''Ligretto'' is a

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...

for two to twelve players. The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards faster than all the other players by discarding them in the middle of the table. Instead of taking turns, all players play simultaneously. The game in its present form was published in 1988 by Germany's Rosengarten Spiele (Rose Garden Games), designed by Michael Michaels. An earlier version of the game was published at the start of the 1960s. Since the year 2000, the game has been published by Schmidt-Spiele from

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. While Playroom Entertainment has published the game for

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and other

English-speaking countries The following is a list of English-speaking population by country, including information on both native speakers and second-language speakers. List * The European Union is a supranational union composed of 27 member states. The total Engl ...

. The game is similar to '' Dutch Blitz'', which is based upon the original 1960s ''Ligretto''.Ligretto
History and origin. Google translate. Accessed May 2008 Both Ligretto and Dutch Blitz use specially printed cards but feature gameplay almost identical to ''

Nerts Nerts (US), or Racing Demon (UK) is a fast-paced multiplayer card game involving multiple decks of playing cards. It is often described as a competitive form of Patience or Solitaire. In the game, players or teams race to get rid of the cards in t ...

'', which is played with standard playing cards and is in turn based on Canfield, a variant of the classic Klondike Solitaire.

Description

The game uses a special deck of cards: each face is red, green, yellow, or blue, and is numbered from 1 to 10. Each player gets 40 cards (ten of each color), which have a distinctive design on the reverse unique to that player. The game consists of 160 cards. Before starting a game, the players shuffle their cards and put ten cards into a "stack" face up on the table. Three cards (four cards in a three-player game, five cards in a two-player game) are laid out face up next to this stack; these are called the "row". The remaining cards are kept in the player's hand. The game starts when a player shouts "Ligretto!" and players simultaneously discard cards in the middle of the table, building colored piles in ascending numerical order according to color, and only starting new piles with a '1' card (placed anywhere near the middle of the table). New piles can be started anytime a '1' card becomes available to a player. Turns are quick, and slow players will miss opportunities to place cards as faster players add to the pile before others can react. Near-ties commonly occur among players discarding the same number card on a pile. When one of the three "row" cards is played, the space gets filled up with the top card from the "stack". If players are unable to discard a card from the three "row" cards or their "stack", they can look at every third card from the cards in their hand and play a card from the top of that pile if it goes on a pile on the table. Once a player's hand has been completely passed through in this manner, it is turned over and taken back into their hand so that they can begin dealing three cards at a time. When all players aren't capable of playing any more cards, all players shuffle their hand. A player shouts "Ligretto!" to start things off again. Play continues at a fast pace, with experienced players usually watching other players' rows and stacks as well as their own. Once a player has discarded all cards from their "stack" pile, they call out "Ligretto stop!" and end the round.

Scoring

At the end of each round, all the cards on the table are turned over, returned to players, and counted, using the distinctive marking on the reverse side unique to each player. The players get double penalty points for each of the cards remaining on their "stacks" and single bonus points for each card discarded in the middle during play. The player who ends the round does not necessarily achieve the highest score. Players can also obtain negative scores in a round. After the scores have been calculated, each player shuffles their 40 cards, and a new round can begin. Play continues until a player scores 100 points and wins the game.

Game packs

''Ligretto'' comes in red, green, and blue packs. Each pack, containing cards for four players, has a different set of markings on the card backs. Having all three packs allows up to 12 players to play at a time.

References

{{Reflist
Game Description
and Online version at brettspielwelt.de. Accessed May 2007
Ligretto
at the Austrian toy museum. Accessed May 2007

External links

Official ''Playroom Entertainment'' websiteLigretto
at Schmidt publishers website. Accessed May 2007
Ligetto!
Game in progress onYouTube Card games introduced in 1988 Dedicated deck card games Shedding-type card games Card games for children

Description

Scoring

Game packs

See also

References

External links