My daughter was in Germany for three weeks and brought a copy home for me. I agree with both of your observations. Shanghaien is the best of the recently released dice games, and, like you, I stink at it.

This was my 2nd game of it. My first game I played several rules wrong, but we still had fun.
I like the tins, I've heard that they may make an english version of this, but without the tins...

After my first game, I added card sleeves for keeping the 3 cards out per round, that seemed to help keep things organized.

And I thought I was doing so well too I lose a lot! Problem was what I kept back was what everyone else kept back too so no points for me!

Yeah, I'd like to try a combo game too sometime.

count me in on this one - at least I didn't lose by HUGE amounts on this one.

Really enjoyed this. I can see why it's a go-to game in our group. Even though it's taken me this long to play.