The Game: Spiel… so lange du kannst! How to Play & Review

The Game: Spiel… so lange du kannst! is a cooperative hand management game.

Title: The Game: Spiel… so lange du kannst!

Year Published: 2015

Designer: Steffen Benndorf

Publisher: Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag

Players: 1-5

Game Time: ~20 Mins

Set-up Time: >1 Mins

Ages: 8+

Theme: N/A

Mechanic: Hand Management, Cooperative

How to win: Play as many cards as you can.

Game Description

Players in The Game try to discard all 98 cards in the deck onto four discard piles in order to win, but they need to do so in the right way.

Set-Up

Place the 4 starter cards on the table.

Deal cards to each player, 1 player – 8 Cards, 2 players – 7 Cards and 3-5 players – 6 Cards.

Players decide who goes first.

Game Play

On your turn, play at least 2 cards from your hand then draw back up to the hand limit.

You must play higher on the 1+ piles but can play exactly 10 lower than the current card.

Must play lower on the 100- piles, but can play exactly 10 higher than the current card.

You cannot say what you have, or don’t have in your hand or mention card numbers at all. You can advise your colleagues which piles you would like them to play on or not, but you can’t say why.

When there are no more cards to draw, players only need to play 1 card.

Game End

When a player cannot play another card the game ends. Any remaining cards in all hands and deck are totalled for your score. Now try and beat it!

The Game: Spiel… so lange du kannst! Round Up

A good game, but like games like Hanabi it has to be played in the right spirit.

If someone points at a 91 and says “I REALLY don’t want anyone to play on that pile!”, they’re basically saying “Hey everyone, I’m holding 81”. While not against the rules of the game it’s definitely against the spirit of them.

I’d prefer to play it while talking about Football or Cats or something, anything… Just not the game.

The Game: Spiel… so lange du kannst! Rating

Very good game with the right group.

I give it 6/10

The Game First Impressions June 2015

A Spiel Des Jahres 2015 nominee.

Reminds me of a recent Spiel Des Jahres winner…

It’s got that Hanabi feel to it. You’re all working together to put the most number of cards in the middle of the table in the right order. In Hanabi, your memory or lack of information can let you and your team down…

In The Game, you can basically play whichever card you feel is right, based on what you have, what you can see and what you’ve been told. So in that above example, if someone told me now to play on the 42 but I have the 32, I’ll play it… If I have the 43, I’ll have to assume (and hope) they have the 32…

You have to play at least 2 cards which can mean BIG jumps if you get stuck. Quite often you can get stuck and have to increase/decrease a stack by quite a bit and you just have to hope you can pull it back.

For the Spiel nominees, this is my favourite. Colt Express doesn’t interest me at all and I found Machi Koro quite dull after a couple of plays and it’s also too nasty for me to enjoy.

This one though is pretty good. Not sure about its lifespan but we’ll see.

Jesta ThaRogue