Up or Down?
Designed by: Michael Kiesling,Wolfgang Kramer
Up or Down? is a game of collecting sets of cards – but in sequences where more numbers are better, and more numbers of the same colour card are better still!
In your hand you have three cards and on the table six are randomly laid out, in ascending order, in a circle. On your turn you play a hand card into the circle (keeping to the ascending order) and then claim one card from either side of it to go into one of your sets, which are face-up on the table.
Each set is kept in a column, and each column can only have cards added to it that continue in sequence: a column may ascend or descend numerically, but once you’ve started that direction, you can’t change. At the end of your turn you replenish your hand to three from one of two supply decks: face-up or face-down.
If you ever take a card that you can’t legally play into a column, you have to discard an entire column – your choice – and start a new one using your new card. These discards are worth a point each, but that’s precious little compared to the potential scores of your columns: when the cards run out, each one multiplies the number of cards in the column by the most-of-a-colour present. So for example nine cards of seven colours (two green, two yellow) is worth 18 points (9×2) where as five cards of the same colour would be 25 points (5×5)
Most points wins.
Sam says
A clever game, although the ending can feel like a bit of a luckfest after a relatively thinky journey to it. I enjoy it okay but it can feel a bit slow-moving and computational for my tastes, compared to the admittedly luck-festian game it somehow reminds me of, 6 Nimmt. Good, but not a classic.
-
Take That!
You bet. Players can see what each other are going for and try to prevent them from having it.
-
Fidget Factor!
Patience is apparently a virtue, and you’ll need a modicum to enjoy Up or Down as it’s meant to be enjoyed. This isn’t one where folk are banging down their cards at a rate of knots.
-
Brain Burn!
While the rules aren’t too thinky, decisions are. As well as mulling over what you want vs want others want, there’s also the mathematical element of how cards get claimed to navigate as well.
-
Again Again!
But as a puzzle it is always a challenge, with a dose of almost sarcastic interaction. For a night in on the kitchen table, this could be quite a satisfying one to revisit for 2 or 3 players.
