This is a game that has more to it than meets the eye. I found young children age 7 can perform the task of making 11 on an enemy base, and resolve 11 on their own. I also understand that for them there is not a lot of variety to the game to hold their interest. Yet, there is more to the thought process of the game if you wish to survive the round, and ultimately earn more tokens than the other players.
The game is very versatile in how you play and becomes a different scenario with different people playing or more players. A team play version adds a fun aspect of the shared base, and adding complexity to the decision of which one to target. The rounds of the game help keep it shorter, but then there is no limit to the number of rounds you can play. Enjoy.
What People Say
Nothing personal, but that is 11.
Player 1
I know what you are doing and it is not going to work.
Player 2 – wife of player 1
Wait, I don’t have to match to play a card on him?
Player 3 – fifth time asking this
About the cards
The balance of the cards in the deck is valuable to know. You will not be card counting in this game, but it helps to know the odds. A set of cards is the numbers 1-6 in five different colors. There are three sets of these cards, but the third set included only the numbers 2-5. Thus, I say that the deck is balanced towards the middle numbers which has several good effects on game play. I found this reduced the amount of extreme sums in bases, like sums of 4-5 or 16-17. It takes two cards being changed in base with those sums in order to play 11 on them. This change also increased the odds of playing most of the special cards in the deck.
Color match cards are useless on offense. They are your best defensive card and should be played as a last effort to resolve an 11. On the other hand, if players know this, and another player has a turn before you do, playing the Color Match reveals to them that you are ripe to be wrecked.
There are card combinations to be taken advantage of right from the deal. A value of 4 or 3 on the ends of a base can have a Dual stack card played on it to make 11, since those values are 7 or 8. The split base card is value 3 also, so it goes with a Dual Stack 8 to make 11. Having the deck balanced towards the middle numbers also increases the chance of getting consecutive numbers in your hand to help resolve the Fixed Base card.
Always play a color card to resolve before a Color Match, unless you want to keep that card to make an 11 on an opponent. It is best to resolve by covering a Special card first if you can, although playing two cards can deplete your hand faster if other players get to play before you can draw again.
Game Play Tips
Keep one eye on what you need to defend. When resolving, you need to match a card color. You might want to move a card to one side of your hand that matches so that you do not consider it when looking to make 11 in an enemy base.
Two colors in a base means it is less likely for a player to have a match in their hands. Try to play a card on a stack so that it is the same color as a card on another stack, leaving them with only 2 color choices for resolving.
More cards of the same number in your base means other players have fewer cards to play on you to make your Base Sum 11.
Hitting the player who follows you means that other players will not get to hit them before they draw. You may not want to give others this opportunity, unless that is the player with the most tokens and all of you are now trying to catch up.
You can play more than 1 card on a base to make the sum 11. Once your base is wrecked, this can be used to your advantage as you no longer need to save cards for resolving. Go for more difficult combinations to resolve by even playing on all 3 stacks.
One of the most fun aspects of the game is a player who is making what seems to be miraculous saves with only 1-2 cards left in their hand. It is always better to make any 11 you can because you never know if they just don’t have the colors to match, because they are loaded with Special Cards or have lots of one color.
Doc Dave DeWitt 