Réunion, Reunion or Vereinigungsspiel is an historical

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

point-trick game 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 suc ...

for three players which, despite its French name, appears to have originated in the central

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

and lowland areas to the east. It is a 10-card game of the ace–ten family and uses a 32-card French-suited

piquet pack A Piquet pack or, less commonly, a Piquet deck, is a pack of 32 French suited cards that is used for a wide range of card games. The name derives from the game of Piquet which was commonly played in Britain and Europe until the 20th century and is ...

or 32-card Skat pack. Players who cannot follow suit must trump. Otherwise the game can be described as a simplified version of Skat, but is also reminiscent of

Euchre Euchre or eucre ( ) is a trick-taking game, trick-taking card game played in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, Upstate New York, and the Midwestern United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 25, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. There are no ...

with its two permanent top trumps, the Right and Left Bowers.

History

The game occurs in early 19th century German game anthologies, where it was said to be popular in the western parts of Germany, and more specifically the area of the rivers

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

Main Main may refer to: Geography *Main River (disambiguation), multiple rivers with the same name *Ma'in, an ancient kingdom in modern-day Yemen * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *Spanish Main, the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territ ...

Lahn The Lahn () is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the States of Germany, federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). ...

and

Neckar The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar ...

. Due to the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

, this area was under a strong French cultural influence in the early years of the century. Despite the game's French name, it does not appear in the French game anthologies of the time, and the card-point schedule is more similar to German or Dutch games than to French games. Parlett calls it an "18th-century Rhenish game". In 1883, it is said to be only known in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

. More recently the rules of Reunion have appeared in the book of card game rules by card manufacturers,

ASS Altenburger ASS Altenburger is since 2003 the trademark of the German playing card manufacturer Spielkartenfabrik Altenburg, based in the town of Altenburg. The firm is owned by Cartamundi, of Turnhout, Belgium. ASS (''Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkarten ...

,_ (1983) ''Erweitertes Spielregelbüchlein aus Altenburg'', Verlag Altenburger Spielkartenfabrik, Leipzig. and in Parlett's ''Penguin Book of Card Games'', which points out that a variant, Harjan, is still played in Norway.Parlett, David (2008). ''The Penguin Book of Card Games'', Penguin, London. Page 246.

Rules

Cards

Aces are high. The jack (or Unter) of trumps is elevated to the highest rank and known as the ''right bower''. The jack (or Unter) of the other suit that is the same colour as the trump suit is also considered a member of the trump suit. It is the second highest trump and known as the ''left bower''. The right and left bowers are worth 12 card-points each. The two jacks of the opposite colour rank in their normal suit and retain their normal ranks and card-point values. The last trick is worth another 10 points, resulting in a total 150 points in the deal.

Dealing and play

Players draw cards for seating and cut for the first deal, the player cutting the lowest card dealing first. Dealing and play are anticlockwise. After shuffling and cutting, the dealer turns up the ''bottom'' card to determine the trump suit. Each player receives 10 cards in batches of 3–4–3. The dealer also takes up the remaining two cards including the turn-up card, then discards two cards face-down. The dealer must not discard any aces or bowers and must not discard more than one ten.

Forehand The forehand is a shot used in most racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and pickleball, where the palm of the hand precedes the back of the hand when swinging the racket. In tennis, except in the context of the phrase ''forehand volley ...

leads any card to the first trick. Players must follow suit if possible. A player who cannot follow suit must play a trump if possible. The trick is won with the highest trump, or the highest card of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads to the next trick.

Side payments

Side payments occur in two cases. A player who loses the left bower in a trick pays one unit to the player who won the trick with the right bower. A player who does not win a single trick pays one unit each to the opponents, his score being recorded as a ''Stange'' i.e. a diagonal slash (/) if he scored no points or an underline (e.g. 14) if he was the dealer but only scored points in the discards.

Game and scoring

A game consists of three successive deals, each player dealing once. Any player who scores (strictly) less than 150 points pays one unit to the winner, or two units if '' matsch'' ("in the mud") i.e. scores less than 100 points, or three if less than 50, or four if a player scored no points at all. (The latter case is very unlikely since every player once has the chance to discard a scoring card as a dealer.)

Ekart

Two versions of Réunion are described by August Schneider in 1883 under the name Ekart in his book on the card games of

. Little Ekart (''Kleine Ekartspiel'') is the 'usual' variant and is played much as described above. However, a player who reckons on taking all tricks – a feat known as a ''Staubaus'' ("clearout") may demand a card of choice from another player and take over the lead to the first trick. This opportunity is quite rare in the normal game, but in Great Ekart (''Große Ekart'') or the 'suit game', it is more common. In this variant, if no-one bids a ''Staubaus'' in the trump suit, there is a second round of bidding in which a player may bid a ''Staubaus'' in another suit which then becomes the trump suit. All four Jacks become matadors, the two of the trump colour remaining the highest, so that there are now 11 trumps '' in toto''. Schneider also describes how the game may be played with 4 or 5 players, only three being active at any one time and the remainder sitting out as

kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...

.Schneider (1883), pp. 3–8.

References

Literature

• _ (1829)
''Neuestes Allgemeines Spielbuch''
C. Haas, Vienna. * _ (1834). ''Neuestes Spielbuch''. C. Haas’schen, Vienna - rules identical to Müller (1830) except for addition of where the game is popular. * _ (1983) ''Erweitertes Spielregelbüchlein aus Altenburg'', Verlag Altenburger Spielkartenfabrik, Leipzig. * - rules identical to ''Neueste Spielbuch'' of 1834. * . * Grimm, Georg (1840). Neuestes Spielbuch. Otto Wigand, Leipzig. * Krünitz, Johann Georg (1833). ''Dr. Johann Georg Krünitz’s ökonomisch-technologische Encyclopädie, oder allgemeines System der Staats-, Stadt-, Haus- und Landwirtschaft'', Volume 157. Paulische Buchhandlung, Berlin. * Müller, J. F. (1830). ''Neuestes Spiel-Taschenbuch, oder gründlicher Unterricht zur praktischen Erlernung der Karten-, Billard-, Schach- und anderer Spiele''. F. Ebnerschen Buchhandlung, Ulm. * . * Schneider, August (1883)
''Elsässische Kartenspiele''
Strasbourg: G. Fischbach. * Tendler, F. (1830). ''Verstand und Glück im Bunde. Ein theoretisch-practisches Spielbuch aller bis jetzt bekannten, älteren und neuesten, ihrer Solidarität wegen beliebten und erlaubten Kartenunterhaltungen''. F. J. P. Sollinger, Vienna - reorganised rules but substantially the same as Müller (1830). {{DEFAULTSORT:Reunion (Card Game) 18th-century card games German card games Three-player card games Skat (card game) French deck card games Ace–ten games German deck card games Point-trick games