Invented by Klaus Palesch.
Published by Amigo Spiel + Freizeit.
Copyright 1995, Amigo Spiel + Freizeit
Translated by Emanuel Soeding ([email protected]).
Players: 4-6
Age: 10+
Content: 60 cards in three colors numbered 1 to 20
Hattrick is a game played in tricks. The special feature in Hattrick is that players do not necessarily have to follow the color a previous player played, but can open a second trick with a different color each round (confusing, isn't it?). Try to get as many cards of the same color as you can. Only the cards of the color you have won the most of will count positive. All the others are deducted and thus count negative.
Shuffle the cards and deal each player
Players take their cards not visible to other players and sort them according to the colors.
The player to the left of the dealer starts by playing any one card. Now each player follows in clockwise order playing a card, until everybody played one. The second player has the option to play either a card with the same color, or to open a second trick by playing a card of an different color next to the allready played card. When someone plays a second color, he starts a second trick on the table. If the second player started a second trick, the third player just has the options to follow either one of the colors or discard a card of the third color (pass). He may not place a card of the third color on one of the existing tricks or start a third trick. If the second player followed the color of the first card, the third one has the option to start a 2nd trick (and so on).
The players who played the card with the highest number in the respective trick win the respective cards. They place them visible to everyone in front of themselves on the table, stacked by colors, so everyone can see which color they are collecting. The player with the highest card in both tricks starts to play a card for the next round.
Player C won 3 red cards, Player E won 2 blue cards. Player E plays out for the next trick, because he played the highest card (19).
The player with the highest card starts the next round. If there were two highest cards, the player with the higher 2nd highest card in his trick plays first. Teh others follow in clockwise order.
Play continues until each player has only one card left in his hand. This card is not played any more and just discarded without effect and without score. Now the final score is calculated (see Scoring)
If a player doesn't want or can't play a card, he may pass by showing everybody a card of the third color not on the table. He may not pass if he can still open a new trick or if he doesn't have a card of the third color. The shown card is placed face down next to his other cards. It scores -2 points.
At the end of the game each player counts the cards of each color he won. The cards of the color he won the most of are his positive score. Now he deducts the number of cards of other colors he won. Then he deducts two points for every card placed face down, because of passing. This is the final score.
Player A won 9 RED cards, 2 BLUE cards and 4 GREEN cards and one face down card (for passing). His total score is 1, since he has 9 RED minus 2 BLUE minus 4 GREEN minus 2 for passing once = 1
Player B has just 12 BLUE cards scoring 12 points.
Player C has 5 RED cards, 5 GREEN cards and one face down card (pass) so he scored -2 points (5-5-2 = -2).
Write down the players scores on a sheet and shuffle the deck again for a new game.
The match ends when the players played twice the number of games as there are players participating. The player with the highest score wins.
Players can also agree on a certain target score (e.g. 50). The player who reaches it first is the winner.