Cards and…Cows? A ‘Take 5’ Explainer
Play your cards and avoid angering the cows in Take 5, a unique and entertaining card-stacking game from Germany!
Welcome in, fellow gamers! When you think of card games, you probably think of Poker, Go Fish, or maybe Blackjack or War. However, what you probably don’t think of is cows, especially trying to avoid said cows. Well, that’s precisely what you’ll be dealing with in Take 5, the card-stacking game from Amigo. While the rules are relatively simple, the game requires a careful balance of strategy and luck to come out on top.
What is Take 5?
Take 5 is a German game by Wolfgang Kramer revolving around playing cards and trying to empty your hand, similar to UNO. The cards are numbered in increasing value, and each card has a number of cows printed on it. The object of the game is to empty your hand and have the fewest cow points in your pool when the game ends.
The number of cards in play ranges all the way up to 104, with lower numbers based on the number of players. However, the cards are always the same, so knowing what cards COULD be played in differently sized games helps to develop the strategy for play.
How Do You Play?
The rules for the game are very simple and can be downloaded from BoardGameGeek.com. However, they are summarized below:
How to Win
- The object of each turn is to take no cards. If you must take cards, take as few Cattle Heads as you can. Each Cattle Head is worth (-1) point.
- The winner is the player who at the end of the game has taken the least number of Cattle Heads.
Game Setup
- Shuffle the deck and deal each player ten cards.
- Take four cards from the deck and place them face up on the table. Each of the four cards is the first card in a row. Each row may never contain more than five cards.
Playing the Game
- All players choose one of their cards and place it face down on the table. They are revealed at the same time. Whoever played the lowest card goes first.
- The starting player places their card into one of the four rows, then passes to the player that played the next highest card until all players have placed their first cards. The cards are always put in a row side by side. Repeat this process until all players have played their 10 cards.
Playing Cards
- Rule 1 : Ascending Numerical Order. A card placed in a row must be greater than the last card already placed in the row.
- Rule 2 : Lowest Difference. The value of a row is the numerical value of the last card in the row. If a card may be placed in more than one row, compare its numerical value to the value of each eligible row. The row with the closest value gets the card.
- Rule 3: Full Row. If a row has five cards and a player must place the sixth card in the row, then that player must take the row. The card they played as the sixth now becomes the new first card for that row.
- Rule 4: Lowest Card. When a player plays a card that is too low to be placed at the end of any of the rows, they select any one of the rows and take all of the cards. Their card now becomes the first card in the row.
6 Nimmt!, or German Take 5
This game is almost identical to Take 5, and was the original language of the game. There are a few variants where play continues until a player reaches a certain score rather than plays a number of cards, and the score changes based on the number of players.
