I woke up on a cool Thursday morning in January with a visual in my head. It said “Enemy 11”. This was not a warning or something to be afraid of, as a typical enemy would be. This was a title. A name. And I knew I was supposed to use it for a game. This was not an idea that I could have just come up with while I was sleeping. This was my “flux capacitor” right out of the movie “Back To The Future”. Yet this title was also a description.
Enemy 11 was to be the name of a game and I understood before I was done with my shower that the goal was to give your opponent’s 11. The number 11 represents disorder, and your enemy is anyone who is trying to hurt you, including through disorder. This would be a card game that could be played by friends or families for a fun rowdy evening of play. Lots of action as every card could put anyone at the table in trouble. There would be 3 numbers added to get that total of 11. By the time I ate breakfast I could see a set of cards with values 1-6 and 5 suits (or colors) which would be needed for the game, so I grabbed two decks and my notebook.  As I drove to work my thoughts continued to race between my prayers of thanks and a structure for the game the entire trip.
It may be good to hear the context so we remember that good things come from our struggles. I was about to teach my students remotely as we have been all school year because of the risk of spreading Covid-19. I quickly got ready for classes and was fortunate to find that I was all prepared. Instead, I went for a walk to say hello to other teachers in the building since in our situation it had been even more difficult to have an adult conversation. Upon returning to class, I still had 45 minutes so I grabbed some scrap paper and began writing out the rules which I had worked out in my head. Three cards in your base and four in your hand. Play any card on the enemy stacks to make 11. Any player must resolve the 11 to get out of trouble by matching the card color. If not, their base is wrecked. Wreck as many bases as you can and try to keep yours alive to the end. That was it! Once I finished it was time to teach for the next 4 hours.
School ended, I grabbed my lunch and the decks of cards, then I pulled the cards I needed while eating. I removed the cards Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 from each of two decks because I knew that all of the cards should have a duplicate. Since the deck I envisioned had 5 colors and a normal deck has only 4 suits, I grabbed some higher number cards to make the fifth color. Each base got 3 cards, each hand got 4 cards, and the game was rolling. I instantly saw that the higher numbers would play havoc on my ability to add quickly. I grabbed scrap paper to write down all of the base totals, changing those numbers each time a card was played. It was much easier looking at the total than adding those cards the way they were on the table. By the way, this is a good insight to playing the game as working from the total tells you how much you need to change a card on the base to make the sum equal to 11. An advantage (maybe it’s a disadvantage) of playing alone is I could pick on the same player base. When the player (meaning me) saved the base three times in a row I was laughing excitedly. Three games later I was done and heading home, completely hooked on developing this game. At home my made my own set of cards on some thick paper using 5 colors so I could play more the next day.

By the Numbers

This is how I think. The average value when you put the numbers 1 through 6 together is 3.5. Therefore, every card in the Enemy 11 deck has an average value of 3.5 and the three stacks in a base would add these three average values to get 10.5. If I were to pick my own number, I would use the numbers 1 through 7 whose average is 4, and the sum of three cards in a base would average 12. Then I would ask what number do I want to make as a base sum that should be avoided? Do I pick 12, go higher than 12, or go lower than 12? I would write out the odds of cards and make some logical decisions. Then I would test those ideas and see what happens most of the time. By the numbers.
I would have also considered 4 stacks in a base and see what that did to the game play. Now the base sum to avoid might be 14 when using numbers 1-6 or 16 when using numbers 1-7. This would all make sense to try and test to see how it played. How probable would it be that anyone could play a card to make the opponents base reach the undesired value and they would be forced to change it? Who knows how long it would have taken me, and whether I even would have arrived at 11 being the target number for wrecking bases? I just accepted the 11 and the cards numbered 1-6 because that is what I saw and understood.
Let me mention again that I would not have even thought of the word “Enemy” for the name of any game except a war game. Maybe Base 11, Avoid 11, Power 11, Prime 11, Sum of 11, 11 in the Stacks, Drop 11 on ‘em. I don’t know, but my mind would have rolled out tons of options. I did not pick the name! It was shown to me as if it were 2 foot high letters and a number right within my reach as I woke from deep sleep. Then the rules were downloaded (my daughter’s word) into my head. When I played it, I found myself very excited about it being fun and new.

Play Test

I got home and went right to the computer to start my file and print some cards. I also put in most of the rules as it took less than a page. After teaching the next morning I texted my niece to see if I could show her the game. Three of us sat down that afternoon and started a game. In each of two games we had bases last until the deck ran out. We played sudden death without drawing any more cards, and as our hands depleted it was desperation to survive. I could tell that the game format worked from their comments and intensity during the game.
I learned two important things from this play test: The game needed some card combinations to create more of these intense moments and the round needed to last longer with adding some more cards. By the time I drove home I knew what all of the cards were that I needed to add. I went right to the computer, made two more pages of special cards, and printed them for my new deck. Since the first 36 hours of being inspired by the game name and the “downloaded” rules, I have only made minor adjustments to this game in the size of the deck, one of the 4 special cards was changed, and one rule was removed to speed up the play of the game.