The Decktet Wiki

Thanks. I don’t think there’s a situation where you couldn’t get around the requirement, if it were one.

Yes, you can! But since you're not dealing onto the tableau it's not very important, yeah.

Never mind; I realized the restriction makes no difference in this game.

Am I allowed to deal while there are empty tableau piles?

I have already posted this on BGG some months ago, but now I have added entry to this wiki too.
I can't link it but search for "Hexaract" on the wiki.

Any feedback, suggestions, discussion etc. is welcome.

Correct: When you play a Crown to an increasing stack or an Ace to a decreasing stack, then you can't play any more cards on that stack.

Welcome to the world of the Decktet. I'm glad that you are enjoying Emu Ranchers.

Well, I guess I'm REALLY late to this dance! But I just recently dived into the Decktet world, and even more recently tried my hand at Emu ranching. My wife and I played it for the first time last night and had a blast. I just wanted to kinda double check something…

Am I correct in understanding that playing an Ace or a Crown on a previously established bird effectively closes off any further play on that bird?

As I indicated, we only have a few hands of playing experience, so I haven't yet worked out the best strategies (i.e. starting most birds with either an Ace or a Crown hoping to get the 5 point bonus) but it seems like a game with a lot of replayability.

Thanks for your hard work.

Magi is inspired by the playing card solitaire game "Oracle Patience". It is called Magi after the three wise men of the biblical narrative which here represent the three powers of man that battle for dominance - Intelligence, Emotion, and Instinct. These powers, or Magi, are represented by three Personality cards that contain between themselves all suits of the Decktet, the Lunatic corresponding to the mind, the Painter corresponding to the sentiments, and the Savage corresponding to the body. These personalities are arranged as the three corners of a triangle and courts are built around them by placing a card at each of their four sides as they are upturned from the pack. The upper card in each court is immovable; the three others are moveable meaning that they can capture and be captured.

Upturned cards are first played to contribute to a court with a corresponding suit if space is available. If the card corresponds to multiple Magi, it is placed at the court corresponding to the highest available suit in the depicted arrangement. A court is completed when all four sides of a Magi card have been occupied.

If a card containing one of the suits of a Magi with a completed court is turned up, and it cannot be previously be played as part of a court, it activates the power of the corresponding Magi. If the card corresponds to multiple completed courts, priority is given to the highest listed suit first.

Once the power of a Magi card is activated, the upturned card may be used to capture a card of the same value from another court. Both cards are then placed on top of the stack above the corresponding Magi card. If no capture is available, the card is similarly placed on top of the corresponding stack. Additionally, the three movable cards of the court of the activated Magi card may also capture cards of their value from other courts - one stack each. These cards are placed beneath their captors and may be recaptured as a set. If no cards of a similar value are available for capture by the three movable court cards, then nothing happens and another card is upturned from the deck.

Gameplay proceeds in this manner until the deck is depleted. The Magi card surrounded by the highest total value of cards represents the power that is dominant in the player during the gameplay session. Aces=1, Pawns=10, Courts=11, and Crowns=12. Numbered cards are valued accordingly. The Excuse is not used in this game.

(This game is still being tested)

I think the game predates the Courts, and they might be too powerful an addition.

Hmm… As I read the English phrase "at least one matching each of the three suits", it's ambiguous between requiring three tokens (one for each suit) or one tri-coloured token. That's the grammar of it. Since tokens only represent one suit each, context fixes it to mean three tokens.

Maybe I'll take a crack at rewording it.

A player may develop a Court as a property by spending 10 resource tokens matching any of the three suits, with at least one matching each of the three suits.

Not being a native speaker but doesn't that mean that one token would have to have three colours?

EDIT: wrong reference to message, should have beesn starting a new thread on the rule wordings.

With a few plays under my belt, I'd say making it optional is better, just because you'll rely less on luck and more on planning.

As for whether you are forced to meld: My hunch is that the original design makes them optional. This is obviously a variable you can adjust to vary the difficulty.

Regarding the Courts: There was a time in the distant past before there were Court cards. Head Solitaire is from from those dark, early days.

CC by-nc-sa.

Right. It's needed majority. If anyone has more points, no one gets the Ace.
But if someone has the Ace of previous hands and ties with others in the last hand, he maintains the Ace.

In case of a tie, nobody gets the Ace, right?

(And since I'm here, let me tell ya, saying that something is under a CC license means nothing, you have to specify the license. Unless it's under the same license as the whole wiki, in which case, there's no need to bother at all.)

So, if there is a meld in my hand, do I HAVE to put it in the meld archive? If yes, do I have to put all possible cards in it?

Real life situation: say it's phase two, and I got four Crowns in my hand, and one of them is the Crown of Waves. But I know the 9 and 8 of Waves are coming next draw. Can I keep the Crown of Waves out of the meld? I can also imagine a situation where one would prefer not to make a meld in phase 1, in order to perhaps put the cards in a more effective order and discard them.

Also, the rules for the extended deck don't mention Courts, but they're there, right? Just like Pawns? I saw a 41 card deck somewhere… were the Courts previously not in the extended deck?

While Pawns and Courts are versatile, the Crown is rather weak in comparison, as it can be a total dud in a fight, and in itself hard to obtain. At the moment I try to avoid all Crowns in the first round, even if it means forfeiting a fight. This seems to narrow down the strategy for me.

Do you feel it might be worthwhile to give the Crown a boost?

The "hand" is a face down draw pile. I will work on the wording. I will try to add something for the aces and the excuse also. I play with the excuse having 0 points towards the current goal and aces having only 1 point.

I can't believe someone tried to play a game I made up. I'm shocked. The Hobbit was obviously my inspiration for the theme. I agree the directions are ambiguous, I've never had to write directions for a game before.