Review: Ten (AEG) – English

Would you like to try your luck in a colourful and interactive way, without having to leave the comfort of your own home to go to the casino? Does the thrill of Blackjack call to you, but you’d rather play an actually decent game? Then Ten, from the creators of the delicious Point Salad, is definitely something for you!

What’s in a name? In the game Ten you can collect a maximum of 10 points for each series of cards scored, you can have a maximum of 10 coins and as soon as you exceed a score of 10 during your turn, you fail this turn.

In Ten, players try to make series of cards in different colours. To do this, players draw cards from a deck, buy cards from the market and bid for jokers. For each colour of card, players receive an amount of points equal to the number of cards in a row (max. 9). If you manage to make a continuous row of 9 cards in one colour, you also receive bonus points: you are going for the Ten.

Each turn, the active player draws cards from the central draw pile. The pile contains number cards and coin cards. A player may draw as many cards as he/she wants, but as soon as the numbers in total exceed a value of 10, this player has failed. Please note that coin cards count as a negative value during this phase, but as soon as you draw more than 10 coins, you also fail. If a player stops in time, he/she may choose to take the number cards or the coins. If you choose numbers, the other players may get coins. With coins, you can buy a card from the market after your turn. If you fail, you are not empty-handed, because you receive a white coin with a value of 3 coins. You may also use the cards you have won to buy other cards. Bwoah – try saying all that in 10 seconds!

Ten is a great card game. It is easy to learn and explain and it is a good combination of luck, gambling, tactics and scarcity. There are only a limited number of cards, which all players compete for. You don’t want to throw yourself into the same colours and cards as your opponents. In addition, the game is full of delicious dilemmas. Do I continue to draw cards in order to get as many as possible, but at the risk of failing? Do I use cards to buy other cards with the risk of getting holes in my sequence? Highly recommended!