{"id":3805,"date":"2004-08-02T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-08-02T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/08\/02\/dieverflixte-0\/"},"modified":"2004-08-02T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-08-02T10:00:00","slug":"dieverflixte-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/08\/02\/dieverflixte-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Die\nverflixte “0”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Die
\nverflixte “0”<\/a><\/h2>\n

Guenther of our Westpark Gamers is always one who likes to bring along a rare German
\ngame. “Die verflixte 0” is one of these hard to find games, produced by a small
\nMunich based game company which is now defunct.<\/p>\n

This is a game for up to 4 players, each of which gets 6 wooden pins numbered from 0
\nto 5. The plastic game board consists of 6 rows with 6 holes each. Now each player in
\nturn places one of his pins face down in the holes of the board (only s\/he knows what
\nnumber was played). After all players have played their pins all pins are revealed. Now
\nthe player with the highest added “line” of numbers (either diagonal or
\nhorizontal, interrupted by other pins or not) wins the game (only one line counts). The
\nhitch is (mentioned in the title which means “The Accursed Zero”) that a zero
\nby ANY player in a line, even your own, nullifies this line completely and makes it
\nworthless.<\/p>\n

\"Die<\/p>\n

The limited board size makes this mainly a bluffing game. It is pretty obvious to all
\nif a player tries to build a “big” line, basically it is an invitation to play
\na zero into the line. On the other hand “joining” a line made by another player
\nmight mean playing it safe, you just have to play higher numbers than your opponent. A
\nsure-fire strategy was discovered in our 4 games that involved playing 3 pins in a
\ndiagonal row close to the side of the game board (in a line that leaves no room for pins
\nby other players). If you manage to get three pins in a row like this, most favourably
\nthe highest pins 3, 4, 5, you usually win the game (as a zero cannot be placed to destroy
\nthe line once the third pin is played). A more devious strategy involved
\n“faking” a winning line with let’s say your “one” and
\n“two” pin, forcing the other players to play a zero or something else to stop
\nyou from winning, then play another “real” line somewhere else. Of course the
\nsmall board size doesn’t exactly make this “Go” or “Chess”, but
\nthen this is a relatively light-hearted strategy game that can easily be played in under
\n10 minutes (and explained in 1 minute), so it works amazingly well as a quick filler. A
\nvariant (which we didn’t try) even involves betting on the outcome (so it becomes
\nless important if you manage a good line or not) and collecting betting chips, so if you
\nsee these game somewhere you might like to give it a try: It isn’t half bad!<\/p>\n

Westpark-score: 6.25<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Mausen\"\/<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Designer<\/td>\nDetlef Wendt<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Publisher<\/td>\nAbacus
\nSpiele<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
released<\/td>\n2004<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Players<\/td>\n3 – 6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Playing Time<\/td>\n15+ minutes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Mausen<\/a><\/h2>\n

A “simultaneous” trick-taking game with a twist – none, some or all cards
\nplayed might win a trick, and none, some or all cards played in a trick might stay on the
\ntable for the next round.<\/p>\n

How does it work? Each player gets 4 suits: Elephant, dog, cat and mouse, numbered 1-4
\nrespectively. Each player plays a card face down, then they are simultaneously revealed.
\nNow the highest Elephant played takes all dogs on the table (including other dogs played
\nfor the trick) as a trick, the highest dog takes all cats, the highest cat takes all
\nmice, and the highest mouse takes all … Elephants. Cards which haven’t been taken
\n(it is rare that all suits are played, as players usually compete for the highest
\nnumbered cards on the table) stay on the table for the next trick. If two players play
\nthe same number in a suit, they both cancel each other out, giving the trick to the next
\nlowest number played. After all cards have been played, each player counts the value of
\nall his cards and the highest score wins.<\/p>\n

Of course this game demands you to think around. If many cats are on the table before
\na trick, you might be tempted to play a high dog, of course. But the others might think
\nlikewise, and cancel your card out. Of course the chance that many high dogs will be
\nplayed means that even a low elephant card will profit from this. SOME dog might take the
\ncats, but you’ll get all the high dogs instead with your elephant, and that might be
\neven better than taking the cats! Of course you can never be sure that the other players
\nALSO think like you, and somebody might win the cats with a low dog, while several
\nelephants cancel each other out! Perhaps you should try mice?<\/p>\n

So this is mostly a guessing game, not really a tactical card game. You might try to
\nspare your high cards, but if all players do likewise you won’t profit from it. A
\ndistinct strategy is difficult to formulate, it all depends on how well you can read the
\nminds of your fellow players, which in the end comes down to pure luck.<\/p>\n

Here is “my” strategy that might or might not work for you (it will
\ndefinitely NOT work if all players use it)<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Always play the lowest card available in your hand of the suit two levels higher of
    \nthe suit most dominant on the table.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  2. If you would deplete a suit, switch to the suit one level closer to the suit most
    \ndominant on the table.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  3. If you would deplete that suit as well, choose any other suit that will not be
    \ndepleted.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  4. Always save your highest cards for the last rounds.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To give you an example: on the table are a “3” and a “4” dog card,
    \nand a “4” mouse card. Dog is the highest suit on the table, therefore you would
    \nplay the lowest MOUSE card (as elephants chase dogs, and elephants are chased by mice) in
    \nyour hand.<\/p>\n

    Explanation: 5 minutes maximum<\/p>\n

    1 round of play: 15 minutes maximum<\/p>\n

    Westpark-Score: 5.25<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Die verflixte “0” Guenther of our Westpark Gamers is always one who likes to bring along a rare German game. “Die verflixte 0” is one of these hard to find games, produced by a small Munich based game company which is now defunct. This is a game for up to 4 players, each of which … Die
    \nverflixte “0”<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":8,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}