Designed by: Klaus Palesch
Sticheln is a trick-taking game that takes the basic premise of Whist and adds pain.
The deck is made up of several suits and in a given round each player is dealt a hand of cards. They look at their hand, and choose one card to represent their pain suit – this is the suit that he or she really does not want to win any of.
Play then progresses in standard trick-taking mode (i.e. one card per player, going clockwise around the table) but unlike standard Whist you do not have to follow suit. HOWEVER – any card that doesn’t follow suit is considered a trump, and higher trumps (played earliest breaks a tie) will win the trick.
At the end of the round cards are worth points and your pain suit is negative points, so naturally you’re trying to get rid of your pain suit and hopefully pass some pain onto your opponents too!
I'm a huge fan of trick-taking games, and this is a real gem. It's very simple, but the little twist (trump is always the latest card played) plays havoc with your brain - I usually play it with experienced card players. If you're introducing people to trick-taking games I would start them on something more straight-forward like Whist or Hearts.
Moderate to high - play is interactive and you're trying to increase everyone else's pain!
Very low
Low to moderate - sometimes you need to consider whether to take a trick or forego it in the hope an opponent will pick up negative points.
A whole game takes a little while but it moves fast. Cards ensure randomness and tactics can vary.
3-8
Players
10+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
You need a game or two to get your head around it, but I really think Sticheln is a mini-classic - where you can swing from last to first in one round (and of course, vice versa...). Great game.