Game: SuDoku: Das Kartenspiel

Thread: Re: Difference between Z-man and Kosmos versions?

morrigambist — 2008-09-04T11:33:57+00:00

We play this with the nine cubes. Be sure to print out the German rules, as the diagrams clarify some important points (i.e., it is legal to play four yellow cards in one row or column, and it is not legal to play a yellow card where two cards of the same number have already been placed next to the proposed spot).

Thread: Sometimes A Beautiful Game Walks Into Your Life

da pyrate — 2008-06-29T23:45:25+00:00

[BGCOLOR=#FF9900]SuDoku: The Card Game[/BGCOLOR]

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Mathematical Game for 2-5 Players
Less Than 30 Minutes A Game
Designed by Reiner Knizia
Published by Z-Man Games (2006)

Every now and than a really beautiful game walks into your life. A game that has great components, that both look and feel wonderful. The game’s rules are written with incredible clarity. The subsystems are smooth and intuitive. The game creates an excitement level amongst the participants that is unrivalled in their collective gaming experience.

Unfortunately, ‘SuDoku: The Card Game’ is not that game - but that is not to say that it is totally without merit.

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Components: 1 set of 9 yellow cards numbered 1-9, 5 sets of 9 blue cards numbered 1-9 and 1 very brief set of rules. The cards are square, thickish and good quality. The rules are concise and clearly written.

Playing the Game: Initially a yellow card is randomly selected and placed on the table. Each player starts with 5 cards in their hand. Each player, in turn, places a card on the table and then draws a card from the deck of unused/unplayed cards.

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Just as in a SuDoku puzzle, when placing cards, no blue card placed next to a yellow card can have the same number as another blue card already next to that yellow card. As cards are placed they will form a grid. In each line and row of the grid no number may appear more than once.

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If a player places a card illegally that card will be removed from the grid and placed in front of the offending player and remain there, as a penalty stack, until the end of the game. At the end of the game the player with the fewest offending cards in their penalty stack will be the winner – when scoring, yellow cards count as two blue cards.

Impressions: I don’t play SuDoku puzzles, but my partner does. I bought the game hoping that she would enjoy it. To be honest, the game actually is better to play than I expected it to be. Never-the-less, it seems to have the feel of a puzzle rather than a game.

Placing cards really is just a matter of being careful. If you take your time and concentrate you should never place a card in an illegal position. This is the reason that it has the feel of a puzzle – a little bit like a jigsaw. One of the problems with this aspect of the game is that it makes the game slow (sometimes even tedious). There are some occasions that you simply do not have a card in your hand that can be legally played.

I have found the game to be best with two players as it moves along at a better pace. The more players involved the more the game tends to slow down. It is still quite good with three and normally takes no more than 15 minutes to complete a game.

To the uninitiated there is little strategy in the game and little skill involved in the placement of the cards. I personally think that there it is more than just a matter of being careful to check your card placement carefully. There really is some skill in the game and it becomes more interesting in the middle and end stages of the game. Initially just about any card can be placed just about any where. As the game developes it is important to hold back yellow cards to try to limit your opponents options. As you peruse your hand of cards it should be obvious that some cards may have multiple placement options while other cards may be very limited as to where they may be placed.

The other interesting aspect of the game is to watch your opponents' placements with care so as to make sure that you point out there mistakes.

I see this as a potentially pleasant time-filling game. It is not particularly exciting to play but it is pleasant enough, especially if you enjoy playing around with numbers. The short playing time lends itself to situations where you may be waiting for other people to arrive before you commence the real game.

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To be honest, I see it as potentially pleasant as a solitaire game where you simply play the cards to see if you can go through the deck and end up with nothing in your penalty stack.

It will have more appeal to those who enjoy sudoku, numbers and puzzles rather than those who really are looking for a competitive board or card game.

“Dead Men Tell No Tales!”

Thread: Re: Difference between Z-man and Kosmos versions?

tool — 2007-12-05T04:09:10+00:00

Here are all the differences, as far as I can tell:

1. In the Z-Man version a random yellow card is placed on the table, then the rest of the cards are shuffled and 5 dealt to each player, with the start player chosen randomly. In the Kosmos version you just deal 5 cards to each player, then are supposed to determine who has the highest yellow card (by counting down from 9) - that player plays it to start the game. If no one has a yellow card you have to redeal, which is probably why the rule was changed. I don't see that it makes any difference to the game.

2. The Z-Man rules explicitly state that a player can decide not to play a card and instead place one in their penalty stack. The Kosmos rules do not say this (you add a card to your stack if you misplay or cannot play).

3. The Kosmos rules include a variant using the 9 cubes. If playing with this variant, put a cube on each yellow card played (including the first one). When a player completes the 3x3 block surrounding a yellow card, they get the cube on it. At the end of the game each cube is worth 2 positive points (the cards in your stack being worth negative points).

Thread: Difference between Z-man and Kosmos versions?

metalchorus — 2007-11-29T23:27:36+00:00

I found the German rules but can't read them, but did notice that the game appears to come with 9 wooden cubes. Can anyone shed some light on the differences between the two editions and the purpose of the cubes?

Link to Kosmos rules - http://www.kosmos.de/kosmos/wrs/wrs.nsf/$WebFirstSource/FS4F...

Thanks

Thread: Re: I can't do a Sudoku puzzle, but I can play this game

Randy Cox — 2007-10-02T15:45:02+00:00

Thanks for the writeup. I'm hopeful that I can use the components from Sudoku Challenge (also Knizia) to play this game. Those components are tiles, not cards, but it still should work. That particular game isn't a game, but now maybe I can salvage it.

Thread: I can't do a Sudoku puzzle, but I can play this game

stormseeker75 — 2007-08-22T18:48:39+00:00

Sudoku has become an amazingly popular puzzle game in America. You can find it in newspapers right next to the crossword puzzles, at millions of sights on the internet, in large Sudoku books in almost any store, and now, thanks to Z-Man Games and Reiner Knizia, your Friendly Local Gaming Store!

Sudoku Das Kartenspiel is a 2 to 5 player game of Sudoku with some subtle differences. Unlike the traditional paper game, there will be winner(s) and losers here. While there are differences, the game is close enough to the original to win over any Sudoku fan.

Rules

This is a card game featuring the numbers 1 through 9. There are 9 yellow cards numbered 1-9 and 45 blue cards, 5 of each number 1-9.

The rules are simple. To start the game, take 1 of the yellow cards and place it between all the players. The game will start being built off this card. On a players turn, they must place 1 of their cards in a legal postion or discard a card. Numbers can not be duplicated in any row, column, or 9-card box as per standard sudoku rules. Discarded blue cards are worth 1 point and discarded yellows are worth 2. Additionally, if a card is placed incorrectly and is caught before the next player takes their turn, the card is removed from the play area and counts against the player who played it as though it was discarded. Whoever has the lowest point total at the end of the game is the winner.

The one major difference between this game and standard sudoku is that there are not individual boxes of 9. In this game the boxes overlap. The start card is a yellow card. A blue card must be placed next to it. Yellow cards can never be placed next to each other as they form the center of these overlapping boxes. Yellow cards must be placed exactly 1 card away, directly above/below/to the side of another yellow card, thus forming a grid.

Components

There really isn't much to this game. All you get is 54 small square cards and a rulebook in a small box. As for the cards themselves, they are of solid stock, but the square shape makes them hard to shuffle. Obviously, it really helps the layout of the game, so I can deal with it. The writing on the cards is a Japanese looking font which can make some of the numbers hard to tell apart at a distance, especially 7 and 1. 6 and 9 are not underlined so sometimes you will need to check twice. I appreciate the attempt to make the game feel authentic, but its really unneccesary and actually makes reading the cards a bit harder than it should. This may be nitpicking, but some people may want to know this information.

Gameplay

SDK plays pretty quick, but it can be a real brain burner. Sometimes its really hard to figure out where you can legally place a card. This is especially difficult in the early game when there are very few rows and columns. Once the board starts to sprawl, you have many more options. Thus, it is important to try to create a difficult environment for your opponents early in the game.

The game can get slightly frustrating if no yellow cards come out. You may find yourselves in a situation where building is almost impossible. In this situation, both players will generally end up discarding cards, so it generally balances out fairly well.

Again, if you can play sudoku, or even if you can't but you understand the concepts, you can play this game.

Compare it to...

Sudoku on paper, but with multiple people and a lot more fun.

Overall

The short play time of this game would lead you to believe that this is a good filler. I would disagree, mainly because a lot of thinking is required to play this game. Its not always easy to see your move and it can often be difficult to find a place for your cards. This game is probably an ideal gift for a sudoku fan you are trying to get into boardgaming.

I was not a sudoku fan prior to playing this game. I bought this as a gift for my girlfriend. After a couple plays, I don't find myself wanting to do a sudoku puzzle in the newspaper, but I do find myself wanting to play this again. Another solid offering from Reiner Knizia and Z-Man Games. I rate it as a 7, but hardcore sudoku fans may be willing to go higher.

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dougadamsau — 2007-01-01T09:43:07+00:00

Rulebook

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dougadamsau — 2007-01-01T09:11:18+00:00

A small game

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dougadamsau — 2007-01-01T08:25:13+00:00

Box cover - rear

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simonh — 2006-11-24T21:48:53+00:00

Shoana loves playing games with her Dad.

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simonh — 2006-11-24T20:52:15+00:00

Shoana ponders her next play

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simonh — 2006-11-24T20:52:03+00:00

Inside the Rules Booklet

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simonh — 2006-11-24T20:51:45+00:00

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simonh — 2006-11-24T20:48:39+00:00

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simonh — 2006-11-24T20:47:14+00:00

End Game -- trounced on by my 7yo daughter (Shoana 2, Dad 9)

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simonh — 2006-11-24T20:47:10+00:00

What you get in the box