A fun card game for the whole family
🔟 TEN 🔟 is a card game we recently bought to bring with us to our holiday. 🙂 I especially like how colorful and inviting it looks. It's easy to learn, yet it has quite a lot going on: push-your-luck, set collection and auction mechanics! Let's break it down. 🧐
The deck is made up of number 🔢 cards and currency 💵 cards. Number cards go from 1 to 9 in four different colors - you will want to collect sets of ascending numbers in each color to earn points, but only your longest set in each color is scored. There are also wild cards that help complete your sets. These wild cards introduce the auction 🔨 part of the game: Whenever one is drawn, the game is paused, and players bid once in turn order, and the one with the highest bid takes the card.
Currency cards give you money that you can use to buy number cards from the market or use it for bidding on wildcards.
And now the push-your-luck part: ☝️On your turn you draw cards one at a time, as long as you want, but if the sum of the numbers goes above ten, you bust! 💥 However, currency cards are subtracted from your running total. This makes pushing more lucrative, as it raises your chances not to bust. But beware, if you have currency cards out above 10 in value, you also bust! When you stop drawing cards, you’ll either take the number cards for growing your sets or the currency cards to earn money. If you choose the number cards, everyone else gets money according to the drawn currency cards. 💲
Number cards not taken will move to the market, where people will potentially be able to buy them at the end of their turn. Interestingly number cards cost as much as their value, even though they are all only worth 1 point in a set.
💬 The game is really fun and it's easy to play, as turns mostly consist of drawing cards, yet there is a nice decision space for when to stop, what to buy or what to bid. Unfortunately the game buckles a bit in 2p due to the auctions. 🙁 If one player has money and the other does not, wildcards can be bought for cheap without a contest. The game is still enjoyable of course, but this makes it more viable for 3, 4 or 5 player gaming.
