Top 10 Trick Taking Games

0:00 Hello everyone. This is Cinema

0:02 and this is Johannes

0:04 and you're watching Board Gaming Ramblings

0:06 and today we are taking a look at our top 10 trick taking games. Yes.

0:10 Yes.

0:10 Trick taking games. We've been playing a lot of trick taking games the last year around a year like a year plus. We got into heavy heavily into trick taking games into heavy trick.

0:21 Heavy trick taking games. And we are we played somewhere between 80 and 100 trick taking games during the last year. And we are going to now talk about our top 10.

0:33 Yes, we've been excited for this for some time. Not because I think I have the best top 10 in the world, but uh because we've played many in such short amount of time and it's going to be exciting how we find them looking back and comparing them to each other. And also there's a lot of tricky games we haven't played obviously and a lot of the if there's something that's not on the list and you're feeling like oh haven't you played this one let us know. There might be some favorites that we have played and then our might not be on the list depending on how many times we played it and of course people have different tastes.

1:08 Yes.

1:08 So this is of course our personal top 10. As always we don't know each other's lists and if they end up being similar

1:18 that's how it is because I don't know I don't know this one. is probably might be less similar than others.

1:23 Do you want to guess crossovers?

1:24 No.

1:25 No. Okay.

1:26 Do you want to guess crossover?

1:27 I don't know. I'm just going to do it for fun. I'm going to guess out of 10 I'm guessing five crossovers.

1:34 Then I'm going to guess six just to be

1:38 cooler. Nice.

1:39 With that said, are you ready? Yeah.

1:41 Yes. So, if you don't know what a tricking game is, uh we're not going to tell you, but it is a secret card game where you play cards. There's a lead player. The first player was leading a card and then the other players most of the time have to follow that. If it's a must follow, there is also some which is must not follow and other rules here and there. But basically the basic trick taking is I play a card, everyone play a card. If they can't follow, they have to. The player who play the highest card in the lead color take it in wins the trick. That's like the base concept of trick taker. And then trick takers have taken it all different ways from small twists to big twists to breaking the the genre. It doesn't even have to be cards. No,

2:21 but usually there is.

2:22 It can also be water. [snorts]

2:24 What? No, it

2:25 I was thinking like zero to hero. You don't have cards.

2:28 That's true. I was thinking the water trick taking game that I'm designing.

2:32 You just get a 10 lit bucket of water.

2:34 And I'm playing this trick.

2:35 It's a legacy game. You can only play.

2:37 You can play it in the shower.

2:38 Yes. With that said, let's go into the list. Do you want to begin as always?

2:42 Yes. My number 10 is Case and Strife.

2:46 Okay.

2:47 Yeah. But it's been a long time since we since we played it. Yes.

2:50 But my my things that I like about this game is that you can play it with more people than usual in a trick taking game. This is up to six players and I think it works great at six players because you have this is a trick taking where you don't want to win tricks. What

3:07 um and the lead suit changes. So, let's say that one color is lead and then another player doesn't have that suit.

3:17 I think it's a may follow. I think you could play any color you I'm not I don't

3:22 uh but yes, if if another player then plays another color and that overtakes the majority of cards in the trick, that is suddenly the lead color and that will win the trick. So you try to outsmart your opponents by um for example play a color that lets another player that thought he wouldn't win win the trick and try to avoid trick taking tricks and I thought it worked great with I I don't remember if we played it with six or five but yes it was really fun.

3:55 I agree it's a great one. It's not my number 10. The greatest transition of all time. My number 10 is Seven Prophecies. Seven prophecies is a very interesting and and unique trick taking game where I look at my hand and many trick taking games have bidding in them. Seven prophecies I bid on how many basically I want to I'm going to play seven bits. They're going to be like am I going to be first, second, third or fourth in a four player game in each trick. And basically I want to win my seven prophecies the first.

4:28 So let's say I win a trick. I will then be able to remove a cube from the I'm going to win a trick column of the things I prophesized and then I I don't really want to win anymore if I only placed one and now I want to do the other things but I want to do it as fast as possible. So, let's say I had like two I'm going to win and I have a lot of bad cards. So, maybe I'm thinking like, okay, I'm always going to lose. And it's a very, it feels very strange the first time you play it, but after just one hand, I'm having like a feeling of, okay, so this card is highest in that color, probably going to win me a trick. This one, of course, things are going to happen and stuff like that in all trick taking games. So, because trick games have some luck, more luck than we are usually enjoying. So, it's an interesting thing. But yeah, I really really enjoy uh Seven Prophecies. Yeah, me too. Seven prophecies is great. Uh my number nine is not seven prophecies.

5:18 We're going to do it this way now. And my number nine is mustache actually. And this is quite a simple one, I would say. And you have um um um

5:30 you have cards. [snorts] Yes. And there's always like a set hierarchy between the cards. So there's not a changing suit, no uh Trump, but you have changing rules from round to round. So that makes it suddenly the first round is feeling widely different from the last round. And the rules are staying there. They're everlasting. No, that's not the word.

5:57 Not ever lost. Not like a legacy game, but

5:59 No, but the rules from the first round goes over to the second and it follows along. So at when you're playing the last bits over four rounds, you have a mult more sets of rules to

6:11 four uh four yes to abide by. But it's not it doesn't feel very complicated, but it feel

6:19 makes you think in a totally different way suddenly than you used to, which also makes uh changes between if it's good or bad with low cards, for example.

6:29 And also it's a team- based game. The only thing that we didn't like about it is that you randomly draw up points and it could be like, "Oh, you got money points, you got less points." I don't know what that why that's in there. But I agree. My number nine is a true player trick taking game. It's Lone Wolves.

6:44 And Lone Wolves is basically a trick taking arena majority game. You are playing out wolves in different areas. And it's not like you have to play a wolf in the same area. You can play another wolf and then there's something the cards turn around becomes lone wolves. there is trump that changes h and you're just trying to outmaneuver and outsmart your opponent because two-player trick taking games

7:08 have in the last few years become like kind of plentiful it I I don't think it was a thing like fox in the forest I think was when I played that and that we played like years ago I was like this is kind of weird it's a two-player trick taking game but now they're being more and more and lone wolves is one of the better ones I play

7:25 oh yes absolutely lone wolves it's it's weird because all the other things in the game makes it feel kind of not like a tricking game, but it's really good. And my number eight is Orum. And this is also a teambased trick taking game. And this is a must not follow. and you want to win the you're bidding for how many tricks you want to win and you want to win that exact number to get the most points with your team, but you're also at the same time trying to uh get the lowest card in the trick so that you will get a special gold card which will help you um

8:02 which is trump basically.

8:03 Yes. So which will help you win tricks later. So, this felt really interesting and fun because you're trying to play your um team player good. That that's not the

8:17 play your team player good.

8:19 You want to set your teammate up to be in a position where that person can either be like, "Boom, haha, I won the trick. Now we got to do what we wanted." Or be like, "Boom, I lost the trick and we get to do what we wanted."

8:34 Yes.

8:34 Yes.

8:35 Or something in between. Boom. We didn't get anything and didn't get to do what they wanted. You forgot that part.

8:40 Yes. And also the game end like the round ends if suddenly a player can't play any cards. So you want to try to anticipate when that's going to happen also. If you want the game to last or round to last longer, you might not have just one suit on your hand because probably suddenly you have to play that suit and there's already a suit like that in the trick and then the game is over or round is over.

9:06 But you can't choose the cards you have in your hand. So it's not like you can predict how long the round is going to last.

9:12 It's just you.

9:13 Yes. But if for example you played a blue and I have a lot of red cards. Oh, that way I need to get rid of the red cards and you have to play the one green that I have.

9:23 Sound like you were saying like you have to predict and if you have you don't want to have all the cards in your hand. It sounded kind of weird.

9:29 No, but you have to Yes. Be smart.

9:32 My number eight is going to be very fast because it is a

9:35 uh crossover.

9:35 Crossover. Yes. The first one. And it is a mustache. mustache is a it's a lighter one as we already said, but I really enjoyed the evolving play and also it's a team game, but it's a changing partnership. So, it's a random who you are on the team with each time and I really enjoyed how the different rules just change up the game and that was my number eight. So, back to you.

9:58 Back to me. My number seven is tricktakers. And this is a game where you're not on teams. You're you're fighting for yourself now, but you get to look at your cards and then you're basically choosing a character that has each character has a thing that they're good at or like score points for at the end of the trick. So, some, for example, want to win the least amount of tricks as possible. Some of them want to win a high amount and some have like a special setup that you do or uh something like that. And what I think is cool about this game is I can you can have a head of cards and be like, "Okay, I have a lot of low cards now. I'm probably not going to win a lot of tricks. I'm going to take that character." But I see then that you're going for another player power that has, for example, the ability to win if you have one with that character two times in a row. And now it's even more important for me maybe to stop you from winning. So a really cool um twist on a trick taking game.

11:09 It's a more complicated one for sure, but it's really good. Let's go from a very complicated one to a very simple one. My number seven is farmhand which came out this year. Uh and it is it's super quick. It's super fun. You can play it with almost anyone. That should be the tagline. It basically it's a card game. It's a trick taking game where you the other players see the color of your card on the back and they then know the range of those cards. Each round you will get a different amount of cards. So depending on number of players, but it's this is like one card each, two cards, three cards, four cards. And you bid on how many tricks. You count to three. everyone been how many tricks they think they're going to win. Then you play out the tricks and it's a must follow and if you win the amount, you will score points. If you not win the amount, if you win higher or lower, you will lose points.

11:54 And that's that's basically the whole game. And it's really really fun.

11:57 Yeah. And the the twist in this game is that if two players play the same value, they cancel each other [clears throat] out. So suddenly you didn't think you were going to win that with that one card that you had, and you won. So you didn't get the the the exact bid. So really fun one.

12:14 Yes. And quick.

12:15 Yes. And yes. My number six is Tango, which is a two-player trick taking game. And the interesting thing about this one is that you have basically two hands. You have one that is four cards face down and four cards face up on top of them. So when you play one of your hand cards, the your opponent doesn't know what that's going to be, but your opponents know half of your hand because they know the cards on the table. And if you've played one of the cards of the table, the other one underneath will flip up. So you always have like

12:52 four cards that you're available to play that your opponent knows and also your hand. And you're trying to basically predict what's going to happen. So I see that you have for example a high red card. So I presume that you will win that trick. I will try to make what I think will happen happen or avoid that.

13:13 And it's very interesting because you're playing two cards each each trick. So and it's a very very good two play. Another two player trick that my number six is a classic one that most people have played and it is Skull King.

13:26 Skull King is very interesting. It's a bit long, but it is very good. And it is basically you guys play one trick, then two tricks, three tricks, four tricks, five tricks, and you bid. There's some special rules here and there, but you're bidding on how many tricks you want to win out of those tricks, and you're scoring points or you'll lose a lot of points like I usually do, but it's like a clever one. There's different variants you can play. I enjoy this one quite a bit, and it's one of those again where it's the twist isn't that huge, but it's fun and easy to play with everyone. Skull King.

13:58 Yeah. And also it it it feels like the stakes are high because the variations of points can be so high. And also you're taking chances like I know that this is the best card but if you have a mermaid and when are you going to play your mermaid? Very cool.

14:14 When to play your mermaid? That's always a question movie.

14:18 My number five is Jackal and Hyde versus Scotland Yard. And this is also a twoplayer trick taking game which we had a lot of fun with when it came out. Yes, it is. Um, when it came out in 2023, I think. No. Yes. Something like that. Yeah, that that's true. So, we have maybe played trick games for two years, actually.

14:37 Yeah. But when we played it back then, we wasn't like, oh, we love trick taking games. Now, it's just like this is a cool game. And also, uh, we don't play that many co-op games, so it's cool that we like this one. Yes. This game has a uh third player that is the Scotland guard that you're trying to run away from. So, you want to play something that will win or lose you the trick. You don't want to win every trick. That's important because some tricks, if you have certain num numbers in them, make you move backwards instead, which you don't want. And you want to um make it so that whatever the Scotland Yard player, which is the dummy, um plays a dummy, you you will not be like thrown off by that. So, you're trying to

15:32 it's a little random because you don't know what's going to be there, but you're trying to make it so that it kind of doesn't matter.

15:41 You know a bit what's going to be there because you are placing some cards from your hand into that hand. So you do know a little bit and you know you have to play the high cards. So you're kind of trying to play around that and it's like mission based changes.

15:52 So every every game is going to be like a bit different. So you can play like a campaign with different kind of story differently things. Yes.

16:01 My number five is Jaclyn Hide versus Scotland Yarn. Perfect crossover. Crossover dance crossover. Yes. For all the reasons. It's a fantastic game. We also got to play Jackal versus Hide which like the first game of that and then Jackal and Hyde got to cooperate to win over Scotland Yard basically in the second game. Both are great but J versus Scotland Yard is a way better I would say.

16:26 I would say that favorite as well. My number four is also a crossover and that is farm hands.

16:33 Okay, that is a great farm hands.

16:35 For farm hands farm I will try to look. It was the wrong way. I couldn't see it. I like it for all the reasons you said. It just like came out of nowhere, I would say. Like, and it jumped almost to the top of the list, but like the main reason is because it's so short and simple and you can play it with everyone that makes it so accessible. So I we played a lot of trick taking games that are more convoluted or more like weird and gets some a little time to get into or when you're four players it takes takes a lot of time. So this is sweet and short and super fun.

17:14 My number four is number four, right? Yes. My number four is Rebel Princess.

17:19 Rebel Princess is great fun and also the theme is fun in there. Like I really like it. Like the princesses of all these different fairy tales want to have a party. They don't want to invite the princess because they don't want to be proposed to all the time because the prince is just proposing to them all the time and they're bored of that. So, but the frogs are coming in and trying to the critters are coming and telling on the princess. So, then suddenly they appear in the tricks. So, it's like a game where you don't want to win the princess because the prince are negative points and you're trying to get the least amount of negative points. It has different rules each round which becomes wackier and are bigger. I really enjoy this one. It is a super good game. I really want to play it more. Rebel Princess. There's a new one on on on Kickstarter now. The Rebel Zombie Zombie Princess, which

18:04 really good. I'm excited to play that.

18:06 And my number three is also Rebel Princess. [snorts] Uh so yeah, super good game for all the reasons you just mentioned. Super solid and fun.

18:15 My number three is a great pick for number three.

18:18 Okay.

18:19 Because it's a three-player game and it's Robo Trick. Robot Trick is a three-player only trick taking game where you are playing a trick taking game. Three players and there was also a four player but that's the robot or the dummy depending on how well they play. H and they're going to have different rule cards every round. So you know which card they're going to play. Their hand is going to be face up. So you at the beginning of a trick, as soon as somebody plays the first card, you know which card the robot is going to play. And you want to win two tricks, but you want to win two tricks while the robot is playing a high card because that's going to be the card that you win.

18:51 Three. Three. Three tricks. Okay. Three tricks. You sure? Might be three. Okay. Someone a trick between two and three. Might be three.

18:58 You have three cages for the robots. [clears throat]

19:01 Then basically you don't want to even more and you don't want the robot to win a trick because when the robot win a trick, you get a card that you played as a negative point. And if you win more tricks, you get a card that the robot played as negative points. You play three rounds, player with the most points uh is the winner.

19:15 And most of many times all people can have negative points.

19:18 Yes, absolutely. This can be a harsh one. My number two is also Root Trick.

19:22 It was a worse order.

19:25 Yes. Yes. Yes. I agree. This is obviously one of my favorites since it's my number two, but it's just a superb game because it takes like a dummy player to a whole new level. And you're trying to Yes. You're trying to when you're playing a card, you are deciding basically what the robot is going to do based on because you see what the robot is going to be have available and then you're trying to basically get the high points and not score a lot of negative points and it's super fun.

20:00 My number two is The Crew Mission Deep Sea. the crew uh and the crew search plan 9 was one of the first like it was the first co-op trick you're taking ever played I think and deep sea is better because the goals you get are v more varied

20:16 every round there is there is a campaign with a story and basically you are playing tricking game and all different players have different goals that they need to be to to complete like for example I want to have this card or or this specific card or this thing or that thing great explanation but basically trying to do that and the player or when if everybody manages to do that by the end of the game, then you are all going to win.

20:39 Mhm. My number one

20:41 one

20:42 is Lord of the Rings the trick taking game now. So

20:45 Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring trick taking game I think.

20:49 Yes, that one.

20:50 The shortest name of them all.

20:52 Yes.

20:53 One name to rule them all. It's also my number one.

20:55 Yeah, I figured.

20:56 High five.

20:58 Double crossover crossover. Um, yes. It's a really fun. It's also a co-op game. Yes. It reminds me a lot of The Crew.

21:12 Yeah.

21:12 So, the reason The Crew is not on my list is because they kind of share this spot. So, you can say I've made a top 11 and the crew is you're my number two and this is my number one. But they're they are different.

21:28 Yeah, absolutely.

21:29 But they kind of scratch the same itch for me. Mhm. I have to say I never I don't think I've ever put this many co-op games on a game list that isn't top 10 co-op games.

21:39 Yeah, which is kind of weird. Uh but it works in in in in in in the trick taking games like this. Lord of the Rings tricking game. We have played it almost 50 times. We have played almost the whole thing. We we played so much of this when we went to South Africa um visiting James and Sonia. James is the one who is editing all our videos. So thank you so much for that. doing a fantastic job. H these videos wouldn't be as good without James. So, please leave a comment saying hi to James and thanks for the the work.

22:08 Yes.

22:09 Um

22:10 it's a fantastic game. You follow the Lord of the Rings story and there's going to be two more boxes. I'm already excited. The second one is coming out pretty soon. The Two Towers

22:19 because that is the second one. And what is the third one?

22:22 Uh I don't

22:24 Return of the King. Jedi. Yes, the Jedi. That's true. Return of the Jedi. But those are 10 fantastic trick taking games. I don't think we had many crossovers. How many do you think we had?

22:34 I think we had I think you won

22:36 four. No. Farmand, Jackalhide, Robbo Trick, Lord of the Rings,

22:41 and Rebel Princess

22:42 and Rebel Princess. Five. You had five.

22:44 I won.

22:45 Yes. But that is going to be the end of this video. We Are you still on your phone looking at all the games?

22:52 I was checking from Facebook. You were right. Five. Perfect. Perfect. perfect bid, you would have gotten the most points in this trick taking game, the trick taking game top 10 game. That's going to be the end. We hope you enjoyed it. Let us know what is your favorite trick taking game down in the comments. And if you don't like trick taking games, maybe you will find one that you can like because there's so many different ones and they give you so many different feelings and that's going to be the end. They don't give a lot of sadness. There's so many if you really want sad games, go check out these trick games. Top 10 trick games that makes us sad. That's going to be the end. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Johannes. And you've been watching Board Gaming Ramblings. And bye-bye.