6 nimmt!

Take 6! / 6 Nimmt!

File:Take 6.jpg
Designers	Wolfgang Kramer
Illustrators	Franz Vohwinkel
Publishers	Amigo Spiele
Players	2-10
Setup time	approx. 5 min.
Playing time	45 minutes
Age range	10+

6 Nimmt! / Take 6! is a counting card game by designed by Wolfgang Kramer in 1994 and published by Amigo Spiele, the French version is distributed by Gigamic. This game allow 2-10 players each start with ten random number cards. These are played in turns onto four card rows, each players attempt to play all their cards without laying the 6th card in a row, as this results in a penalty of collecting all cards in the row. Each card indicates penalty points with the number of bull heads on top of the card. Over a predetermined number of rounds the player with the least penalty points wins.

The game is sometimes called 6 who loses!, Take 6!, Category 5, or the original German name, 6 nimmt!. The game can take from 2 to 10 players. The game's minimal age is 10 years, and lasts on average about 45 minutes.

Rules of the Game

A typical 6 Nimmt! game

The goal is to be the player with the least amount of points. To do this, you should not collect cards, especially the ones with more beef heads.

6 Nimmt! is played using a special card deck that in the original version has a beef head in the center of the card and a variable number of small beef heads on the top. The beef head cards are numbered 1 to 104. The maps relate to 1, 2, 3, 5 or 7 points (depending on the number of heads of beef this) to the person who picks up.

In the deck there are:

• 76 cards with 1 beef head
• 10 cards with 2 beef heads
• 9 cards with 3 beef heads
• 8 cards with 5 beef heads
• 1 cards with 7 beef heads

Preparation

Ten cards are dealt to each player.

Four uncovered cards are arranged on the table to form a vertical line.

Gameplay

At each turn, all the players select a card to play, an put the card covered on the table. When all the players has selected a card, the cards are uncovered.

Starting with the player with the lowest played card, up to the highest one, each player must put his/her card following one of the four rows on the table, following this rules:

• The card must be put on a row where the latest card is lower than the played card.
• If more rows has the latest card lower to the played card, the card must be put on the row where the latest card is the closest to the played card (the highest of the lower cards).
• If the row where the played card must be put already contains 5 cards (the player card is the 6th), the player must gather the 5 cards present in the row, leaving on the row only the played card. The gathered cards must be taken separated and never mixed with the hand cards. The sum of the number of beef head on the gathered cards will be calculated at the end of the round.
• If the played card is lower to all the latest cards present on the four rows, the player must choose one of the row and gather the cards on that row (usually the row with less beef heads), leaving on the row the played card.

The cards of all the players are played following these rules, from the lowest player card to the highest one.

At the end of the turn, the players select a new card to play, this is repeated for 10 turns until all the card in the hand are played.

End of the game

After the 10 turns, each player count the beef heads on the cards gathered from the table during the round. The score of each player is collected on the paper and a new hand starts.

The game ends when a player collects a total of 66 beef heads. The winner is the player that has collected the fewest beef heads.

Variations

To make the game more complex, if there are fewer than 10 players, before starting, remove from the deck the cards higher then 10n + 4 (where n is the number of players). E.g. with 5 player you will use only the cards from 1 to 54, excluding the cards from 55 to 104, with 7 player only the cards from 1 to 74 are used. The other rules are unchanged.

This variation is clearly more strategic than the basic rules since it's possible to know which cards has been already played and which one are available to other players.

External links

• Official rules from Amigo
• Online version of the game