Objective of the Game
The objective of Karnöffel is to use the trump cards cleverly and fend off opponents' attacks to collect points and ultimately win the game by reaching a set score first.
Setup
- Number of Players: 4-5 players
- Deck: A traditional German card game pack with 48 cards, consisting of four suits (each with 12 cards).
Gameplay
- Dealer: A player is chosen to shuffle and deal the cards. The dealer rotates with each round.
- Dealing Cards: Each player initially receives three cards, and one card is turned face up. This face-up card determines the trump suit. Then each player receives an additional two cards, totaling five cards.
- Trump Suit Determination: The suit of the face-up card becomes the trump suit for the round. Apart from determining the trump suit, there is a predetermined rank order of cards which is different in the trump suit than in the other suits. Traditionally, trump-rank goes from: Seven (Karnöffel), Six (elder man), Five (young man) and others by rank order.
Turn Order and Flow
The game is played in tricks, similar to Bridge or Skat, with the goal of winning tricks:
- First Trick: The player to the left of the dealer leads by playing a card of their choice. The other players must play a card of the same suit if they have one. If they do not have one, they can discard any card.
- Trump Cards: Any trump card beats any card from a different suit regardless of rank. Within the trump suit, a specific rank order is followed.
- Winning the Trick: The trick is won by the highest trump card played, or if no trump was played, by the highest card of the suit that was led. The player who wins the trick leads the next.
Scoring
- Tricks count for points tallied at the end of each round. A round ends when all players have played their cards.
- Typically, play continues until a player or team reaches a set number of points, for example, 16 points.
Strategic Considerations
- Card Holding: Consider when to play a trump card to secure pivotal tricks without wasting them.
- Read Opponents: Track the cards played by opponents to adjust strategies.
Good luck, and most importantly: Enjoy playing Karnöffel!
