''Schotten Totten'' is a
card game
A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...
designed by
Reiner Knizia
Reiner Knizia () is a prolific German-style board game designer. He was born in West Germany in 1957 and earned a doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Ulm before designing games full time. He is frequently included on lists of the gre ...
, first published in
1999
1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons.
Events January
* January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers.
* January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...
. The name is a
portmanteau
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. of the German words "Schotten" (
Scottish people
Scottish people or Scots (; ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the Scotland in the Early Middle Ages, early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who f ...
) and "Hottentotten" (
Hottentots).
Gameplay
Gameplay in ''Schotten Totten'' resembles simultaneous play of nine separate hands of
poker
Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
, but where each hand has only three cards in it. There are nine "boundary" stones between players at the start of the game. Players vie to win five of the stones, or three adjacent ones, to win the game.
Other versions
In 2000, ''Schotten Totten'' was rethemed and sold under the name ''Battle Line'' (published by
GMT Games
GMT Games is a California-based wargaming publisher founded in 1990. The company has become well known for graphically attractive games that range from "monster games" of many maps and counters, to quite simple games suitable for introducing new ...
) with similar gameplay, slightly altered rules (such as a player's hand size, and cards ranking from 1 to 10 in each of the six suits instead of from 1 to 9), artwork consisting of drawings of ancient soldiers (from the
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Macedonia
* Mac ...
and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
cultures), and tactical cards which "introduce that random element that makes war continually surprising".
The 2004 reprinting of ''Schotten Totten'' added the ten tactical cards from ''Battle Line'', a few of them being types of
wild cards and others allowing you to affect the game in some way outside of the normal rules.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
Card games introduced in 1999
Dedicated deck card games
Reiner Knizia games
{{card-game-stub