Who doesn’t love candy? I know I do and I especially love the fun ways you can collect it! Halloween door to door, Easter eggs hidden around the yard or my personal favorite: at a birthday party falling out of a piñata! Today we are going to take a look at a game that gives us that experience in a card game and see how it stacks up!
Piñatas is designed by Reiner Knizia. Illustration from Dom2D and Graphic Design from Matt Paquette & Co., Anca Gavril & Co. It is published by Allplay and plays 2-5 players in 30 mins.
Overview:
Piñatas is a trick-taking card game where the goal each round is to win a set number of tricks and go out. The longer you last each round the more points you score, but don’t be the last player left standing. Score 25 points and you win!
Gameplay:
Shuffle the deck of cards and deal them according to the player count our to each player. This is a trick taking game so it’s played as normal for that style: first player leads the trick and the card they play is the lead suit. The highest ranked wins unless a trump suit card is played, then that wins the hand.
Players go out based on how many tricks they have won. When a player has won the required number of tricks, they place all cards left in their hand facedown on the discard pile. They then count the tricks all players have won this round and score those points. Each player grabs their total in point tokens.
The round ends when everyone but one is out. The last player scores points equal to the number of tricks they won. Then the next round starts. Shuffle all playing cards and deal each player again. The last player from the previous round is the new first player. The first player chooses the trump suit by placing any 1 of the 5 suit tokens in the game area then they lead the first trick.The game continues until someone scores 25 pts. Then they are the winner!
Impressions:
I really enjoyed this game, I am a big fan of trick takers and enjoyed seeing a new variety of it in this one. Overall for a trick taker, I need something that’s gonna be different and not be the standard gameplay for what I’ve played in the past. One of the best parts of Piñatas is it actually does add change in the way you have to go out late, but not too late to do well with your point scoring.
We have especially enjoyed the art on these cards. It is an amazing style and I really love the progression of destruction of each piñata on the cards as the numbers increase. What a fun way to show the way the piñatas fall apart, but also fit well for each type of card. Probably my favorite art on any of the tricktakers I currently have my collection.
Overall this is a game you must get in your collection if you are a fan of Knezia games, enjoy cute artwork and love to find a new trick-taking game with unique features. I’ve had a good time around the table with various ages on this one and I think for your next game night you will as well!
Be the first to comment