footprintâ€? symbols are on the mid-value cards, which are not as powerful when playing a hand.  So, grabbing a lot of points in one hand may cause a player to suffer a point-drought in the next hand.  These are tough considerations.

Once a hand is complete, each player tallies the number of “footprintsâ€? he has collected, and multiplies this by the number of different suits WITH FOOTPRINTS he has collected.  This is his score for the round.

The second and third rounds are played in an identical fashion, but the trump suit does change.  The fourth-and-final hand is different.  Players may collect as many tricks as possible, and footprints are no longer a consideration.  Instead, points are scored for EACH card based on their “powerâ€? or rank:

Wolf – 1 point
Mouflon – 2 points
Boars – 3 points
Bears – 4 points

So, entering the final hand with a good collection of trump and high-value cards is certainly a strategy one should pursue.  However, one cannot ignore scoring points in the first three rounds, lest it be impossible to close the gap.  After four rounds, the player with the most cumulative points is victorious and named the “master hunterâ€?.

As in many trick games, there are times when the hand you are dealt is unforgiving, making it difficult to take many tricks or score many points.  Usually, however, a good player can work his way out of all but the very worst hands.  Trick, Trump, Game! provides so many clever twists, that players are forced to carefully manage their hands, while at the same time planning for future rounds.  While wild scoring swings are possible from round-to-round, games are generally quite competitive and tense.

I am enthralled by the game, and find that these few twists yields a stunningly entertaining and challenging game.  It certainly douses water on those who claim there is “nothing new under the sunâ€?.  Trust me – there is!

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