Wendish Schafkopf (german: Wendischer Schafkopf), Wendisch or Wendsch 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 four players that uses a

Schafkopf Schafkopf (), also called Bavarian Schafkopf, is a popular German Trick-taking game, trick-taking card game of the Ace-Ten family for four players that evolved, towards the end of the 19th century, from German Schafkopf. It is still very popular i ...

pack of

German-suited cards German-suited playing cards are a very common style of traditional playing card used in many parts of Central Europe characterised by 32- or 36-card packs with the suits of Acorns (''Eichel'' or ''Kreuz''), Leaves (''Grün'', ''Blatt'', ''Lau ...

or a Skat pack of

French playing cards French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are playing cards, cards that use the French Suit (cards), suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three o ...

Aim

The aim of the game is for each partnership of two to score at least 61 card points by taking tricks.

Cards

Ranking

Each suit consists of 6 (24-card game) or 8 cards (32-card game) whose ranking in terms of trick-taking power (beginning with the highest) is:

Ace An ace is a playing card, Dice, die or domino with a single Pip (counting), pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit (cards), suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large a ...

(''Ass'') > Ten (''Zehner'') >

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

(''König'') > Nine (''Neuner'') > Eight (''Achter'') > Seven (''Siebener''). The

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

(''Damen'') or Obers and Jacks (''Buben'') or Unters do not count as part of their suits, but act as permanent

trumps A trump is a playing card which is elevated above its usual rank in trick-taking games. Typically, an entire suit is nominated as a ''trump suit''; these cards then outrank all cards of plain (non-trump) suits. In other contexts, the terms ''tru ...

(see

below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor *Bottom (disambiguation) Bottom may refer to: Anatomy and sex * Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or ...

Card points

Danyliuk (2017). pp. 38-39.

Trumps

The trumps are fixed from the start. If playing with a French-suited pack, the highest trumps are the Queens in the sequence ''

Clubs Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

Spades SPAdes (St. Petersburg genome assembler) is a genome assembly algorithm which was designed for single cell and multi-cells bacterial data sets. Therefore, it might not be suitable for large genomes projects. SPAdes works with Ion Torrent, PacBio ...

, Hearts and

Diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

''. Then follow the Jacks in the same ranking order. As an additional suit, Diamonds are always trumps, the hierarchy of the card values within the trump suit remaining (see above). In a German-suited pack the highest trumps are the Obers in the sequence '' Acorns,

Leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

, Hearts and Bells'', followed by the Unters in the same order and then the rest of the permanent trump suit of Bells. As a result, there is a total of 14 trumps. The two top Queens, Q and Q, or, in a German- suited pack, the two top Obers, O and O, are known as the Old Ones (''Alten''). The players with the Old Ones play as partners against the other two.

Playing

Dealing

The dealer is chosen by lot; the player who draws the highest card becomes the dealer. The cards are dealt in 2 packets of 4 cards each, giving a hand of 8 cards.

Contracts

Normal game

Wendish Schafkopf is a game of partners. The players with the two Old Ones always form a team. If one player is dealt both, he has 2 options. The first is to choose a partner by saying something like "the Ace of Leaves is with me" or "I'll have the Ace of Clubs". The player with that card becomes his partner, but must play that card as soon as possible. He can also say "the first to win a trick is with me" whereupon the first other player to take a trick becomes the partner. The second option is that the player opts to go Solo against the other 3 players.

Hochzeit

If a player has both Old Ones in his hand, he may decide whether to play a ''Solo'' or a ''Hochzeit'' ("Wedding"). If he goes for a Hochzeit, he 'calls' (''ruft'') his playing partner. Unlike

Bavarian Schafkopf Schafkopf (), also called Bavarian Schafkopf, is a popular German trick-taking card game of the Ace-Ten family for four players that evolved, towards the end of the 19th century, from German Schafkopf. It is still very popular in Bavaria, where it ...

it does not have to be an ace, the player may choose any card. He can however specify that the person who takes the first trick will be his partner. He announces this by saying "the first of you to take a trick is with me!" ( ''"Der erste fremde Stich geht mit!"'').

Solo

If a player with both Old Ones thinks his hand is strong enough to contest the game alone, he doesn't say anything (like the "Quiet Wedding", ''stille Hochzeit'' in

Doppelkopf Doppelkopf (, lit. ''double-head''), sometimes abbreviated to Doko, is a trick-taking game, trick-taking card game for four players. The origins of this game are not well known; it is only recorded from the early 20th century and it is assumed t ...

) and plays a Quiet Solo (''stilles Solo'') against the other players. Trumps remain the same. In the ''Lust Solo'' contract, a player announces immediately after the cards are dealt, that he will play on his own. Queens and Jacks / Obers and Unters remain the permanent trumps. The additional trump suit may be specified by the soloist. As well as Diamond Solo (''Karo-Solo''), he may announce Club Solo (''Kreuz-Solo''), Spade Solo (''Pik-Solo'') or Heart Solo (''Herz-Solo''). The soloist in Lust Solo does not have to have the two black Queens. By agreement it can be specified that each player must play a certain number of Solo rounds within a game; this is known as ''Muss Solo''.

Trick-playing rules

In Wendish Schafkopf players must follow suit (''

Farbzwang A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a '' hand'' centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called ''tricks'', which are each evaluated to determine a winner or ''taker'' of that trick. The object of such ...

''), which means that they must always play a card of the same suit as that led. There is no compulsion to win the trick ('' Stichzwang'') nor does a player have to play a trump card (''

Trumpfzwang A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a '' hand'' centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called ''tricks'', which are each evaluated to determine a winner or ''taker'' of that trick. The object of such ...

'') if he isn't able to follow suit.

Scoring

The side with the Old Ones (or the soloist) wins if they have scored at least 61 points. The side with fewer than 30 points is '' Schneider'' and a side with no tricks at all is ''Schwarz'' ("black"). Scoring is determined on the basis of prior agreement. It is customary to play from a kitty into which each player deposits a certain amount of coins or counters before the start of the game.

Variants

As in many card games, there are several variants of Wendish Schafkopf:

Dreiwendsch

Basically the same rules apply to ''Dreiwendsch'', a game for three players, as for Wendish Schafkopf. The dealing of cards is the same as in Skat, packets of 3-4-3. However, two cards are not placed in the middle after 1st packet, but only after 2nd packet. These 2 cards are taken up by the player with the O / Q (or, if pre-agreed, by forehand) and exchanged for 2 others. This player becomes the soloist; the other two players together form the opposing team. In Dreiwendsch there are only solo games. If none of the three players wants to play a solo game, everyone plays against everyone else.

Dreiwendsch with sharp cards

This is a three-hand game with so-called 'sharp cards': all the nines, eights and sevens are removed from the deck, leaving only 20 cards in play. Each player is dealt 6 cards. In this variant, 2 cards are placed in the skat.

Two-Player Wendish Schafkopf

Also called Officers' Schafkopf, this game requires the full deck of 32 cards. Each player receives 16 cards: being dealt 2 rows of cards face down, with 4 cards face up on each row. A face-up card is then placed on each of these cards, so that each player has 8 cards face down and 8 cards face up. You are also not allowed to see your own hidden cards at the beginning. First you play with the visible cards. When a card is played, the face down card underneath it is turned over. Permanent trump cards are the Queens and Jacks as well as all cards in the suit of Diamonds. Otherwise the rules of the Wendish Schafkopf already described apply. The game bears a resemblance to

Officers' Skat Officers' Skat (''Offiziersskat''), is a trick-taking card game for two players which is based on the rules of Skat. It may be played with a German or French pack of 32 cards which, from the outset of the game, are laid out in rows both face down ...

in terms of the distribution of cards, the game situation (cards revealed) and the game principle, but differs culturally, in the number of trumps and the pattern of cards used.

References

Literature

* Danyliuk, Rita. ''1 x 1 der Kartenspiele: Von Bridge über Poker und Skat bis Zwicken.'' 19th edition. Hanover: Humboldt (2017). pp. 38-42. * Grupp, Claus D (1975/1979). ''Kartenspiele im Familien und Freundeskreis.'' Überarbeitete und neugestaltete Ausgabe. Originalausgabe. Falken, Niedernhausen/ Ts. (Dreiwendsch variant) * Kastner, Hugo & Gerald Kador Folkvord (2005). ''Die große Humboldtenzyklopädie der Kartenspiele.'' Humboldt, Baden-Baden.

* {{Trick-taking card games Schafkopf group French deck card games German card games Four-player card games German deck card games Point-trick games