 BASIC INFO

REQUIREMENTS

2 - 6 players. (The main game is for 2, 4 or 6 players. See the end for a variation supporting 2 - 5 players.)

A normal deck of 52 playing cards and 2 jokers (preferably marked red / black).

BASIC IDEA

The players are divided evenly into two teams: red and black, and the teammates are positioned next to
each other (no talking allowed!).

The layout consists of 6 cities arranged into a ring around the season cards in the center. Each player
controls the city in front of him/her, while the remaining are auto-controlled by dummies (positioned
evenly between the teams).

The game is played in 6 seasons (4 aces + 2 jokers). During a season each of the 6 players plays one hand
card onto his/her city - building it up, and potentially attacking other cities.

After the 6 seasons have passed, each city solidifies into purely red, black or nothing - based on how
many cards of each colour the city has. The team that has more cities wins.

DECK & STARTUP

The deck is divided into two: one team handles the season deck, while the other the city deck (and
dummies). (Usually the black starts with the city deck.)

o SEASON DECK (6 cards): The 4 aces and 2 jokers are shuffled, and the pile turned face up
and expanded to reveal the order of the seasons (each visible).

 The topmost face up card of the season pile is called the season card: It
determines who starts the season and the attacking rules.

 When the season ends, the card is put face down on top of the pile, and so the
next season card becomes active.

o CITY DECK (48 cards): All the other cards (2 - 10 and face cards) are shuffled and each
human player dealt 8 hand cards.

 The rest of the deck is used to play the cards for the dummies on their turns (no
need to deal the cards beforehands).

 The 2 extra hand cards of each human player are discarded after playing the
other 6 - they just give more options.

 PLAYING

BUILDING TURNS

Each team has its fixed starting player: the first one in clockwise order (teammates next to each other -
dummies between the teams).
The team whose colour the season card is (jokers premarked red / black) always starts the season, and it
proceeds clockwise until all have played. The played hand card is put face up on top of the city pile and
stays there unless later destroyed - the order makes no difference.

BASIC DESTRUCTION

Destruction is done by playing the same number as the target card(s) - except for suit bombs. The
destroyed cards are put aside face down. The detailed rules always depend on the season, but here are
3 main principles:

o LOCALITY:  Normally you can only destroy cards from your own city and your neighour
cities (on both sides).

o SELF-DESTRUCTION:  Whenever you destroy a card from your own city, it flies off as

a suit bomb.

o NON-OPTIONALITY:  Whenever you choose to destroy, you must follow the destruction

fully through - the rest is non-optional.

ACE SEASONS

The season's ace determines the strength of the suits and colours:  ace's suit  >  other suit of ace's colour
>  other colour (powerless).

o OTHER COLOUR:  Playing a card of the other colour only builds up your own city - it has
no attacking power at all.

o ACE'S COLOUR:  Playing the ace's colour destroys the cards of the same number and
other colour in your own and neighbouring cities.

o ACE'S SUIT ('BURNING'):  Playing the ace's suit destroys all the cards of the same
number - regardless of where and which colour they are.

 So playing a ♥7 during a ♥A season, destroys ♤7, ♧7 as well as ♦7 from any city

if found.

JOKER SEASONS

There are two destruction rules for the joker seasons:

o STRONGEST PLAYED:  The played card destroys all the cards of the same number (either
colour) in your own and neighbouring cities.

 So for example, playing ♤3 destroys ♥3, ♦3 as well as ♧3  from your city and the

neighbours.

o SUIT BOMBING:  In addition, all the destroyed cards fly off as suit bombs.

 To combine both rules, you can play ♧Q to destroy ♤Q from your neighbour,

and send the ♤Q as a suit bomb to another city.

 SPECIAL DESTRUCTION TECHNIQUES

SUIT BOMB

You can trigger a suit bomb in two ways: destroying a card 1) from your own city (any season) or 2) from
a neighbour city during the joker season.

o The suit bomb target is always the highest lower card of the same suit from any city (if
any found).

 For example, ♧9 as a suit bomb destroys the highest ♧ under 9: So if ♧8 is

found, it's destroyed, otherwise ♧7, and so on.

o The bomb and the target are simply destroyed - the target will not be sent as another
suit bomb in any circumstances (no recursion).

 However, you might still be able to send many suit bombs at once. For example,
destroying ♤K and ♧K from your own city with a red K.

CHAIN DESTRUCTION (extended neighbours)

Whenever more than two neighbouring cities have a card of the same number, they are
considered chain connected for that number.

All chain connected cities behave as if direct neighbours to each other (for that connecting number). In
other words, by playing the connecting number, you can destroy a card from your neighbour's
neighbour - and/or even his/her neighbour.

o For example, let's say your neighbour has ♤6, his neighbour ♥6 and his neighbour ♦6,
and that it's the ♤A season. If you now play the ♧6, then both of the red 6's are
destroyed (conveniently leaving your immediate neighbour's ♤6 intact).

 ENDING

THE SUMMIT

After the 6 seasons, the war escalates to its summit. Each city becomes only red / black - or nothing -
based on which colour the city has more:

o The cards are counted for both colours, and the cards of the minority colour are
removed from the city. If equal amount, the whole city is destroyed.

The winner is the team with more cities left after the local battles - otherwise it's a draw.

SCORING

Traditionally, the game is played with the same teams and colours until one team has won 3 times.
Draws are counted as ½ win.

o THE 'I' IN TEAM -variation:  Alternatively, the win points can be marked individually for
each player, and the teams (and sitting order) shuffled in-between the rounds. The
winner is then the first player that gets 1) ahead of others and 2) has at least 3 win
points.
 

 PLAYER VARIATION

5 CITIES -variation (for 2 - 5 players)

This variation is originally made for 3 or 5 players, but can just as well be played by 2 or 4 players. It has
the following changes:

o ONLY 5 CITIES:  One city is removed from the layout - so there are only 5 cities.

o FOUNDATION:  Before the season cards are revealed, each of the 5 cities is prepared
with a one-card foundation:

 1)  Each player chooses a card and puts it face down on the city location.

 2)  When all are ready, the cards are turned face up, and the dummies built a
foundation as well. (As there is no season card yet, there will be no destruction
either.)

o HAND CARDS:  With 3 or 5 players, one team has an extra player (3 vs. 2  or  2 vs. 1). The
advantage is counter-balanced by having fewer hand cards:

 MINORITY / EQUALITY (9 cards):  Each minority team member (or all players,

with 2 or 4 players) get 9 hand cards - the usual 8 plus 1 for foundation.

 MAJORITY (7 cards):  The majority team members get only 7 hand cards each (6
+ 1 for foundation) - so they cannot leave any of their hand cards unplayed.

 With 2 or 4 players (and 1 or 3 dummies), the dummy imbalance side is flipped

after each round (first more dummies after the red team, then before).

 STRATEGICAL ADVICE

GENERAL

The main key to play the game successfully lies in understanding the 6 cities as a whole and looking for
and creating opportunities to execute juicy attacks. To help achieve this, here is a break down of the
main strategical compoments:

HAND CARDS

A check list to lay down a basic plan for your hand cards:

o The first thing to look for in your hand cards are potential 'homemade' suit bombs: cards
of the same number (within your own hand cards).

 Of course, you don't want to send suit bombs of your colour, so you should play
the card of the other colour first (if any).
 o The next thing to look for are cards of high number (either colour): again for suit
bombing, but for destroying from your neighbours on joker seasons.

o Obviously, you should also count how many cards of each colour you have - especially in
terms of building your own city.

 As a thumb rule, you should start by playing high cards of your opponent's

colour, and only then start to play your colour (lower first). This is simply
because the earlier the cards are played, the more likely they are to be
destroyed - and high cards being dangerous for suit bombing.

 Note that sometimes it's hard (or even impossible) to get your own city to be
your colour - say, if you are red and all your hand cards are black.

 MINEFIELD STRATEGY:  Often it's good to build up your city to be a

'minefield' for the opponent's colour - so that it's easy or likely to trigger
destruction (by anyone). In addition, the minefield should be set up with
'suit bomb traps' targeting important cards elsewhere.

o Finally you should be left with some candidates for the cards you don't want to play. As
a thumb rule, these should be your opponent's colour.

 Note that as more cards accumulate to the cities, the candidates are likely to
change - and become clearer.

ORDER OF THE SEASONS

It's very important to synchronize your actions to the order of the seasons. Often it's good to make a
preliminary plan of in which order to play your cards, already when the round starts (= the order of the
seasons is revealed).

o BURNING:  As a thumb rule, you would like to play in sync with your aces: at best,
burning 2 cards of the other colour (and at worst, only 1 of your colour).

o AVOIDING:  You might also have to avoid destruction. For example, say, you are red, and
your neighbour has ♦9, while you have ♤9, which you (for other reasons) must play. The
only times to play ♤9 without destroying your neighbour's card are on
the ♥A and ♦A seasons, when black has no power.

o JOKER SEASON BOMBS:  If your neighbour has a (high) card of the opponent's colour
that you can destroy, it might be best to wait for a joker season: so that you not only
destroy the card, but also send it off as a suit bomb. Note that after the 2 jokers have
gone, it's much safer to play high cards.

DUMMIES & HUMANS

When playing with dummies, it's usually best to focus your destructive tendencies towards them. This is
because human players (unless with relatively forcing hand cards) are usually able to control which
colour their city will become.
 o So assuming all humans get their city to their colour, the winner is based solely on the
colour of the dummy cities. Of course, if you sense that your opponent(s) might be
having 'internal difficulties' - it might be very juicy to make things even harder for them.

When playing with teammates, you should remember that your teammates might be able to help get rid
of the other colour cards (anywhere).

o Importantly, you should also realize that your teammate might have planned to send
some of the other coloured cards as suit bombs - so you do not want to obstruct their
plans. Of course, talking is not allowed - so the players should just infer these by
'reading the game'.

OTHER TIPS

There are 12 cards left unplayed for each round - so on average 1 card per number. (With 3 or 5 players,
13 cards are left unplayed.)

o Some of these cards (or in 6 player game all of them) are chosen by human players to be
left unplayed. The others are purely random.

o Knowing this and by keeping track of the destroyed cards should help you make
predictions of how likely some important card will turn up.

The majority team members in the 5 cities -variation must play all of their hand cards, and so their
strategies are a bit different:

o They have less options for attacking and must be very careful about timing - and
whatever plans they make, they are more stuck with them.

o Often their hand cards are played reflecting much their colour and 'highness' - starting
off with the highest cards of the other colour. The hope is that the teammates (or
dummies) will later destroy or even send them off - which is actually not so unlikely to
happen.

o While the majority team's greatest strength lies in helping each other, their greatest
weakness is often in their own cities. And so compared to the traditional game, the
minority team is more likely to focus on attacking the majority team - as opposed to
attacking just the du