Comeback (1996)

Another in the line of very small card games by Reinhard Staupe. The deck consists of four suits of cards numbered 1 to 7. The 1s have three stars, the 2s have two stars and all other cards have one star. Players start with 150 points (which serves as a starting score and a money pool for bidding). For 2 players, use 16 cards, for 3 players use 21 cards, for 4 players use 24 cards (so that players do not know which cards are in play) and these are auctioned off one at a time. Bid increments must be at least as great as the number of the card being auctioned but can be more - i.e. while bidding on a card with the number 4, a bid of four would require a bid of 8 or more from the next bidder). The first bid can be lower, the same or higher than the number of the card. Bidding goes clockwise around the table. First bid also moves clockwise around the table. When all cards have been auctioned, suits are scored separately for each player by adding the card numbers and multiplying that figure by the total number of stars in the suit. Scores for each suit are added to any remaining points from a players' starting pool (points remaining from the original pool of 150) to determine the final score. Comeback was nominated for Spiel des Jahres in Germany in 1997.

Awards

• 1997 Spiel des Jahres Recommendation.