Black Spy

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Black Spy
Game data
author Alan R. Moon
graphic Philippe Guérin , Chris Quilliams
publishing company United StatesUnited States United States : Avalon Hill (1981),
Z-Man Games (2013), Germany : Hexagames (Gespenster 1990), Ali Baba Spieleclub (Gespenster 2011), Abacusspiele (2016)
GermanyGermany 
Publishing year 1981, 2013
Art Card game, trick game
Teammates 3 to 6
Duration about 45 minutes
Age 14 years and older

Black Spy is a card game by British game designer Alan R. Moon that was first released in 1981 in the United States by The Avalon Hill Game Co. In Germany, the game was published by Hexagames in 1990 under the name Gespenster and was also launched under this name in 2011 by the Ali Baba Games Club . In 2013, the American publisher Z-Man Games published a redesigned edition of the game under the original name, which was also published as Black Spy by Abacusspiele in Germany in 2016 .

The trick game is about getting as few points as possible for point accounting.

Background and material

The basic game principle of Texas Showdown corresponds to that of other trick-taking games. Unlike most games of this type, however, the players try to have as few points as possible for scoring. The player with the lowest number of points at the end of the game wins.

The game material is language-neutral and consists of 11 playing cards each in the colors blue, yellow, green and red and with values ​​from 1 to 11, which correspond to different characters, as well as 16 black cards, 11 of which are also with values ​​1 to 11 and five spy cards with the value 7. There is also a scoring block for writing down the results.

Game flow

At the beginning of the game, a dealer is determined who shuffles all the playing cards and then distributes them evenly to the other players. After each lap the dealer changes clockwise. The players look at their hand cards and then pass three cards face down to a fellow player, the direction of the handing changing with each round. The respective players can take the cards in hand, but only after they have passed three cards face down.

Actions per game round
  • Play cards
  • Settle the stitch
  • Winner gets the trick

After the card exchange, the actual game begins. A round lasts until all cards have been played per player and thus consists of as many tricks as the number of cards dealt to the players at the beginning (depending on the number of players 10, 12, 15 or 20). The first trick is opened by the player who has the card marked with a red star in hand. The player lays out any card from his hand, but is not allowed to play a black card in his first trick. All other players now also lay out one card each in clockwise order. They must either put a card of the same suit or the same value as the opening card into the trick. Only if a player cannot use either the color or the value can he display any other card.

The player who played the highest card of the suit of the opening card into the trick wins the trick. He takes the cards and places the trick face down in front of him. Then he opens the next trick, which must also be served with either color or value. If a trick was opened with a black card and two or more players played a black spy in the trick and this forms the highest card, the owner of the spy placed first always wins the trick.

The round ends when all cards have been discarded and all tricks have been played. Each player now counts his points, thereby counting

  • the black cards from 1 to 6 one point each,
  • the black spy 10 points per card,
  • the black 8 2 points,
  • the black 9 3 points,
  • the black 10 4 points,
  • the black 11 5 points, as well
  • each blue, yellow, red or green spy - 5 points each.

The total number of points is 60 points and the result of the non-black spies can be negative. If a player manages to have all 16 black cards at the end, he receives zero points and all other players receive 60 points each minus the points for spies of different colors. All results are noted on the scoring pad.

A game ends when a player has reached a fixed number of points determined by the number of players. This is 200 points for 3 players, 150 points for four players, 120 points for five players and 100 points for six players. That player loses the game, the one with the fewest points wins.

variants

Black Spy can be played in several variants, which are described in the game rules:

  1. in the case of “no good spies”, the colored spies are not scored.
  2. if a player has all 16 black cards in the trick pile at the end, then he either distributes the points according to the basic rule or deducts 60 points from himself and gives 0 points to all others. The colored spies are not scored in this variant.
  3. In the Mole variant, the respective dealer builds a mole pile from the second round by taking 3 cards from the pile of cards for each player before distributing the cards to the players. The player with the currently highest number of points can then choose three cards from the pile of moles, then the second highest, etc. until all cards are dealt.
  4. With the variant "announce color" the dealer announces a color after considering his hand cards, which the first player after him has to play as the first trick. He has to open with this suit and if he cannot, the next player opens in clockwise order with the correct suit who can.
  5. In the case of "follow rank", a player may use the rank of the card last played in one trick, in addition to the color or rank of the first card played.
  6. if a player reaches the exact point value for the final scoring, his score is halved by half. Only when a player exceeds the number of points does the game end.

expenditure

Black Spy was developed by British game writer Alan R. Moon and published in 1981 by Avalon Hill . In Germany, the game was published by Hexagames in 1990 under the name Gespenster and was also launched under this name in 2011 by the Ali Baba Games Club . In 2013, the American publisher Z-Man Games published a redesigned edition of the game under the original name, which was also published as Black Spy in 2016 for the international game days at Abacusspiele in Germany .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Black Spy , Official Rules of the Game on the Abacusspiele website, 2016; accessed on August 22, 2018.
  2. ↑ Versions of Black Spy at boardgamegeek; accessed on August 22, 2018.

Web links