Sometimes, after a bunch of fluffy, light games like Die Macher and La Citta, you just want to get into something really deep and heavy, with loads of tough decisions and tons of strategy. Something that really makes you think. Lots and lots of brain-exercise. Options and choices galore. A real head-banging, knuckle-chewing, hair-pulling, teeth-chattering, nose-breathing, brain-cracking challenge.

Well, Alles im Eimer is your game - better known in English as “the Bucket Game.” When you engage your opponents in the Bucket Game, you will quickly learn the satisfaction that comes from battles well fought and won - either that, or you will be shamed into bucketless humility.

Stefan Dorra’s Alles im Eimer game consists of a deck of cards in 5 suits, and a whole mess of thick cardboard buckets, in the corresponding 5 colors as in the deck of cards. Each player starts off with 15 buckets (3 of each color), and then is dealt 12 cards from the deck. There are two 1’s and two 8’s in each color. And there are three of the other numbers of each color from 2 to 7.

After studying the cards you’ve been dealt, you then have your first three major challenges. You first have to arrange your 15 buckets into a pyramid - 5 buckets on the bottom row, then 4 buckets on top of those (with each bucket “resting” on the 2 buckets immediately beneath it), and so forth, with finally a single bucket being at the very top of your pyramid all by its’ lonesome.

Now you don’t simply want to build your pyramid willy-nilly. You want to plan and build your pyramid for strength. You want your pyramid of buckets to be one of the 7 wonders of the world. You want to build an edifice of buckets that will last for eons. An architectural marvel that people would be willing to travel around the world for, just so they could get a brief glimpse of it. A truly wondrous monument that will stand forever. Or, failing that, one that will last for at least 4 or 5 minutes.

And preferably one that lasts longer than any other player’s pyramid of buckets. He whose buckets last the longest laughs best. Or something like that.

Your second major challenge is whether to build your pyramid with your buckets all upside up, all upside down, or a mixture of both. This has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the game. It doesn’t make a bit of difference. None whatsoever. Sort of like the “is the glass half-empty or half-full” nonsense. But IF you can convince your opponents that it IS important, then you are well on the way to victory already. You are one sharp operator, yesiree, Bob. The Bucket-King. Or Queen. As the case may be.

Your third major challenge is whether you should order the pizza now, or wait until later. I guess it depends on how hungry you are.

Now, in constructing your masterpiece pyramid of buckets, just how do you decide where to place each of your various buckets? Remember - there are 5 colors of buckets, and you have 3 of each color. For help on that, you check out your hand of cards.

What is going to happen during the game is that each player in turn will play 1, 2 or 3 cards of the same color. When it it your turn, you must follow suit (the color), and the total value of your cards played so far in front of you must be higher than the total value of the cards of the previous player in front of him. If you can’t (or don’t want to) follow suit raising the overall total, then your penalty is to remove a bucket of the same color as the cards just played.

Now if it’s the top bucket, then big hairy deal. You are laughing. Ha-Ha, you say. You lose the bucket and you still have 14 left. Ha-Ha, you say again.

But....

But, if in your wisdom (or lack of it), you chose to place all 3 of your green buckets in the bottom row, and green cards are currently being played, and now it’s your turn, and gosh-golly-tarnation, you don’t have any green cards left - then much sadness will fill your heart. You must lose a green bucket.

So - big deal, you say. Ha-Ha, you say again.

Nope.

As any reader of Architectural Digest knows, a strong building needs a strong foundation. Remove a critical beam near the bottom of the structure, and there is not enough strength left in the building to support the higher levels. And so the higher levels come tumbling down.

It is the same way with pyramids of buckets. When you remove a bucket AND there are buckets resting on top of that just-removed bucket, then we have a problem. Gravity takes over. The bucket(s) on the higher level have lost half of their support, and so they too come tumbling down. In other words, they get removed.

Depending on where the bucket you must lose is located within your pyramid, there may or may not be a big chain-reaction of bucket removal. Any bucket (except those on the bottom-row “floor”) must sit on top of 2 other buckets. Remove a support-bucket, and the bucket above comes down too. And it could mean MANY buckets being removed, depending on just where the original bucket was located in the pyramid.

So, ideally, if you must lose a bucket, you would prefer to lose it closest to the top, and/or closest to the outside of the pyramid. Chain-reaction bucket-loss syndrome can be a traumatic thing, and you should strive to avoid such an event if you can.

So when you first set up your pyramid of buckets, if you’re sitting there with a LOT of one color type of card, you’re probably pretty safe in putting buckets of that color nearer to the bottom and the middle of the pyramid, since you will have lots of cards to defend those buckets with.

Of course, during the game, you get to draw a new card after every play, so over time, the breakdown of the colors of the cards in your hand is going to change. If you start off strong in red, you could end up very weak in red if you don’t pick any red cards up in the draw.

That is where much of the skill in this game comes in. Being able to transmutate a card into the color you want before you pick it up from the draw pile, simply with the power of your mind, is a very useful skill to have. And if you can indeed do that, you will likely do very well at Alles im Eimer.

However, if your transmutation skills are a little rusty, and you must simply accept the top card as the luck of the draw, then you may find yourself having to rely quite a bit on luck.

As the game goes on, everybody’s pyramid starts taking hits. And eventually, someone loses their last bucket. With 3 or 4 players, that’s it - game over. With 5 or 6 players, you keep playing until a 2nd player loses their last bucket. At that point, whoever has the most buckets remaining is the winner.

One thing you will quickly learn in Alles im Eimer is that the player to your right is your enemy, especially when he is leading a new trick. This is a game where the player on your right has more effect on you than any other player. And in turn, you have the most effect on the player to your left.

You can see how the opponent to your left has built his pyramid. Your natural tendency will be to go for the color of his buckets buried the deepest - hoping to start the dreaded chain-reaction bucket loss. At the beginning of the game, he probably has several cards to defend with - otherwise, he wouldn’t have put those buckets where they are. But as the game progresses, he will start to run out of that color (or so you hope).

Basically, find a color the opponent to your left is weak in, and attack, attack, attack.

Later in the game, when several players are down to just a few buckets, there tends to arise a conspiracy of the weak (the bucket brigade) to go easy on each other, and try to slam the guy with the most buckets. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Alles im Eimer is a great little filler, and/or a great opener or closer. A single round usually only takes about 15 to 20 minutes or so. But you can play several rounds if you wish for a longer game.

The game is great for generating lots of groaning. And lots of laughs. It is a very light game, and when you’re in the mood for something fluffy and goofy and short, it’s an excellent choice.

There is a lot of luck involved with the draw of the cards. But you do have some control, and skillful cardplay can definitely help you. For instance, you may choose NOT to play a card even though you could do so. It may be more beneficial to you in the long run to sacrifice a bucket now, rather than possibly lose a bunch of them in a future turn.

Another nice feature of the game is that it is very simple to explain, and the gameplay is very easy to grasp - for that reason, it would be a good game to play with both your non-gamer friends and with children. (Not that I’m equating the two....)

I give Alles im Eimer a solid 7 rating.
An entertaining light game.