Turn the Tide

Turn the Tide is a card game for 3 to 5 players which scratches a similar itch to GNG favourite 6 Nimmt, but with an interesting competitive slant.

Players are dealt a hand of 12 cards from a deck numbered 1 to 60; any cards left over are not used. Each player examines their hand, and adds up the whole and half life-preserver symbols on their cards. These are lives, and the worse your hand, the more lives you’ll have to compensate. Everyone takes a number of life preserver cards due and places them face-up in front of their play area. Any remaining are, again, put back in the box. There is also a deck of 24 water level cards, from 1 to 12, two of each. These are shuffled, and the top two cards turned over. Play can begin.

Each player will play a card from their hand face down; then all cards are revealed simultaneously. The person who played the highest card takes the lowest of the two water level cards, and places it in front of them. The player who played the second highest card takes the other water level card and does likewise. If either player already had a water level card, the new one covers the old one. Now the player with the highest visible water level card in front of them loses a life preserver, flipping it over. Two more water level cards are revealed from the deck, and play continues.

If any player runs out of life preservers, and must turn over another, they are eliminated from the round. Once all 12 cards have been played, the round ends – players who were eliminated each score 1 negative point, players still in score a point for each life preserver they still have, and the player with the lowest visible water level card scores a bonus point.

It sounds simple, and it’s easy enough if you want to grab a low water level card to cover your high one, and have a high card to do so. But sometimes what you want depends on what the other players get, and it quickly becomes a bit of a mind-melt. And there’s a further interesting twist. Once all 12 cards have been played, each player passes their hand of cards to the player to their right, the water level cards are shuffled, and another round is played. You play as many rounds as there are players, so everyone will get to play each hand of cards. It’s great fun trying to outdo your opponents by scoring higher than they did with the same cards (though of course the water level cards will be random), and as play progresses you can try to remember what important numbers are in each hand.

Turn the Tide is a nifty game with a rarely seen mechanic of the same hands being played successively by each player.