Tunge
Sequence playing game with a viscious forced pick up for Two to Four players.
Object
To play out all ones card.
Starting
From a full deck of fifty-two cards, Twelve cards are dealt to each player. The remaining cards are set aside and used as a draw pile.
Player Turns
Each players turn consists of either:
- Placing an allowed sequence of cards from his/her hand onto the discard pile.
- Drawing a card from the draw pile.
Allowable Sequences
When playing cards from his/her hand, a player may:
- Play a run of two or more cards. e.g. 5,6 or 10,J,Q etc.
- Play a group of two or more cards of the same number. e.g. 5,5 or Q,Q,Q,Q.
- Play an Ace followed by any single card. e.g. A,10 or A,3. This may also include another ace. e.g. A,A,9.
- Play an Ace followed by any of i), ii), iii) or iv) as above. e.g. A,2,3,4 or A,7,7,7 or A,A,4 or A,A,5,6,7,8,9. Etc.
Forced Pick-up
If the sequence of cards played by one player contains cards of the same face value as the last sequence played on the discard pile, then the player whose turn it is next picks up a number of cards from the draw pile equal to the number of such matching cards in the sequences.
An example of this is:
Player 1 | Ordinary pick-up |
Player 2 | 5,6,7,8,9 |
Player 3 | 8,9,10,J |
Since the 8 and 9 in Player 3's sequence match those in player 2's sequence the next player must pick up 2 cards. However the next player is player 1 who must therefore pick-up even though he had nothing to do with the sequences played.
Another example is:
Player 1 | 7,6,5 |
Player 2 | Ordinary pick-up |
Player 1 | A,6,6 |
Here Player 2 must pick-up an extra card for the matching 6.
This also works with Aces:
Player 1 | A,K |
Player 2 | A,2,3,4 |
So Player 1 must pick-up 1 card for the matching Aces.
The End Game
If the face-down draw pile runs out, then players wishing/forced to pick-up must take the top card(s) from the discard pile. This leads to complex play as cards just discarded are immediately picked up to be used again.
As cards from the discard pile are picked up sequences can be broken and it can become difficult to remember the last sequence played. Therefore for the end-game we suggest the following:
- The last sequence is always considered to be the longest viable sequence of cards left at the top of the discard pile. e.g. suppose the last few cards on the pile are 3,4,5,5 then the last sequence is 5,5 or suppose the last few cards are K,K,J the last sequence is considered A,J (since the only way to play a single card is by using an Ace).
- No one is allowed to play a sequence of any length which contains exactly a sequence of cards the same as those in the last viable sequence. e.g. the last few cards are J,J,7,8,9 the next sequence of cards played cannot be 7,8,9 nor 7,8 nor 8,9. This is because the next player would have to pick up these cards and could then play them again. This would lead to pointless play and maybe even a stalemate.
Winning the Game
The winner is the first player to play out all the cards from his hand.
Keeping Score
Should you wish to keep score over a number of games, we suggest that the winner scores no points and the other players score points equal to the face value of all cards left in his/her hand (after any forced pick-ups have been made). Where Court cards score 10 and Aces 11. The player with the lowest number of points is the overall winner.
End Game Variant
After the deal the remaining cards are turned face up and placed in the middle to be used as the playing pile. This is quite a bizarre version and requires experience of the normal Tunge endgame to play skillfully.
Credits
Devised by Francis and Andy B.
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