BYZANZ

This is one of those twenty-minute card games that like R-Eco and Traders of Carthage never overstays its welcome. Players hold cards ranked 0 to 4 and with they bid on increasingly smaller odd lots of further cards, each player only permitted to buy one lot per round. All of the cards used to purchase and one of those from those purchased are put aside for the second part of the round in which the player who bought last now drafts all of the cards of a single suit. Then the rest draft in reverse purchasing order. In the final part of the round, players discard groups of three cards of the same suit (there are six of them), keeping the high card as their score. The zero cards are wild, or three of them may be turned in together to score five points. The card art by the renowned Doris Matthäus depicts various types of Middle Eastern products and is up to her usual very high standard. Although there is no English edition, the rules are simple and translations are available on-line. The game features the dilemma of how much to bid as well as different ways to approach it: what sets to break up, what to expect in the draft, what to leave for others in the draft, etc. At the same time, it need not be overly taxing. This is one of those lighter affairs that can be enjoyed by the very experienced and the newcomer alike.