Cost: $18 From: FX Schmid Players: 3-5 Playing Time: 30 minutes Type of game: Card Complexity: 3 Skill level: 5 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 3.2, Spring 1995
Can this man do no wrong? Reiner Knizia struck gold (if not the Spiel des Jahres) with Modern Art a couple of years ago. I'm also a fan of Quo Vadis?, another Knizia design. Lately the man seems to be churning out a stream of successes at a rate which would make even Stephen King jealous. A simpler game than either of the above, Attacke is yet another winner.
All you get is a special deck of cards and a bunch of chips in five colors. The first player to collect a chip of each color is the victor. The deck consists of cards in the same five colors, ranging in value from two to seven. Players are dealt some cards and then the dealer plays one of them, drawing another to replace it.
The next player must either stay in the round or drop out. If the latter, he simply draws a card from the deck and announces that he's dropping out— his turn is skipped for the rest of the round. To stay in, the player must beat the value the dealer played. The easiest way to do so is to play a higher card of the same color. Alternatively, one might play two or more cards of that color which, together, total more than the dealer's card. Either way, you draw exactly one card after playing yours, regardless of how many cards you play.
When play comes back around to someone who played cards on the last pass, that player must beat the current high total in order to stay in the round. To do so, he must play cards of the appropriate color which, combined with the cards already in front of him, gives him a higher total. If he can't, he drops out and draws a consolation card.
Once per round, a player may play any number of cards (of any colors) face-down. Each of these cards adds one point to his total. As usual, he draws only one to replace them.
The winner of the round collects a token of the same color as the cards from that round and then starts the next round.
Wild cards add a little zest to the proceedings. These light blue cards can be played in any round and add either seven or ten points to a player's total. The tens carry a couple of caveats. First, you can only play one of them per round. Second, playing one ups the stakes. If a player who uses a ten loses the round, he must forfeit one of his chips (if he doesn't have any chips, he's off the hook).
That's pretty much it. A remarkably simple game, but with a surprising amount of charm. For some reason, everyone always seems to forget to draw a card after playing one, perhaps because we're so used to drawing a card before playing.
There's fairly little strategy to be found here. Mostly, it comes down to evaluating whether or not you can win a round. If you can't, it pays to drop out and let other players exhaust their supply of that color, letting you win an easy chip later. Of course, if you already have, say, a green chip, staying in a green round allows you to convert your green cards into (hopefully) more useful ones.
Sure, the luck of the draw plays a large role. If you don't draw the color you need, there's not a heck of a lot you can do about it. But Attacke takes under a half hour to play, and it's a very pleasant half hour. Light fare indeed, but worthwhile nonetheless.