Bids

[To easier find other Bids players: https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=8752408 ]

Bids is a card game for 3 to 6 players where you are bidding in 10 turns for the black cards in the middle of the table. There are two ways of scoring points (see scoring). The colors have no meaning in the basic version, only for Color Bids (see below).

Cards in the game

• 3 players: 3 colors + black: 1-10
• 4 players: 4 colors + black: 1-10 (+ Ally)
• 5 players: 4 colors + black: 1-12 (+ Ally)
• 6 players: 4 colors + black: 1-14 + Ally

+ black -5 and black 2x For 3-5 players, 1 card is randomly taken out. If the Ally Card is on in a 4-player game, 2 cards are out.

Scoring

The highest bid wins the number of points that are in the middle, but has to start bidding for the next card. When there is a tie in highest bids (for example 2 players bid a 10 as a highest card), nobody wins the trick. In this case, "The Burner is the Turner", which means that the last one who played the highest card needs to start bidding the next trick.

Players can also choose to go for the 'lucky loser points' by not obtaining any black point cards. The game is played in several rounds of 10 turns, and the lucky loser points increase by the number of rounds you are able to avoid any black cards. The lucky loser points also depend on the number of players in the game:

• 3 players: 12 points x number of zero-rounds
• 4 players: 8 points x number of zero-rounds
• 5 players: 8 points x number of zero-rounds
• 6 players: 7 points x number of zero-rounds

Black cards in the hand of a player

Depending on the number of players, there are some black cards in the hand of the players.

• 3 players: 1 card
• 4 players: 1 card
• 5 players: 2 cards
• 6 players: 3 cards

Players also have to bid with this black card. The points of the black card are added to the value of the trick and are won by the highest bidder (the black card itself can also win). Example:

• Players are bidding for black 5.
• Player 1 plays red 5.
• Player 2 plays green 4.
• Player 3 plays black 7.

This means that player 3 wins 7 + 5 points.

2x Card

This card doubles all points that you have at the moment when you win this card. Points obtained later are not doubled.

Options

-5 Bonus

When this option is active, 30 points are divided over all players who won the most -5s over all rounds together. Example:

• Player A won 3 rounds the -5
• Player B won 3 rounds the -5
• Player C won 0 rounds the -5

At the end of the game, players A and B receive 15 (30 divided over 2 players) bonus points.

Ally Card

It is recommened to add the Ally Card in games with 5 and 6 players. This white card will be in the hand of one of the players. When a players plays this card, they will be allies with the winner of that trick. Being allies means that at the end of the round all your points are summed and divided by 2.

Lowest Card

When this black card is added to the game, the lowest card (instead of the highest) wins from the moment this card appears.

Surprise Card

This black card has a question mark on it. This means that players are bidding fo the next black card, without knowing what this card will be. When the card is in the hand of one of the players, the black card in the middle is replaced by the following one when it's played.

Thief Card

The player who wins this card has the right to steal one of the black cards that one of the other players has already won. This can be done at the end of each turn after winning the Thief (at most once) and the thief can only steal from the player who plays the lowest bid in the previous trick. Example:

• Players are bidding for black 5.
• Player 1 plays red 5.
• Player 2 plays green 4.
• Player 3 plays yellow 7.

This means that player 3 wins 5 points. The Thief has the chance to steal from player 2.

Color Bids

What is different?

In Color Bids wins the highest card of the color that appears the most on the table. Example:

• Player 1 plays red 5.
• Player 2 plays green 4.
• Player 3 plays yellow 7.
• Player 4 plays green 5.

Player 4 wins because there are 2 green cards on the table and they played the highest green card.

The black card in the middle

One important difference here is that the black card in the middle also can win the trick. Therefore the count of black is always +1. Example:

• Players are playing for the black 8
• Player 1 plays red 5.
• Player 2 plays green 4.
• Player 3 plays green 7.
• Player 4 plays black 5.

Nobody wins the trick because both black and green appear 2 times but from both colors, the black 8 is the highest.