inconsequential ruminations

At the end of the evening, we are often left with the same three guys. We want to play something deep, but something that we know the rules to already, so I have been looking for a deep three-player card game with lots of replayability.

Ninety-Nine is good, but feels too much like Oh Hell, which I have played to death. I was keen to try Sticheln, but it lacks replayability. David and Goliath and Drahtseilakt are too simple and luck dependent.

I originally heard about Cosmic Eidex at Spotlight on Games. Rick Heli rates it as one of his favourite games. I remembered it as a game with a reputation for depth, while being designed exclusively for three. Once our games night fell into the pattern of three guys left at the end, I naturally gravitated towards it. Another attraction is that Urs Hostettler, who also created Tichu, which is my current favourite four-player card game, designed it.

Cosmic Eidex is based on the Swiss game, Jass. Pagat categorises Jass as a point-trick ace-ten trick-taking card game, meaning that the players count the values of cards won, rather than the number of tricks, and the ace and ten are particularly valuable. There are 36 cards with four suits, from ace to six. The cards are vividly illustrated with a different picture for every card. Unfortunately, sometimes the card indices are difficult to read, but this does not impact play too much.

The rules and scoring are complex, there is no way you could play this without a reference card, but once you start playing the shape of the game becomes clear and it runs smoothly. The core of the game is simply three-player trick taking with trumps, but there are serpentine twists:

1. Sometimes hands are played with no trumps, either with standard card ranking or reversed card ranking (six high, ace low).
2. Two victory points are available per hand. One for the player with the most points, one for the player with the least – unless one player goes above 100 points (157 available), in which case both players with less get a point each. If a player wins all tricks, they get both points.
3. Before each hand, all players draw a random card from the deck. Every card in the deck has its own special power and players can use that power in the hand.

The victory point scheme is fun, as it makes the game less about having good cards, but more about watching what the other player are doing and adapting your game accordingly.

The card powers make this game. You never really know how a hand will go and every hand brings uncommon fresh interactions between card powers. We found no real conflicts between the powers, so this game must have been meticulously playtested.

The combination of the card powers and the illustrated cards gives this game colour, variety and replayability. The rules are confusing at first, but it is easy to play with the player aids on the geek. I highly recommend this if you enjoy Tichu or Mü. A while ago, I played Schnäppchen Jagd, which I had been led to believe was a fantastic three-player game. We did not enjoy it and I believe Cosmic Eidex deserves the plaudits far more.

Skat might be a worthwhile three-player card game to explore in the future, but I will have lots of plays of Cosmic Eidex before then.