Schotten Totten – Review

Schotten Totten is a two player game designed by Reiner Knizia in 1999. It is currently published by Pro Ludo. (This review was originally posted on BoardGame-Reviews.com)

Schotten Totten:

• Designed by: Reiner Knizia
• Published by: Pro Ludo
• Number of players: 2-2
• Playing time: 20 min
• Player ages: 8+

A Quick Overview

Each player is the leader of one of two villages in the Scottish Highlands. These villages are usually peace-loving folk but love to make sure that no one encroaches on their territory.

Every once in a while, however, the border stones that delineate territories get moved and then things start to get a bit scary!

As village leader, you get to line up your 27 clansmen at each of the boundary stones and reassert your village’s territory!

Game Play

The deck of 54 cards is shuffled and six are dealt out to each player. The remainder form a draw pile. The cards are broken down into six clans (colours) of nine clansmen (numbered “1″ through “9″).

On a player’s turn, he performs the following actions:

• Play a card
• Claim a boundary stone (if possible)
• Draw a card

A player must play a card at one of the boundary stones; no more than 3 clansmen may be present on either side of the boundary stone.

A player then can claim stone if his combination of played cards is stronger than the opponents or can prove that his opponent cannot play a stronger hand.

Hand rankings use poker hands and are as follows (highest to lowest) :

• Ordered Clan = straight flush
• Schottentot Team = 3 of a kind
• The Clan = flush
• Schottentot Squadron = straight
• Wild Horde = Any 3 cards

The winner is the one that can claim any 5 boundary stones or 3 adjacent boundary stones!

Observations

A 2-player card game is always handy every once in a while. This one is designed by Reiner Knizia and it is fun. It plays in about 20 minutes, cheap and is easily transported.

For such a little game, there is much going on here. Throughout most of the game, you will have a hand of six cards and you must play a card and commit your clansmen!

Do you hold out to get the straight flush or play it hoping you’ll get a stronger card when you draw? These are some fun choices to make.

And when your opponent plays a card that you needed, you will have to rethink your plays.

This game is reimplemented as “Battle Line” and has a wargame theme with a few additions. One of the additions is the inclusion of the “Tactics” cards which allow you to break the basic rules in a few ways.

The newer edition (2004) of Schotten Totten includes a set of “Tactics” cards with the same goofy cartoony Scots A whole lot of fun indeed.

Personally, I prefer the “Schotten Totten” version over Battle Line as the cartoony Scots are delightfully illustrated.

Happy gaming.