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- <\/a>How to win Sticheln<\/a><\/b>
\n![\"Sticheln](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen\/sticheln_t.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSome tips for card management by Moritz Eggert<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cSticheln\u201d is a simple but strangely addictive trick-taking card game. The
\nspecial trait of this game is that ALL card suits other than the one played are trumps,
\nthe highest valued trump will win the trick. Another, even more important trait is that
\neach player takes one of his cards (all players do this at the same time, secretly) and
\ndeclares this suit his \u201cpain\u201d colour. This means that all tricks that include
\ncards of his pain colour taken as a trick during the game count as negative point values
\n(in the value of the card, so a \u201cpain\u201d 14 will hurt you a lot! And yes, of
\ncourse there can be several of your pain cards in the trick!). The cards of other suits
\nin a trick count as only 1 positive point, regardless of the card value, so
\navoiding<\/b> tricks is the main issue here.<\/p>\nIt will be clear to everyone that earning negative points will be easier than making
\npositive points, so good card management and well-executed play make the day in this
\n\u201cmore-difficult-than-it-sounds\u201d game…<\/p>\nHere are some approved strategic tips:<\/p>\n
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- Selecting your pain-colour<\/u>\n
The rules state correctly that it is not good to select a \u201cshort\u201d colour
\nas your pain colour. I\u2019d say that 3 cards is the absolute minimum for your pain
\ncolour. Of course you want to take a suit that is rich in low<\/b> cards (the lowest
\ncard you play at the beginning as the \u201cpain\u201d card will already count in
\nnegative points, so you don\u2019t want to select a set that has, say, a \u201c5\u201d
\nas the lowest card). And you DO want to have your pain colour available throughout the
\ngame. A mistake that players commonly do is getting rid of your pain cards as quickly as
\npossible. This will leave you in dire straits if your fellow players suddenly decide to
\nplay a round consisting only of your pain suit, where even the meekest card of another
\nsuit will take the trick with the \u201calways trump\u201d rule. You want to have a
\nlower card of your pain colour available in this case to \u201cundercut\u201d the suit,
\ndon\u2019t you think?<\/p>\nTake the longest<\/u> possible suit that has the lowest<\/u> possible cards in
\naverage. One or two high cards won\u2019t hurt you, you might just be able to get away
\neven with a \u201c14\u201d late in the game, if you play carefully.\u00a0<\/p>\nIf the suit is too long, you might end up being the only one with that particilar pain
\nsuit, and that is not always good. Still, it has it\u2019s advantages, as the other
\nplayers might quickly use up your high pain suit cards to get tricks. I think it is good
\nto have the knowledge of at least one high card in your pain suit early on, this will
\nmake your end game easier (see below).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n - Knowing your (pain) suit<\/u>\n
And we don\u2019t mean your tailor…Know your suit \u2013 at ALL costs. Memorize
\nall the cards that are missing, deducted from the info you have on your own pain cards.
\nYou might make a mental note like: \u201cok, I know 2,3,4,6,9,11,13 of my pain suit are
\nstill in the game\u201d. If the \u201c2\u201d is played, scratch it, and memorize the
\nrest, again! Always momorize which cards are still left. Constantly know which cards
\nof your pain suit are still in the game!<\/b><\/p>\nI leave it to you to devise your own memory tricks to achieve this, but believe me,
\nknowing the cards left exactly<\/b> will improve your game 100%. Why? See \u201cThe
\nend game\u201d below….<\/p>\nAnd now to the tactics:<\/p>\n
If you have to play your pain card early in the game<\/u><\/p>\n
So your first, huh? What card do you play? If you have a long suit of your pain card,
\nyou might want to get rid of some (the constant challenge in \u201cSticheln\u201d is:
\nyou never want to have too many pain cards, but also not too few). It is clear that you
\nMUST play a low card, to avoid other players forcing awful pain cards on you immediately
\n(and believe me, they will have them readily available in abundance in the first rounds).
\nThe highest value you can play depends on the number of players. With 4 players you
\nshould play a \u201c2\u201d maximum, for example. A \u201c3\u201d might be dangerous
\nalready (imagine the other players playing a 1 and a 2 plus a zero, you will end up with
\nminus 2 points!).\u00a0 Of course your possibilities will improve when you know exactly
\nwhat cards are left of your pain suit. 5,4,3,1,0 are gone? Of course you can play a 6
\nthen!<\/p>\nI have seen disastrous plays in which the players thought: hey, the chances are really
\nLOW that the others will play this and that card, so I can get away with playing this and
\nthat card….DON\u2019T! Murphy\u2019s Law applies here throughout: always assume the
\nworst can happen and make the safest play possible!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n - The early game<\/u>\n
Again, again, and again: Always make the safest play possible!<\/b> Make the play
\nthat has the least chance of earning you pain cards. You will most likely always have
\nthis choice. The game is not won by many tricks, but by one or two safe tricks during the
\nend of the game (and the occasional \u201cRound End\u201d trick taken by the player who
\ncomes last in the round, when one can fully judge what cards one will get and how).
\nFollow this rule until you know that all the pain cards of your suit are gone or in your
\nhand, period. If a trick comes along that is absolutely safe to take, take it of course,
\nbut with the least effort possible. Wait, wait, wait, and the win will be yours. You
\nmight even push this end game in \u201cforcing\u201d a pain suit play<\/u>. For example:
\nyou play an 8 in your pain suit, and you know the only lower cards left in your pain suit
\nare 6 and 4. The other players will happily play these cards in an attempt to give you
\nnegative points, but one of them (if you play with at least 3 other players) will just
\nHAVE to play the trump card and gain the trick. Voil\u00e0 \u2013 problem solved. Now you
\nwill dominate!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- What card do I play?<\/u>\n
Follow these guidelines:<\/p>\n
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you want to have as many suits available as possible<\/b>, to be always able to
\n\u201cundercut\u201d and avoid taking tricks you don\u2019t want. Having as many suits
\nas possible in your hand means you can always avoid the nasty trick by playing the suit
\nof the first played card. So play all suits equally, always keeping them equally
\ndistributed in your hand. If you have only two cards left in a suit, play the higher card
\n\u2013 just to be on the safe side. Even if you don\u2019t take a single trick in the
\ngame, you will be on the winning side with 0 victory points, especially if you play a
\nseries of games.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- \n
play<\/b> the middle card<\/b> of a suit, after deciding which suit to play. Why?
\nYou win the game by playing either low cards (avoiding tricks), or high cards (taking
\ntricks when it\u2019s safe). So you want high and low cards, not medium cards.
\nTherefore, if you have a 5, a 7, and an 11 to play, play the 7. Always follow this rule
\nand you will win the end game.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- \n
always keep some cards of your pain suit for the end game<\/b>. Of course the
\ndifference with the pain suit is that you don\u2019t want to keep the high cards, so if
\nyou have many of them, get rid of them early on. But the high cards can be handy in
\nplaying destructively (if another player has the same pain suit), so this is not always a
\nclear decision. But with the pain suit, you want to have only low cards in the end game.
\nWhy is it not dangerous to have pain cards left at the end of the game? It is extremely
\nunlikely that the last tricks played will only contain one suit, because it would involve
\na mutual secret pact by all players to reserve only one and only this one suit for the
\nend game. Extremely unlikely….Chances are that many colours will be depleted, and
\ntherefore cannot be played by everybody anymore. I could write a long statistical essay
\non this, but I guess you can trust me that normal stochastic laws apply. If you start a
\nround, and you know your trick suit is depleted, you can always play any<\/b> card of
\nyour pain suit, even the highest ones This is usually the best way to get rid of them,
\nespecially when you can \u201cforce\u201d a play (see above). The other players will
\nnot<\/b> keep track of your pain suit as well as you do, so they will always try in
\nvain to force their pain cards on you, when you smugly know that they can\u2019t hurt
\nyou in fact because of the value of the card you played (=\u201dhaha, there are only 2
\nlower cards than this left, and you have<\/b> to play the trump card, if you want it or
\nnot because you are three<\/b> other players…\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n- When to begin the end game?<\/u>\n
The perfect end game begins with you having only high cards in many different suits
\nwith your pain suit either completely depleted or in your hand. Now you try to take
\nevery<\/b> trick possible. When you then begin a round, your own pain suit cards, now
\nsafe, come in handy, as taking a trick is easier when you react, not when you begin a
\nround. So switch: Gain a trick, let somebody else take the next trick, gain a trick
\nagain. 1 or 2 tricks will suffice \u2013 you\u2019ll win!<\/p>\nOf course there is rarely a perfect end game with only high and low cards, but you
\ncan, as described already, force the end game for you with playing your pain suit cards
\ntauntingly. If there is still a \u201c15\u201d out there in your pain suit, don\u2019t
\nfret. You can go pretty high in attempting a trick then, just be carefully not to play a
\n\u201c15\u201d card yourself, so the pain \u201c15\u201d can be used to undercut your
\nown trick.<\/p>\nFull knowledge of the depletion of your pain suit is, as you can imagine, absolute
\nparamount, so I state it again here.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- Make life hard for other players<\/u>\n
If you can give negative points to any<\/b> player \u2013 do it! Even if you waste
\ncards you think are valuable later on. Always go for maximum damage, give them the
\nhighest card in their pain suit you have! The only difference is when you\u2019re the
\nlast one to play a card and could gain a trick with only positive points for you. The
\nother players might groan when you foil their plans, but taking four positive points for
\nyourself means giving ALL the other players negative 4 points (in comparison to you), so
\nthat\u2019s ok.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
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- What card do I play?<\/u>\n
- Selecting your pain-colour<\/u>\n