All Mine! Deep Dive
What the Community Thinks About All Mine!
Board game reviewers have embraced All Mine! as a fresh take on trick-taking that brings strategic depth to a light package. The consensus centers on what makes it distinct: the game asks you to make predictions about your own success before the cards are even played. Rather than simply winning tricks, you're wagering that you'll collect the most cards of one treasure type and the least of another, then playing out the tricks to see if your foresight was accurate.
The Dice Tower's Tom Vassel rated it 7 out of 10, highlighting the bright, colorful cards and interesting mechanics that set it apart from the endless stream of trick-taking games flooding the market. Rolling Dice and Taking Names noted that while trick-taking is everywhere right now, All Mine! merits attention if you've been enjoying the genre. Even Capstone Games reviewers on The Dice Tower expressed surprise that the publisher would release a trick-taker, then acknowledged it's a neat game worth checking out. The community view: this is Capstone doing something unexpected and doing it well.
Core Mechanics That Define All Mine!
Prediction and Bidding
The heart of All Mine! is its prediction system. Before tricks are played, you commit to which treasure type (suit) you believe you will collect the most cards of, and which you'll collect the least. Here's the elegance: you're not trying to beat other players at collecting these treasures, only to accurately forecast your own distribution. Capstone Games designed the game so that collecting a clear majority of your predicted suit awards five points, while a tie (collecting the same number of two suits) earns three points. Guess wrong, and you score nothing for that prediction.
This inverts traditional trick-taking psychology. The information landscape shifts dramatically because everyone can see the suits in their opponents' hands by examining card backs, though the specific values remain hidden. This visibility lets you make informed predictions about what treasures might come your way and what the other players likely hold, creating a puzzle-like strategic layer where observation and deduction matter as much as card play.
Dynamic Suit Hierarchy and Super Trumps
At the start of each round, Capstone established a shifting hierarchy of the four treasure types (gems, gold, mushrooms, dragon eggs) plus four super trump cards that beat everything else. The power of each suit cascades in order, but certain cards within each suit are elevated to super trump status. For instance, a super trump card might be the two of mushrooms, making it the single most powerful card you can play despite its low numerical value. This means a two of mushrooms beats a ten of gold, because the super trump suit hierarchy overrides face value.
The hierarchy changes each round, keeping the game fresh and forcing players to recalibrate their predictions. You must lead a suit if you hold it, and if everyone plays the same suit, the highest card wins unless someone drops a super trump, which automatically takes the trick. This mechanic rewards both strategic prediction before play begins and tactical play during tricks, since knowing which suits are dominant informs whether you should use high cards early or hold them in reserve.
The All Mine! Experience
A Puzzle of Foresight
Reviewers described the experience as sitting at the table with a small puzzle in your hands. Before you play a single card, you're analyzing probabilities: how many gems do you see in the cards laid face-down before you? What suits fill other players' hands based on the card backs you've glimpsed? What combinations of super trumps and suit hierarchy will emerge? This pre-game foresight phase creates tension and engagement that lingers throughout play. Players constantly weigh whether their initial prediction is holding up or whether they misread the situation. You're not just playing tricks; you're testing a hypothesis about your own luck and skill at reading the room.
Light, Brisk, Colorful
The game plays in roughly 30 minutes with three to four players, making it an ideal complement to longer heavier games or a complete evening's entertainment. The cards are visually bright and colorful, immediately signaling that this is a light, accessible game despite its strategic bones. The physicality is satisfying: card play flows quickly, tricks resolve cleanly, and rounds repeat with enough novelty from the shifting hierarchy to keep the game engaging across multiple plays. The treasure trove mechanic adds a small twist where the winner of each trick selects a treasure card from a shared pool, introducing an element of deliberate choice in what you collect and a bit of take-that when you grab cards others might have wanted.
What Makes All Mine! Stand Out
A Fresh Spin on a Crowded Genre
The trick-taking revival has flooded the market with games that remix the core mechanic. All Mine! stands apart because its predictions don't depend on competing directly with opponents. You're not trying to prevent them from scoring; you're trying to accurately forecast what will happen to your own hand. This self-focused prediction model removes a layer of interpersonal combat while adding a layer of self-knowledge and observation. Reviewers noted that Capstone Games, not typically associated with trick-taking, brought this game to the US market as a re-implementation of Scharfe Schotten, a cult favorite in Germany. The fact that a publisher known for other game types is willing to release a trick-taker suggests they believed they had something fresh to contribute, and community feedback confirms they do.
Information Design That Rewards Attention
The game's transparency about card backs creates an elegantly asymmetric information state. You know which suits your opponents hold, but not the values. This keeps decision-making sharp throughout: every card reveal changes what you infer about their hands and how your predictions are tracking. The super trumps and hierarchy add texture without overwhelming new players. The mechanic is learnable in minutes, yet the strategic depth emerges from reading card backs accurately and adjusting your play based on your predictions. This balance between accessibility and strategic reward is rare in trick-taking games and contributes to the sense that All Mine! offers something different from the increasingly formulaic entries in the genre.
Potential Drawbacks
Prediction Clarity and Scoring Complexity
The scoring system ties predictions to majorities and ties, with bonus points for getting both predictions correct. While reviewers found the game interesting, the interaction between perfect predictions, imperfect predictions, and difference scoring can create moments of confusion during the first play. Teaching new players the distinction between getting the most (vs. tying for the most) and how the bonus delta points are calculated requires careful explanation. Once understood, the system is logical, but the initial learning curve is steeper than players might expect from a game that plays in 30 minutes.
Prediction Variance and the Luck Factor
Because your score depends on predictions you make before seeing any tricks played, variance in card distribution can swing outcomes. A player who lucks into the treasure distribution they predicted will score heavily, while another might score zero points on good plays if the cards simply didn't fall their way. This isn't randomness in card play; it's randomness in whether the game state matches your hypothesis. For players who dislike games where preparation can be upended by chance, this mechanic might feel frustrating rather than clever.
If You Enjoy All Mine!
Players who love All Mine! should explore other games in the trick-taking renaissance. Bottle Imp and Take Six (Six Nimmt!) both offer prediction mechanics within trick-taking frameworks, though with different pressure points. Bottle Imp layers auction and memory elements onto trick-taking, while Take Six focuses on set collection amid number sequencing. If All Mine!'s appeal lies specifically in its light weight and colorful presentation, the classic trick-taking games Scharfe Schotten (the original) and other quick card games offer similar brain-burn-for-time ratios.
For players seeking more prediction-heavy gaming experiences, roll-and-write games and auction games reward similar forward-thinking skills. The satisfaction in All Mine! comes from accuracy of foresight; games like Cascadia or similar puzzle-light games provide that same "did I read the situation correctly?" reward loop.
What Reviewers Are Saying
"You're trying to bid at the beginning of the round which suits you think you'll win the most tricks of and which suits you think you'll win the least tricks of. It doesn't matter how many you actually win. You just want to know the most and the least. Everybody can see the suits that people are holding in their hand."
— Grant Lyon
"At the start of each round, players will predict which types of treasure they will have the most of and which they'll have the least of. And there are four suits of cards. There's a hierarchy of cards established, and the four super trump cards are created. These will be shown on the mine carts, and the suit cards shown will be the most powerful cards in the game."
— The Brothers Murph
"This is a neat game. You should check it out. There's the usual suspect companies that put out a bunch of trick-taking games. I don't think people are expecting one from Capstone, but this is a neat game."
— Zee Garcia, The Dice Tower