Trick & Snipers

The Game

Trick & Snipers is a trick-taking card game from Japan. I bought it when I was on holiday. I am not specifically a fan of trick-taking games. I don't dislike them, but I don't actively seek them out. When I browsed the Yellow Submarine game store in Sapporo, I was in a bit of a hurry. I wanted to buy some Japanese designed games. I knew I could skip international games from the big brands which have been localised. I could get those in Malaysia. I zoomed in to Japanese games I had not seen before. The cover caught my attention and I picked it up. I can't read Japanese and had to use my phone app to translate the Japanese description at the back of the box. It sounded interesting, so I decided to buy it. At the time I didn't realise it was a trick-taking game. In hindsight, it was obvious. The title said so. Forehead slap. 

I won't describe the basics of trick-taking games (e.g. Hearts). I'll just describe how Trick & Snipers is different. It has four suits and the cards are numbered 1 to 12. This is very simple and you can play the game with a regular deck of cards. Tricks are by default not worth any points. To score a point, one way is taking a trick which includes a 7. The other way is to win a trick by sniping. This gets a little complicated. If the card you play is not in the leading suit, and its value when added to the supposedly winning card makes exactly 13, you snipe successfully and win that trick instead. Such a trick is worth one point too. To win a game, you need to score two points. 

The card back and cards in the four suits. The 7's have gold foil. 

The Play

The rules for Trick & Snipers are short and simple. You need to really sit down to play it to appreciate the nuances. I realise that memory is an important element. I think it is true for all trick-taking games if you want to play well. It's just that I'm often lazy to memorise every card play. I just try to roughly remember which of the higher cards are out. It is important to remember the higher numbers because the 7's are vulnerable to them. Lower numbers are still important in this game though, because they can be used for sniping. A lowly 1 can beat a 12 because they add up to 13. Don't be overconfident with your 12's and 11's. I like how things can be a little unpredictable. It is exciting. I don't play trick-taking games in a very competitive manner. If I play with serious players, I'm going to get destroyed. Thankfully I tend to play with others who also play in a relaxed manner. We do put some effort into playing it well, but we aren't experts. 

3-player and 4-player games feel a little different. With four players, we get fewer cards and the cards are more distributed. It seems to be quicker for players to run out of a particular colour. That is dangerous. Once anyone runs out of a colour, sniping becomes more likely. I am still thinking about the tactics to increase one's chances of sniping. I've tried saving different low cards. However that doesn't always work. Once the 7 in the lead colour was about to win a trick, and it was sniped by a 6! 

Sometimes this game makes me feel that had I wanted to, I could remember every card and based on my opponents' plays calculate what cards they have. If someone keeps playing the high numbers in one colour, he's probably trying to exhaust that colour from everyone else's hands, hoping to force the 7 out and win it. Or maybe has the 7 and he's trying to force others to play the high cards which would threaten to win his 7. However one twist which throws things off a little is this - every game a few cards are set aside unseen. This means you can't 100% calculate the cards in the game. There are still some unknowns. 

This game reminds me of mahjong. It's the kind of game that friends can play together repeatedly for a whole afternoon or evening. You get different cards and situations every game, and thus different problems to solve. The game mechanism is interesting and the replayability is high. This works well for non-gamers who, unlike us gamers, don't like spending a lot of time learning yet another new game. 

The Thoughts

Without deliberately trying to, I have played many trick-taking games. Most of them have their own unique twist. Sometimes I wonder whether making a trick-taking game is a shortcut for game publishers to create a product. Most people are already familiar with the trick-taking mechanism. It is a solid foundation which you don't have to work on. You are just adding a bit on top of that. Since many players are already familiar with the basic mechanism, your game will be easier to teach. There are people who specifically like trick-taking games, so you already have a ready market. 

I quite enjoyed Trick & Snipers. I am reminded of the fun of playing the same game with a few close friends for half a day. I did that with some old friends when we had a hiking trip to Ipoh. We chatted as we played. We made fun of one another. The game was quick to learn and we didn't have to keep moving on to the next game. It was comfortable and relaxing playing this game. Don't let this make you think that Trick & Snipers is a simplistic game meant for non-gamers. It is still a game with decent depth and it rewards skillful play.