Cellar des Triplettes Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Players and Duration
• Components
• Game Idea
• The Wine Bottles
• The Wine Cellar
• Setup
• Sequence of Play
  • 1. The Bidding Round
  • 2. The Wine Trade
  • 3. Placing Cards in Your Own Wine Cellar and Scoring Points
  • 4. Refilling the Open Display and Changing the Starting Player
• End of Game

Players and Duration

Players: 3 – 5 people. Age: 10 and up. Duration: about 45 minutes.

Components

• 63 wine cards
• 3 empty bottles
• 47 point chips

Game Idea

Each player bids with the wines they hold as cards in hand for other wines, aiming to win the most valuable specimens (those with many stars). As the game proceeds, each player lays their wine bottles face up next to themselves in a pyramid shape, forming their wine cellar — for every star, they score a point. Additional bonus points are awarded for cleverly placed triplets of matching colors.

Whoever has laid out the most valuable wine cellar (pyramid) next to themselves by the end of the game, and has thereby scored the most points overall, wins the game.

The Wine Bottles

There are seven different wine varieties, each shown by a particular color: Dornfelder wine is yellow, Merlot is red, Zinfandel is green, and so on. Of each variety there are exactly nine cards: three identical cards in the thin bottle (with one star), three identical cards in the square bottle (with two stars), and three identical cards in the large, round-bellied bottle (with three stars).

In the corners of the cards, the value of that bottle (in Euros) is shown. These Euro values are important for the auctions.

Below that is the number of stars (1 – 3) the bottle has. The stars determine the points a player receives when placing that card in their wine cellar.

The empty bottles are worth only 0.2 Euros and carry no stars. Empty bottles can be used in the auctions and built into the wine cellar — but they can never earn points.

The Wine Cellar

As the game proceeds, each player must repeatedly place cards from their hand into their wine cellar (see also "Sequence of Play"), always in a pyramid shape.

The bottom level of the wine cellar consists of (up to) five cards, the level above it of (up to) four cards, then (at most) three cards, two cards, and finally, at the very top, the peak with one card.

A complete wine cellar looks, for example, like this:

• Fifth level: 1 card
• Fourth level: 2 cards
• Third level: 3 cards
• Second level: 4 cards
• Bottom level: 5 cards

Each player must always start with the bottom level. As soon as at least two cards lie next to each other in the bottom level, the player may begin the second level. As soon as at least two cards lie next to each other in the second level, the player may begin the third level, and so on.

Every card in the second, third, fourth, and fifth level must always be "supported" by two cards lying beneath it. In the bottom level, no gaps may remain between the cards.

No gaps are allowed in the bottom level! Cards in higher levels must be supported by two cards lying beneath them.

Once a wine bottle has been placed in the wine cellar, it may not afterward be taken back or moved — what is placed, stays placed. Furthermore, a wine bottle may never be covered up; that is, no other bottle may be placed on top of a bottle that is already lying there (this includes empty bottles).

Empty bottles are placed into the wine cellar exactly like wine bottles, with one single difference: each empty bottle may afterward be covered by a wine bottle. Naturally, empty bottles may also not be moved once placed.

Gaps in higher levels are allowed and may be filled in afterward. Empty bottles can be covered afterward.

If a player's wine cellar is full and no empty bottle can be covered anymore, the player opens a new wine cellar following the same rules.

For the sake of clarity, each player should place their wine cellar not directly in front of themselves, but a little to the side on the table.

Setup

With 3 players, the wine varieties "Bordeaux" (violet) and "Dornfelder" (yellow) are sorted out before the game. With 4 players, the wine variety "Chardonnay" (orange) is sorted out before the game. The sorted-out cards are not needed further and are put back in the box.

All the cards that are needed are shuffled well. With 3 players, this is 45 wine cards plus 3 empty bottles; with 4 players, 54 wine cards plus 3 empty bottles; with 5 players, all 66 cards.

Each player is dealt 5 cards face down, which they take into their hand. The remaining cards form a face-down draw pile in the middle of the table. Four cards are taken from the pile and laid out face up next to each other — these cards form the open display. A starting player is chosen at random.

Sequence of Play

The game proceeds over several rounds. A round of play always consists of four phases, carried out one after another:

1. The bidding round, in which players place bids using their hand cards
2. The wine trade, in which players exchange their bids
3. Placing cards in the wine cellar and scoring points for them
4. Refilling the open display and changing the starting player

1. The Bidding Round

Play proceeds clockwise. The current starting player begins. Whoever's turn it is must either bid cards or pass. Then the next player takes their turn in the same way and must bid cards or pass, and so on. The bidding round ends when all players have passed.

a) Bidding card(s): The player lays one or more cards from their hand face up in front of themselves and states the total value in Euros loudly and clearly. The total value (in Euros) of all cards bid this way by the player must differ from the bids of the other players. That is, two equally high bids may never be on the table at the same time.

Each player may take a turn multiple times and may bid one or more additional cards multiple times, laying them face up in front of themselves. Cards once laid out may not be taken back afterward. Which card(s) a player bids is entirely up to them; these may also be cards of different varieties.

It is expressly allowed to place a bid that is lower than one or more of the other players' bids. This so-called underbidding is an important tactical element of the game, used to obtain specific cards that other players have bid (see "The Wine Trade").

or

b) Passing: A player who passes drops out of the current bidding round. They leave the cards they have bid so far lying in front of them and wait until all other players have also passed. They may not re-enter the bidding round.

Note: It is allowed for a player (on their first turn) to bid no card at all and pass immediately. Whoever passes without having bid at least one card may reveal two cards from the draw pile. They take the lower-valued (in Euros) of the two into their hand and place the higher-valued one face down back under the pile. If the two cards are of equal value, they may choose either of the two and place the other face down back under the pile.

Example: Mike is the starting player. He lays a yellow 5 and a green 14 face up in front of himself and states the total value: "19 Euros." Elke bids a green 7 and says: "7 Euros." Gerd lays down a yellow 12, a blue 9, and a red 20 and says: "I bid 41." Susi lays down a blue 23 and bids "23." Mike adds an empty bottle to his existing bid of 19 Euros and says: "I bid 19.2 Euros." Elke passes. Gerd also passes. Susi adds a red 20 to her 23 and says: "I bid 43." Mike passes. Susi also passes, and the bidding round is over.

2. The Wine Trade

After all players have passed, the players exchange their bids in order of their value (in Euros). The player with the highest bid receives all the cards from the open display; the player with the second-highest bid receives the complete highest bid; the player with the third-highest bid receives the complete second-highest bid, and so on. Players take all the cards they receive into their hand. The cards of the remaining lowest bid are placed where the open display was, next to the face-down draw pile.

Example: Susi has the highest bid and receives the 4 cards of the open display from the middle. Gerd has the second-highest bid and receives the two cards bid by Susi. Mike has the third-highest bid and receives Gerd's three cards. Elke has the lowest bid and receives Mike's three cards. Elke's card is placed face up in the middle next to the pile. Everyone takes their received cards into their hand.

3. Placing Cards in Your Own Wine Cellar and Scoring Points

If a player now holds more than 6 cards in hand, they must place cards into their own wine cellar. Which and how many cards they place is entirely up to them. They may also decide freely in which order and where they place the individual cards (as long as they follow the general rules for the wine cellar). After placing cards, a player may hold at most 6 cards in hand.

The player who had the highest bid must place cards first, then the other players in turn, clockwise. A player who does not hold more than 6 cards in hand does not have to place any cards, but of course may do so if they wish.

Cards are always placed one at a time, one after another, by the player in question. For each wine card placed, the player immediately receives points and takes the corresponding number of chips. For an empty bottle placed, no points are received.

For a wine card placed, the player always receives as many points as there are stars shown on the card: 1 star = 1 point, 2 stars = 2 points, 3 stars = 3 points.

Additionally, the player receives bonus points for the placed card if it completes a color triplet, consisting either of three identical bottles (= 4 bonus points) or of three different bottles (= 1 bonus point). Such a color triplet must lie either in a straight line (diagonal or horizontal) or in a triangular shape.

• Diagonal
• Horizontal
• Triangular

Color triplet with 3 identical bottles: 4 bonus points. Color triplet with 3 different bottles: 1 bonus point. This applies to both the straight-line arrangements and the triangular arrangement.

Example: Susi holds 7 cards in hand and decides to place 4 of them into her wine cellar. Susi first places the violet bottle with three stars. For this she gets 3 points. As the second card, she places the green bottle with two stars next to it and gets 2 points for it. She places the third card next to the second and gets 1 point for it. With the fourth card, Susi begins the second level. She gets 3 points for this card for the three stars, plus 1 bonus point (color triplet with 3 different bottles: triangular). In total, Susi has thus received 10 points.

It is allowed, and very worthwhile, to achieve several color triplets at once with a single placed card, thereby earning bonus points multiple times over.

Example: It is Elke's turn. She already has seven cards in her wine cellar. Now she adds another card: the blue 16 (on the left in the second level). She receives 2 points for the two stars. In addition, she receives 4 bonus points for the color triplet (three identical bottles, horizontal) as well as 1 bonus point for the triangular color triplet at the lower left (three different bottles). In total, Elke has thus scored 7 points with the placed card.

Note: For the sake of clarity, all players should exchange their point chips for chips of the next-higher value whenever possible.

4. Refilling the Open Display and Changing the Starting Player

After the wine trade is finished, the open display, if fewer than 4 cards remain there, is refilled from the pile back up to 4 cards. If there are not enough cards left in the pile, correspondingly fewer are laid out. The player who had the highest bid in the wine trade becomes the starting player for the next round.

End of Game

Play continues round by round in the manner described.

When the face-down pile runs out while refilling the open display, the final round begins afterward. After the wine trade of this round, players may place all their remaining hand cards into their own wine cellar and receive points for them.

The player with the most points is the winner.