Mu (first impressions)
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to play Mu, a trick-taking card game that I picked up a couple of months ago. It seems to take elements from a few different places, and I don't think we exactly plumbed the depths of either the strategy or the tactics, but it was an interesting game.
The deck is 60 cards: five suits each of 0-9, with two 1s and two 7s in each suit. Each rank is also worth a certain number of "points", a la Sheepshead: 1 and 9 are worth no points, 6 and 7 are worth two, and everything else is worth one point. Each hand resolves into two teams, with the high bidder (the "chief") and partner trying to take a certain number of points, while the rest of the players (from two to four, depending on whether the game is four-, five-, or six-handed) attempt to stop them.
The play of each hand is standard trick-taking fare: the chief begins play, and the highest card played of the suit led wins the trick unless a trump is played (in which case the highest trump played wins). Players must follow suit if able.
The interesting and different part of the game is in the bidding: the entire deck is dealt out, and then beginning with the player left of the dealer (or possibly the dealer; don't recall), players may bid by laying one or more of their cards face up on the table. Bids may be at most one card more than the current high bid, but need not exceed the current high bid. The auction ends when all players pass in turn. In the event that there is no high bid, all tied players gain five points per card bid, except the player who most recently increased his or her bid to the high amount, who loses points instead (the rules phrase this as "all players gain 5/card, and the latecomer loses 10/card", which I take to mean that the latecomer loses a net 5/card, but I'm not sure about this). None of us were clear on when it would be good not to break the stalemate....
In the case where there is a high bid, the high bidder is the chief, and the second-high bidder becomes the "vice" (for purposes of vice selection, the ranks of the bid cards break ties in much the same way that one might evaluate a high-card poker hand; if the second-highest bids are still tied, there is no vice). The vice (if any), chooses a trump by naming either a rank or a suit of one of the bid cards that he or she has showing. Then the chief names the "major trump" in a similar fashion, or may elect to declare "no trump", in which case only the vice's trump exists. All trumps become part of one new trump suit, losing whatever suit they may appear to have (like Jacks and Queens in Sheepshead), with any major trumps outranking any minor ones. If the vice chooses a color and the chief a rank, or vice versa, there will also be a "double trump", which is the highest card (or two, if the rank is 1 or 7) in the hand. Following the declaration of trumps, the chief (publicly) chooses one of the non-vice players as partner, and play begins. Cards bid remain on the table until played.
At the end of a hand, each player scores card points that they have taken individually, and then the chief's contract is evaluated. If it succeeded, chief and partner gain a point bonus based on the size of the bid and the size of the set of trump selected by the chief (color > 1 or 7 > other rank > no trump). If it failed, all opponents gain a bonus based on how far off the chief's bid was, and the chief (but not partner) loses twice that amount.
We didn't see any bids of more than five (in a four-player game), which only amounted to a requirement to take 38 of the 60 points in the deck. I don't think I was bidding aggressively enough, as I was never chief. Perhaps not coincidentally, I finished last. Hand evaluation is not easy, and I got thrown for a loop at least once by expecting all of a certain rank to be gone after four of them had hit the table. Non-trump suits in the four-handed game aren't quite as worthless as they are in Sheepshead (where I've seen them referred to as "fail suits"), but neither do they seem as useful as in Bridge.
The deck is 60 cards: five suits each of 0-9, with two 1s and two 7s in each suit. Each rank is also worth a certain number of "points", a la Sheepshead: 1 and 9 are worth no points, 6 and 7 are worth two, and everything else is worth one point. Each hand resolves into two teams, with the high bidder (the "chief") and partner trying to take a certain number of points, while the rest of the players (from two to four, depending on whether the game is four-, five-, or six-handed) attempt to stop them.
The play of each hand is standard trick-taking fare: the chief begins play, and the highest card played of the suit led wins the trick unless a trump is played (in which case the highest trump played wins). Players must follow suit if able.
The interesting and different part of the game is in the bidding: the entire deck is dealt out, and then beginning with the player left of the dealer (or possibly the dealer; don't recall), players may bid by laying one or more of their cards face up on the table. Bids may be at most one card more than the current high bid, but need not exceed the current high bid. The auction ends when all players pass in turn. In the event that there is no high bid, all tied players gain five points per card bid, except the player who most recently increased his or her bid to the high amount, who loses points instead (the rules phrase this as "all players gain 5/card, and the latecomer loses 10/card", which I take to mean that the latecomer loses a net 5/card, but I'm not sure about this). None of us were clear on when it would be good not to break the stalemate....
In the case where there is a high bid, the high bidder is the chief, and the second-high bidder becomes the "vice" (for purposes of vice selection, the ranks of the bid cards break ties in much the same way that one might evaluate a high-card poker hand; if the second-highest bids are still tied, there is no vice). The vice (if any), chooses a trump by naming either a rank or a suit of one of the bid cards that he or she has showing. Then the chief names the "major trump" in a similar fashion, or may elect to declare "no trump", in which case only the vice's trump exists. All trumps become part of one new trump suit, losing whatever suit they may appear to have (like Jacks and Queens in Sheepshead), with any major trumps outranking any minor ones. If the vice chooses a color and the chief a rank, or vice versa, there will also be a "double trump", which is the highest card (or two, if the rank is 1 or 7) in the hand. Following the declaration of trumps, the chief (publicly) chooses one of the non-vice players as partner, and play begins. Cards bid remain on the table until played.
At the end of a hand, each player scores card points that they have taken individually, and then the chief's contract is evaluated. If it succeeded, chief and partner gain a point bonus based on the size of the bid and the size of the set of trump selected by the chief (color > 1 or 7 > other rank > no trump). If it failed, all opponents gain a bonus based on how far off the chief's bid was, and the chief (but not partner) loses twice that amount.
We didn't see any bids of more than five (in a four-player game), which only amounted to a requirement to take 38 of the 60 points in the deck. I don't think I was bidding aggressively enough, as I was never chief. Perhaps not coincidentally, I finished last. Hand evaluation is not easy, and I got thrown for a loop at least once by expecting all of a certain rank to be gone after four of them had hit the table. Non-trump suits in the four-handed game aren't quite as worthless as they are in Sheepshead (where I've seen them referred to as "fail suits"), but neither do they seem as useful as in Bridge.