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Tag: Wolfgang Kramer

*** 6 nimmt! (1994) – Wolfgang Kramer

Before El Grande, The Princes Of Florence, and Tikal — but after already snagging his first two Spiel des Jahres awards in the 80s — eminent game designer Wolfgang Kramer released a humble little card game called 6 nimmt!.  Though it’s been released under many different titles over the years, such as Category 5 and Take 5, it’s likely still best known to the world under that original German title.  It has been reworked/reimplemented/re-whatever-ed many times since its original publication date in 1994 (the most bizarre of which being The Walking Dead Card Game in 2013), due largely to its exceptionally clean and easily iterated upon system.  In addition, while most light-weight card games from the mid-90s have long since faded into obscurity, 6 nimmt! has displayed impressive longevity with consistent print runs and sales.  Today, despite its simplistic nature, 6 nimmt! remains one of Kramer’s best known designs and seems to have become something of a minor classic.  That’s a laudable feat for any game, much less one with barely a handful of rules, so let’s take a closer look! 6 nimmt! is a simultaneous action selection card game lasting exactly ten rounds in which players attempt to add cards from their personal hands to one of four shared rows in the center of the table.  Players start with ten cards, one for each round, and the cards are numbered 1 through 104 without duplicates.  Distinct from this numeric value, cards also have point values (it’s golf rules, ladies and gentleman — points are bad). Each round, players…