Odin

01Discover the game

Odin is a race to empty his hand. You pose cards, but you often get one: so you have to prepare the following shots, not only play the largest number. The overall difficulty is Medium, because the choices of cards recovered and the passes require anticipation. This chapter presents the Helvetiq base game with 54 cards, without promotional card.

02Equipment

The base box contains 54 cards: the numbers from 1 to 9 in six colors, nine cards per color and six copies of each number. There is also a rule. Add a sheet and a pencil to note the penalties. Provide a place in the centre and a waste next door. The numbers and color words in our diagrams replace the portraits of the cards; they are not new cards.

03The goal

Try not to have any more cards before the others. Each card still in hand at the end of a run is worth a penalty. The winner of the game is the one who earns the least: winning a single run does not guarantee to win the whole game.

04Preparing the game

Mixes the 54 cards and distributes nine cards face each person in secret. Each one looks at his hand in secret. Set the remaining cards for this round: there is no picket during the exchanges. Choose the first player at random and play in the clockwise direction. All note a total of zero. To start with, hold the recommended official threshold of 15 points.

In two, Helvetiq recommends a variant: remove two whole colours, 18 cards, before mixing. There are 36 cards left; always distribute nine cards each. This adaptation makes the hands and exchanges more concentrated. The normal game of 54 cards remains possible at two.

05Play a handle

Understanding the Centre

Let's call "fold" the exchange suite that starts on an empty center and ends when the others pass. This avoids confusing an entire handle with your only passage. To open a fold, put a card. Exception: if your whole hand already forms a combination of the same color or number, you can put everything down and finish the round immediately.

When you pass, choose to pass or replace the central combination. An answer must comply with two conditions: use as many cards as the center, or one more; and form a strictly larger number. To place several cards together, they must all have the same number or all have the same color. Their color does not need to be that of the center.

Read a combination

Align the numbers from the largest to the smallest: this is not an addition. Two 4 are worth 44; three cards of the same color 9, 6 and 1 are worth 961. Two cards 8 and 2 of different colors do not form an authorized combination, even if you can read 82. Only one card can always constitute a combination.

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Recover, then let play

After an answer, just take a map of the old central combination and add it to your hand. If there were several, choose the one that helps you best; discard all the other old cards. Your new combination remains in the center. You don't take one of the ones you just posed. At the opening, there was nothing in the center: there is nothing to recover.

If your pose has just emptied your hand, immediately stop the handle: you don't get any cards. This is the only way to finish in response; the constraints of number of cards and value remain mandatory.

Pass and repeat a fold

Passing leaves your hand intact. You can answer your next pass if the fold continues: Passing does not permanently exclude you. When all the others pass after the last pose, defeats the center. His last author opens a new fold; he does not play over his own combination to win more exchanges.

06An example of a game

On three, Alice opens with a 8. Bob poses two 3 different colors: they have the same number, so they form 33. Two cards respond well to a card, and 33 exceeds 8. Bob resumes the 8 of Alice. He placed two cards but took back one: his hand decreased by one card.

Chloe answers with a 6 and a 4 of the same color: 64 exceeds 33, with two cards in each combination. She chooses one of the old 3 for her hand and discards the other. Cards 6 and 4 remain in the center. Bob cannot deposit one 9 out of 64: the number of cards is not suitable and 9 is smaller.

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Alice passes, then Bob passes. Chloe had played the last; the fold stops and the 6 and 4 go to the waste. Chloe opens the next fold. If only 7, 5 and 1 of the same color remains, she can put them all together at this opening: her hand is empty, so she wins the handle without recovering a card.

Compare another situation: the center contains two cards and your hand four cards of one color. You can't put everything in response: only two or three cards are allowed. You can possibly put everything down if you get an opening on an empty center later.

07Count and win

As soon as one hand is empty, each one notes the number of cards left: zero for the person who finished, then a penalty per card for the others, whatever their value. With 2, 7, 9 and 9 still in hand, you score 4 points, not 27.

Add these penalties to the previous totals. If at least one total reaches or exceeds 15, the game ends and the lowest total wins. The best equal totals share the win. Example: the totals 8, 12 and 16 stop the game; the person at 8 wins, even if the one at 12 just won the game.

Otherwise, remix all the cards used for this game and redistribute nine each. The first player in the new round is to the left of the one who started the previous round; it's not necessarily the winner. For other periods, the booklet allows you to change the threshold in slices of five or to play a single round; announce this choice before distributing.

08Frequent errors

Do not add up the numbers. Do not use a combination of colors to make a large number. Do not put down less cards than the center or two more cards. Do not forget the recovery, except when your pose emptys your hand. Do not treat a pass as a definitive output. Do not let the last author bid out alone when all the others have passed.

09Tips for starting

Sort your hand in order to identify the same numbers and common colors. Before answering, imagine the card you will recover: it can prepare your next combination or burden you. Sometimes keep a large card to get an opening, then finish with several assorted cards. Observe the number of cards of others; a small hand often announces a close end.