DOG (game)
| DOG | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | n / A |
| graphic | Dennis Lohausen |
| publishing company | Schmidt Games |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 2 to 6 |
| Duration | about 45 minutes |
| Age | from 9 |
DOG is a board game from the German game publisher Schmidt Spiele , which was first published in 2008. It is a revision of the game of the same name, popular in Switzerland, and thus a variant of the Canadian Tock . DOG and Tock are both derivatives of Pachisi and are therefore comparable to well-known games such as Mensch ärgere dich nicht or Ludo , but unlike other Pachisi variants, they are not played with dice, but like Sorry! played with cards as a drive for the pawns.
Building on DOG , Schmidt Spiele published further derivatives, especially the independent games DOG Royal and Black DOG , both of which were developed by Johannes Schmidauer-König . Based on the set of cards from the DOG game, Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer also developed the card game DOG cards , a card storage game without any mechanical reference to DOG . With Dog Kids, an entry-level version for children aged 5 and over was also created by Christian Fiore and Knut Happel.
Theme and equipment
In the DOG game , like in other Pachisi offshoots, the players try to move their own pieces from the starting spaces to the target spaces and thereby go around the board once. Cards are used as the drive for the game pieces, which either have numerical values or special functions that are used by the players. DOG is also usually played as a team game, with two players sitting opposite each other forming a team.
In addition to instructions, the game material consists of:
- a game plan,
- 30 pawns, five each in six player colors,
- 110 cards, 8 of which per card type and 6 joker cards.
Style of play
Basically, the game mechanics of DOG correspond to those of other Pachisi descendants, with the die being replaced by a set of cards. In contrast to the classic Tock and the Swiss Dog , it is not a classic French card hand, but a hand of 110 cards developed individually for this game. At the beginning of the game, the playing field is set up in the middle of the table and each player is given a set of four playing pieces of one color, which are placed on the starting fields. The standard game is played with four or six players, with two players sitting opposite each other forming a team and can only win together. One player shuffles the cards and deals six cards to each player. Then he passes the deck of cards on to his left neighbor.
The players look at their hand cards and each choose a card that they slide face down to it. The player who has the stack of cards in front of him begins the round as the starting player and plays a card face up, whereby at the beginning he needs a card marked as a starting card (1/11 or 13 with the start symbol) or a joker to play one of the pieces move to the starting field; thereafter no card is drawn. Then all players play in clockwise order and lay out cards with which they also each have to place a figure on the starting field and then move it according to the card specification. If a player cannot take a card because he cannot start or cannot move any of his figures, he is eliminated for the entire round and discards all of his remaining cards. When all the players' cards have been played or discarded, the round ends. The pieces are moved on the playing field by advancing the pieces clockwise (if agreed also counter-clockwise) according to the card values indicated on the cards, whereby each card must be drawn completely. Your own and foreign figures can be skipped, unless they are on the same color starting field. Only one piece may ever stand on a field and if a player moves his piece onto a field on which there is already a piece, this piece is captured and returned to the starting area. Since there is a compulsion to act, as long as a player has matching cards, it can also happen that a player has to capture a piece of the team partner or even his own piece. A piece on the starting field of the same color may neither be overtaken nor captured, neither by other pieces nor by your own.
In addition to the normal, blue, number cards, there are some red special cards that must also be played and implemented:
- the "1/11" and the "13" are starting cards with which a player can alternatively move a piece from the starting area onto the starting field or move forward by the specified values. With the 1/11 card, he can also choose whether to use it for one or eleven fields.
- the “7” is a number card with which the player advances seven spaces. Unlike with other number cards, all pieces that are overtaken on the train are captured.
- the “4 ±” enables the player to move four spaces forward or backward. It can also be used to move a piece from the starting field backwards by four fields in order to then move it to the goal without going around the playing field.
- With the swap card, your own figure must swap positions with any figure from the team partner or another figure.
- The "?" Is a wild card that can be used for any other card.
At the beginning of the second round, the player in front of the deck of cards only deals five cards to all players and places the deck of cards in front of his left neighbor. In the following rounds, the number of cards per round decreases by one card, except for a single card, then six cards are dealt out again and the next decreasing series of rounds begins. When the deck of cards is used up, the discard pile is shuffled and becomes a new deck of cards. In each round, the players start by giving their partner a card face down before the starting player plays the first card.
The aim of the game is to bring your own pawns to the target fields. The figures in the target area must not be skipped over. As soon as a player has his four figures on the target spaces, he can support his team partner with his cards. The game ends when a team has all of the pieces on the target spaces.
Game for 2, 3 and 5 players
In a game with two or an odd number of players, all players play individually instead of in teams. You each play with five instead of four pawns, with one pawn being placed on the starting field immediately. Basically, the same rules apply here as in team play, with a few exceptions:
- If a player cannot move a piece with his cards in hand, he must discard one of his cards and may draw a new card. If he cannot draw with this card either, he must discard another card in his hand so that all players have the same number of cards for the next round.
- The exchange of cards is clockwise. At the beginning of the round, each player pushes a card of his choice to his left neighbor.
The game is won by the player who is the first to have four of his pawns in the target.
History and reception
The game DOG was published in 2008 by the German game publisher Schmidt Spiele . It is a revision of the game of the same name, popular in Switzerland, and thus a variant of the Canadian Tock , which in turn is a Pachisi variant. Dog was already available as a game in Switzerland before its publication and was brought to Switzerland by Christine Trösch from St. Gallen in 1982 after a stay in Canada and published together with her current husband Urs Meyer.
In 2010 a compact version of the game appeared with Compact DOG , and in 2013 the version Dog Deluxe . Based on DOG , Schmidt Spiele published further derivatives, especially the independent games DOG Royal (2012) and Black DOG (2016), both of which were developed by Johannes Schmidauer-König , as well as the children's game version DOG kids in 2018 . Based on the card pack DOG -Spiels developed Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer 2015 also the card game DOG cards , a card game without filing play mechanical reference to DOG .
Web links
- DOG in the Luding games database
- DOG in the games database BoardGameGeek (English)