Volltreffer ~ Taylor's Trick-Taking Table

[@Phildiculous]

Maybe 3 players doesn't work as well but I found this to be somewhat miserable. The game lasted 2 hands, both times I had the largest total value in my hand and both times I only managed to take 1 trick despite this. Because there are so many suits and you're incentivized to have all of them, most people are bound to only have 1 card in several suits so it's very likely that unless you took the literal highest card offered of one suit, you'll play a high card of that suit, lose the trick to someone who had a higher card, and then your other high card(s) in that suit are irrelevant because the other player(s) are probably out of that suit and can play trump now. Having 5 suits and 8 card hands just felt really weird... Also with 3 players you see so little of the deck that's incredibly easy to not even be able to make a meld which happened multiple times despite being something that all of us were very invested in. I want to try it again because I know it's well loved and maybe I missed a rule or something but it really felt like it was easy to see exactly what was making it feel like a really poorly balanced game. I'm sure I'm wrong and we just had a bad play of it but man, did it turn me off.

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

Hey Phil, thanks so much for your comment!! I think all of your points are totally valid and I don't think you got any rules wrong because those are definite cons of the game. I do think those are accentuated at 3 and playing with 4 fixes some of that, but not totally. The 8 card hand is limiting, but I've seen certain players buck the trend of getting all 5 suits and still get good points by paying a lot for the highest cards always. I'd agree that the melding isn't the best for multiples and might be a bit of a red herring in terms of how often it really happens. Most of the time it's all-colour points, and lowest points. At 4, I've seen more of that multiple melds because the deck is through more, but not too high. I'm with you in that the game is probably better with just 4 suits, but everything else the same. That'd be an interesting variant to try. Overall, sorry that this game fell flat! I'll pin your comment because you're totally on it and I think this needs to be highlighted. I have a tendency to not dive too deep into what I don't like in a game, but I should probably do a more balanced and nuanced take moving forward to make sure issues like these are equally shown. Thanks a ton, Phil!!

[@Phildiculous]

@@ClaudeAndTaylor I was somewhat keen on trying it again with 4 suits as well. Having the jackpot 25 points for getting a meld of 5 feels like it would only ever happen due to sheer luck so removing that possibility and just giving out points for 3 and 4 of a kind seems like it would be fine. I'll give it a try next time I play. :) Love your videos!

[@Rikolus8383]

I played last night with our group last night, when one of the players brought the Japanese version. We were 4 player and I thought it was a clever interesting card drafter / trick-taker. Game lasted 3 rounds about 1/2 hour and was enjoyable. I will try to find a copy.

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

Oh wonderful to hear it went well, Rikolus!! Hope you find a nice copy and get even more great plays out of it! Cheeers!!

[@TheExtremSaft]

Greetings from Germany! :) Most of the games you cover end up on my wishlist, so thanks for the recommendations. I'm glad I found this channel, because I think trick-taking and other smaller card games are way underappreciated. Those nights with a simple card game and a couple of beers are my favorite in all of board gaming. I hope your channel will continue to grow! Fun fact: German words are only long because we combine noun phrases into one word. So "card game" becomes "cardgame", or rather "Karten Spiel" becomes "Kartenspiel". Beste Grüße, lass es dir gut gehen! PS: "Geschlichkeitsspiel" translates to "dexterity game". :)

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

Hey TheExtremSaft 😃👋 Thanks so much for your extremely kind words and fun fact!! Nights of drinks and cards are perhaps my favourite ever and I'm so smitten by your extremely kind comment!😁 And that fact is genuinely interesting and enlightening! It's made clear many German language experiences I've ha, so thanks! If it's ok with you, I want to boost this in a future video (not the next, but after), if that's ok with you. Nochmals vielen Dank für die netten Worte und den Prost auf weitere Kartenspiele!😁🙌

[@TheExtremSaft]

@@ClaudeAndTaylor Of course you can! :)

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

@@TheExtremSaft Thanks so much!😁😁

[@portlandgamecollective7947]

This game is v v v v v v v v v v v good. Prob one of my favorite trick taking concepts... amazing mechanics and the hand building is so great.

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

This person gets it 😎😎😎

[@LudwigAustin]

My fave "weird" TTaking game of all time!!!

[@LudwigAustin]

And virtually EVERYONE else I have played it with detests it! Lol

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

I've totally found it's very hit or niss over here too! I think it's because the game can really be all over the place with its gameplay ha!

[@brazillb2]

That's a lot to get to the trick taking but I do like the idea of building your own hand. I love card games because they are so fast to get going. In your plays, did you feel like that drafting was enjoyable and worth the time before getting to the actual card playing?

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

That's a great point, the drafting is really so long that you have to enjoy that part for this to work. The trick taking is a bit secondary

[@DanielVieu]

But like, how did you even find the reprint?

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

Hey Daniel, sorry for the delay! The reprint is a bit tough to track down and I've known people who just remake the game with similar decks, like voodoo prince or marshmellow test. But if you were hoping to get the reprint specifically, it's sadly out of print the two places I usually go: shop.jellyjellycafe.com/products/detail/1619 and bodoge.hoobby.net/market/items/2568. I'd possibly keep an eye out there, as sometimes they get stock again, but it's somewhat rare. I use Big in Japan forwarding to access games from those sites. Hope that helps and sorry it's such a fraught situation!

[@MichaelZipkin]

This game looks like so much fun, I just wish I could find the Japanese version you showed because I love the aesthetic and theme. :)

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

Hey Michael! Ah, I feel so bad that I keep covering hard to get games, but I do hope you find it someday!!🤞🤞