Games you can play for free – Chinese Ten

Continuing with my project to create a list of great games you can play for free, this post features a simple card game for two to four players.

Chinese Ten

Number of players: 2 – 4

Playing time: 15 minutes

You will need:

• A standard deck of playing cards

The cards are shuffled and half are dealt amongst all players. If there are two players, each gets twelve cards. If there are three players, each gets eight cards. If there are four players, each gets six cards. From the remaining twenty-four cards, four are turned face-up in the centre of the table. The remaining cards form a face-down deck in the centre of the table.

The aim of the game is to capture cards from the centre if the table. Cards are captured as follows. Cards valued 1 (ace) to 9 are captured by the card whose value brings the total to 10. For example, a 1 captures a 9 and a 7 captures a 3. 10s, Jacks, Queens and Kings are captured by cards of the same rank. For example, a Queen captures another Queen.

On each players turn, they play one card from their hand. If possible, that card captures a card from the centre of the table (a card can only capture one card). Upon capturing a card, that player keeps both cards (the card played and the card captured), placing them face-down in front of them. If the card played was not able to capture a card, it is left face-up in the centre of the table. Cards added to the centre of the table in this manner are available to be captured by any player in subsequent turns.

Following playing a card from their hand (whether it captures or not), that player then flips over the top card of the deck. If able, it captures one of the face-up cards and both are kept by that player. If not able to capture, it is added to the face-up cards.

Following each player’s turn, play progresses clockwise to the next player. If played correctly, the last remaining card in the deck will be able to capture the last face-up card. Once this happens, the game ends.

Players then score points from the cards they have won based upon the following:

• Red cards (hearts and diamonds) ranked 2 – 9 score their face value.
• Red cards ranked 9 – King score ten points each.
• Red aces (1s) score 20 points each.
• If three or four players are playing, the Ace of spades score 30 points.
• If exactly four players are playing, the Ace of clubs scores 40 points.

The difference between the average score (105, 80 and 70 with two, three and four players respectively) and each players score is the amount by which that player wins or looses by.

Note, if the initial four face-down cards contain three kings, three queens, three jacks, three tens or three fives; the fourth card of that rank captures all three of these cards. If the initial four face-down cards consist of four kings, four queens, four jacks, four tens or four fives; they are won by the dealer (or shuffled back into the deck before four more cards are turned face up).

Adventure on the High Seas

It was recently my dad’s birthday and I was due to go home the following weekend. My dad however had booked himself on a powerboat course in preparation for the eventual and controversial (with my mum) purchase of a boat. Instead of going home another weekend, I decided to join my dad on the two-day course.

Since the course was to take place in the sea, in November and, most importantly, in the UK. I made sure I put on plenty of layers (about seven in fact). The result, as you can see here was something akin to the Michelin Man. Indeed, measuring with a ruler shows that I am half as wide as I am tall. After a somewhat lengthy (as in I should have done this before putting all these layers on) toilet break, we were ready to hit the water.

The first part of the morning involved retrieving the instructor’s yacht from its current mooring and towing it to a slightly different mooring. Since there was only three of us and the instructor was piloting the powerboat, my dad was nominated to “hop” onto the yacht in order to separate it from the mooring. Unfortunately, my dad had a bad knee, so at the time, hopping was not one of his strong points. I will never forget the look on his face as he straddled the two boats, one foot on each as they bobbed around independently in the waves. In the afternoon, we practiced some slow speed maneuvers and did some theory work (attempting to tie knots and read maps) back on dry land.

On the second day, we were due to spend most of the morning and the whole afternoon on the water. Before heading off into the open sea however, we first had to plan our voyage. After a few minor hiccups (i.e. holding the plotter the wrong way round, giving us a course 180 degrees off of where we actually wanted to go) we were done. We started by going up the estuary away from the sea, following the course we had plotted by keeping an eye on the depth of the channel and avoiding the other boats by keeping an eye on the other boats.

Eventually, after getting a chance to hit maximum speed (around 40 knots) we reached our destination… the pub next to the beach. The instructor anchored the boat and we had some rather good value food. In the afternoon, we went along the coast to Portsmouth Harbour. For those who don’t know, Portsmouth is a very busy harbour, both for large passenger ships and military vessels. I therefore had to be extra careful not to do anything silly. After stopping to refuel, we pulled up alongside one of the historic ships, the HMS Warrior (the docked ship in the centre of the picture). I even managed to get close enough to touch it; however due to the false economy of pound shop batteries (as is the case with toilet roll – although that is another post for another day), I have no photographic proof. We then headed once again out to sea, this time getting around 2 miles off the coast. It was pretty exciting crashing over waves that I am sure seamed much bigger then they really were. Finally, under sunset, we headed back to the harbour on Hayling Island.

Song of the week (number 12)

This week, I present 009 Sound System with ‘With a Spirit’. Sit back for ten minutes and enjoy!

Games you can play for free – Counter-Cameroon

Continuing with my project to create a list of great games you can play for free, this post features a variation on the commercial dice game  Can’t Stop.  Counter-Cameroon is described by Reiner Knizia in ‘Dice Games Properly Explained‘.

Counter-Cameroon

Number of players: 2

Playing time: 15 minutes

You will need:

• 4 dice
• A score sheet

The score sheets used by the players should contain the numbers two to twelve. Next to each category must be space enough to put four marks.

The two players take turns in rolling all four dice. Upon rolling the dice, that player must split the dice into two pairs, which then combine to make two numbers between two and twelve. A mark is placed in the categories corresponding to those two numbers.

When one player has placed four marks next to a category, the category is won by that player. Any further numbers formed by either player that match that category are not recorded. The player who won that category scores points as indicated below:

• Category 7 scores 1 point
• Categories 6 and 8 score 3 points
• Categories 5 and 9 score 5 points
• Categories 4 and 10 score 7 points
• Categories 3 and 11 score 9 points
• Categories 2 and 12 score 11 points

When all categories have been won, the game ends. Players total up the points they have won. The player with the most points is the winner.

- For a more balanced game, use the following point distributions: 6-5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5-6.

Misty morning painting

Games you can play for free – Six Hundred

Continuing with my project to create a list of great games you can play for free, this post features another game in which the aim is to score many points in different categories. Six Hundred, first published by Reiner Knizia in 1990, is essentially an expanded version of Yahtzee, with more dice and more categories.

Six Hundred

Number of players: 2 – 6

Playing time: 40 minutes

You will need:

• 6 dice
• A score sheet for each player.

The game consists of eighteen rounds. In each round, play progresses clockwise. On each player’s turn, that player rolls six dice up to three times. After each roll, any number if dice may be set aside and the number displayed kept. Any dice that have been set aside cannot be re-rolled. After the third roll, the numbers displayed on the six dice is the final result for that turn.

The aim of the game is to score highly in each of the eighteen categories. these categories are divided into four sections: Numbers, Rungs, Clusters and Patterns. After rolling the dice, a player may choose to score in any category they choose.

The Numbers section consists of six categories, each of which corresponds to one of the numbers between 1 and 6. Each category scores by adding up all dice that matches it. For example, if the dice rolled were 1, 2, 2, 5, 5, 6; the score for category number one would be 1. The score for category number five would be 10 (5+5). If the combined score for all categories in the upper section is at least 80, 35 bonus points are awarded.

The Rungs section consists of four categories (Rung 1, Rung 2, Rung 3 and Rung 4), each of which score by adding up the total of all six dice. Whilst the four categories may be filled in in any order, the scores from Rung 1 to Rung 4 must be ascending in value. Therefore, if a score of 26 was entered in Rung 2, only a score of 25 or less may be entered in Rung 1 and only a score of 27 or more may be entered in Rungs 3 and 4.

The Clusters section consists of four categories (Four-of-a-kind, Five-of-a-kind, odd and even). Scoring in each of these is as follows:

• Four-of-a-kind scores the total of all dice if at least four dice show the same number (e.g. 1, 2, 6, 6, 6, 6 would score 27 points).
• Five-of-a-kind scores the total of all dice if at least five dice show the same number (e.g. 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 would score 28 points).
• Odd scores the total of all dice if they all show an odd number (e.g. 1, 1, 3, 5, 5, 5 would score 20 points).
• Even scores the total of all dice if they all show an even number (e.g. 2, 4, 4, 4, 6, 6 would score 26 points).

The Patterns section consists of four categories (Singles, Pairs, Triplets and Sextet). Scoring in each of these is as follows:

• Singles scores 30 points for the combination 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
• Pairs scores 30 points when there are three pairs of the same number (e.g. 1, 1, 3, 3, 5, 5 or even 1, 1, 4, 4, 4, 4).
• Triplets scores 30 points when there are two triplets of the same number (e.g. 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3).
• Sextet scores 36 points when all six dice show the same number (e.g. 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4).

Each of the eighteen categories in six hundred may only be used once. When a score has been recorded in a category, it may not be moved. If after a players roll, the dice to not fit into any of the categories, that player must choose a category to place a score of 0 in. A bonus of 36 points is awarded if a score of more than 0 has been recorded in all categories, or if the only category missed is the sextet.

The winner of the game is the player with the highest total score for all categories. The maximum possible score is (you guessed it!) 600.

My 100th post

This is the 100th post I have posted on this blog! Since the start of the year, I have tried to keep posting here regularly and I think that generally, I have done a good job.

Looking back at the last 99 posts, I am quite surprised and pleased to have written about such a wide variety of topics. These have ranged from cute baby ducks to perplexing puzzles to book reviews to a comparison of my haircuts (which interestingly got the most number of hits so far!). I have also kept a couple of regular features going. In my ‘Song of the week‘ feature, I post a song each week that captures my imagination. In my ‘Games you can play for free‘ feature (that should be concluding soon), I am trying to gather together a selection of games that can be played without the need to splash out lots of money.

I would like to thank all of you for visiting this site and reading what I have to say; I hope that you continue to keep dropping by. If anyone has any suggestions, or if there is anything that you think I could or should post about, please let me know by leaving a comment below.

Thanks, Michael.

Song of the week (number 11)

“It’s too early! It’s too early!” I hear you cry. I know and I’m sorry, but I came across this version of the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ whilst searching for Christmas songs for a friend and I love it. So much in fact that I just had to share it on here. Recorded way back in 1979, I am surprised that I have never heard this before. If I have, I am even more surprised that I don’t remember as it is so catchy and endearing.

Games you can play for free – Ten Thousand

Continuing with my project to create a list of great games you can play for free, this post features a dice game that tempts players to improve their score when at any time they can lose everything.

Ten Thousand

Number of players: 2 – 5

Playing time: 25 minutes

You will need:

• 6 dice
• A score sheet

As the name implies, the aim of Ten Thousand is to accumulate that very score. The player who does so is the winner.

Play progresses clockwise. Each player’s turn begins with that player rolling all six dice. After each roll, the player must set aside at least one scoring dice. If they cannot do so, their turn ends and they score nothing for the turn. Once at least one scoring die has been set aside, two options are available. Either the player can continue the turn, rolling all dice that have not been set aside, or the player can finish their turn, recording their score for the turn by adding it to their accumulated total.

If a player manages to set aside all six dice, then can if they so wish continue their turn by rolling all six dice again, making a mental note of the score obtained so far that turn. Thereafter, if the player at any point cannot set aside any dice after a roll, the score obtained that turn is lost.

The game ends when a player succeeds in reaching an accumulated score of ten thousand points.

The scoring combinations for Ten Thousand are as follows:

• Three 1s achieved in a single roll score 1000 points.
• Three 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s achieved in a single roll score 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 points respectively.
• A single 1 scores 100 points.
• A single 5 scores 50 points.

- A nice variation that I have used in the past is to require players to achieve a score of at least 350 points each turn before that turn can be finished.

- Another similar variation also requires players to achieve a score of at least that achieved by the previous player in their last turn.

My new hair

People who know me well will know that I don’t get my hair cut too often. About three times a year in fact. Basically, I leave it growing until the day comes when I get fed up of combing it. Today was that day.

Improvement?