You can’t go wrong with the classics, and let’s face it – classic card games sell.  Uno, Phase 10, Spit, Ligretto… 

What?  You’ve never heard of Ligretto?  Perhaps it is because Ligretto is just making its debut in the United States…after selling over 5 million units in Europe!

A Sneak Peek at Game Play: Ligretto is a card game for two to twelve players, where the object is to get rid of all your cards faster than all the other players by playing them on top of other cards in the middle of the table. Like most fast-paced games, instead of taking turns, all players play their cards as fast as they possibly can, all at the same time. Play is very fast, and it is important to pay attention to the cards being played by others, in addition to your own cards.  Because you must look at the playing surface, your own card layout, and the layouts of your opponents, while still shuffling through your hand, it doesn’t only take quick hands to win this game – it takes a quick mind, too.

The game uses a special deck of cards.  Cards are either red, green, yellow, or blue, and they are numbered from 1 to 10. Each player gets 40 cards (ten of each color) which have a distinctive design and color on the back that is unique to that player.

After shuffling their own deck of 40 cards, players deal ten cards into a Ligretto Stack, face up on the table in front of themselves, so that only the top card is visible. Three cards are laid out face up next to this stack which are called the Row. The remaining cards are held in the player's Hand.

When the game starts, players simultaneously play cards in the middle of the table, building colored piles in sequential numerical order according to color, from 1 to 10.  A new pile can be started anytime a “1” card becomes available to a player, either from their Ligretto Stack or their Row.  If a player can’t play a card from either of those, they can look at every third card from their Hand, playing a card that they find that can go on any pile.  Because play is speedy, slower players will miss opportunities to place cards, as faster players add to piles before others can react!  Watching what your opponents do is half of the fun and strategy in Ligretto!

When one of the three Row cards is placed in the middle, the space gets filled up with the top card from the Ligretto Stack, which is a good thing:  The player who runs out of cards in their Ligretto Stack first, stops the round and has no penalty points scored against them in the Scoring Phase of the game.

At the end of each round, all the cards on the table are turned over and separated by each player’s unique design, so they can be counted.  Players score one point for each card in the center of the table…but that’s not all.  Each player gets a double penalty point for each card still remaining in their Ligretto Stack.  Of course, the player who ended the round doesn’t receive a penalty, but that doesn’t mean that they necessarily earned the most points for the round.

After each player’s score has been tallied, players shuffle their 40 cards, and a new round can begin.  The person to score 99 points first, wins the game!

Different Color Boxes:  What’s That All About? Ligretto comes in Blue, Red, and Green Sets. Each pack has the same number of cards, containing enough cards for four players.  All you need is one set in order to play a game with two to four players.  The difference in the sets is that each one has a different group of markings on the card backs, so if you want to add more players to your game, you can keep track of whose cards are whose!  Buying all three sets allows up to 12 players to play at a time, for a rip-roaring, fast-slapping game, for just a few friends or large groups alike! 

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