Nine Circles

A king of the hill card game for two players. Duration ~ 30 minutes.

How to play?

Goal

• Place 3 troops under each circle to create a formation that beats your oppoonents formation at that circle.
• The first player to capture 5 circles or 3 adjacent circles wins.

Components / Setup

• Nine circles are placed in a line in the center of the table
• The Troop deck has cards 1-10 in six suits (colors).
• The Tactics deck includes 10 cards with special actions/abilities, such as wild cards. Some Tactics cards are placed at circles, others are discarded after use.
• Troop and Tactics deck are shuffled and placed facedown next to the board
• each player is dealt seven Troop cards as their starting hand

Turns

Players take alternating turns. On each turn ...

1. The player puts one of their hand cards into play.
   • A Troop card may be placed at any unclaimed circle with less than three cards on the player's side.
   • Troop cards are either placed on a circle or discarded after use. Players can use only one Tactics card more than the opponent at any time. Players can use only one leader card per game.
   • If the player cannot play a card, he/she may pass and play continues
2. the player can claim one or more circles. To claim a circle, the player must have three cards of theirs at the location and it must be clear from the open information on the board (!) that the opponent cannot play any Troop card that would beat the Formation (unplayed tactics cards are not considered). If the player has won 3 adjacent circles or 5 in total, the game immediately ends. (Once a circle is claimed it cannot change sides anymore)
3. Then the player draws a card, either from the Troop or Tactics deck. If no card can be drawn, the game continues.

Formations

There are five Formations, the order of which is similar to Poker:

1. Consecutive numbers, same color (straight flush)
2. Same number (three of a kind)
3. Same color (flush)
4. Consecutive numbers (Straight)
5. Sum of cards (also when formations tie)

When to formations have the same rank, the one with the higher sum of card values wins. If they are still tied, the player who finished their formation last loses. The other player may claim the flag on his next turn.

(Discards are always visible (placed face up). There can be up to two discarded cards)

Scoring Multiple games

• Winner gets 5 points, loser gets as many points as flags claimed.
• Winner begins the next game.

Variants

• Claim flages at beginning of turn.
• Play without tactics cards

ToDO

• It seems that passing is only allowed if playing a card / drawing a card is impossible.
• Passing on claiming circles might be allowed, but doesn't seeem to be a sensible move?

License information

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