Take 5
6 nimmt! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Components
- Basic Rules
- Playing the Game
- The End of a Round
- The End of the Game
- Pro Variant for 2–6 Players
- 6 nimmt! Anniversary Variant With New Special Cards for 2–8 Players
Components
- 132 playing cards
- 104 number cards with values from 1–104
- 28 special cards (4 each of Stop, Shift, Insert, Replace, Negative = Positive, 5th Row, and 7 nimmt!)
- 1 notepad
You will only need the special cards for the Anniversary Variant. Leave them in the box when playing the basic game.
Basic Rules
Goal of the Game
Your goal is to avoid taking cards. Each card you must take gives you one negative point for each bullhead printed on it. The player with the fewest points after several rounds is the winner.
Getting Ready to Play
Shuffle all the cards and deal ten to each player. One of you takes the notepad and a pencil to keep score.
Create Four Rows
Take the leftover cards and place four of them in the center of the table face-up as shown to the right. Each of these cards is the start of a row which can hold a maximum of five cards, including this first one. Put the other cards aside. You won’t need them until the next round.
Playing the Game
1. Playing Cards
Each player chooses one card from their hand and puts it face down on the table. Once all players have a card in front of them, reveal the cards.
The player who has played the card with the lowest value goes first, placing it in one of the four rows. Cards always go next to each other in their row. Next, the player with the second-lowest-value card goes, and so on, until the highest card played has been placed in a row. Repeat this process 9 more times, until you’ve played all ten of your cards.
Where do the cards go?
Each card you play can only go in one particular row, following these rules:
Rule 1: Ascending Order
The cards in each row must be added in ascending order of value.
Rule 2: Lowest Difference
Always place your card in the row where the difference between the last card and the new card is the smallest.
2. Taking a Row
As long as you can play your card in an existing row, everything’s fine. However, what happens if a row is full or your card won’t fit in any row? In these cases, you must take a row.
Rule 3: Full Row
A row containing five cards is full. If you play a sixth card into a full row, you have to take all five cards in this row. Your played card becomes the new first card for this row.
Rule 4: Low Card
If you play a card whose value is too low for it to fit in any row, you must take all the cards from one row of your choice. Your low card becomes the new first card for this row.
Hint: If a low card forces you to take a row, as a rule you should pick the row with the fewest bullheads!
Bullheads = Negative Points
Each card has at least one bullhead printed at the top and bottom between the numbers. Each bullhead counts as one point.
All cards with:
Numbers ending in 5 (5, 15, 25 etc.) have two bullheads,
Multiples of 10 (10, 20, 30 etc.) have three bullheads,
Doublets (11, 22, 33 etc.) have five bullheads.
The number 55 is both a doublet and a number ending in 5, so it has seven bullheads.
Your Bull Pile
Every time you must take a row, put the cards in front of you on your face-down bull pile.
Important: Cards you’ve taken don’t go back in your hand!
The End of a Round
The round ends when you’ve played all cards from your hands. Take your bull piles and count the bullheads (= negative points) on the cards.
The scorekeeper writes down how many negative points each player has earned, and the next round starts.
The End of the Game
Continue playing round after round, until one of you has earned at least 66 negative points. The player with the fewest points is the winner! If there is a tie, you have multiple winners.
Of course, you can choose a different target number of points or simply agree on a set number of rounds.
Pro Variant for 2–6 Players
If you love tactical play, we recommend this variant. The rules of the base game all remain valid. However, follow these additional rules:
-
You know all the cards in the game
The cards you’ll use depend on the number of players. Multiply the player count by 10 and add 4.
Example:
3 players ➔ 34 cards numbered 1–34
4 players ➔ 44 cards numbered 1–44
and so on
Put all higher-value cards aside. -
Each player picks their own ten cards
Next, spread out the cards on the table face-up. Take turns picking one card and adding it to your hand until you each have ten cards. Four cards are left over. These are the starting cards for your four rows.Other than that, gameplay goes just like in the basic game.
6 nimmt! Anniversary Variant With New Special Cards for 2–8 Players
Setup
Shuffle the number cards and special cards separately. Deal twelve number cards and three special cards to each player. Just like in the base game, place four number cards in the center of the table to start your four rows. Set aside the leftover number cards. The remaining special cards go in a face-down deck within easy reach of all players.
One of you takes the notepad and a pencil to keep score.
Playing the Game
All rules from the basic game remain in effect in this variant. However, you only play two rounds. The first round ends when you’ve played all of your number cards. You’ll get new number cards and more special cards for the second round.
How to Play a Special Card
Every time you would have to place the number card you’ve played in a row, you may play one of your special cards. First, place your special card next to the number card you’ve played. Then, place your number card as determined by the special card you played. Used special cards go next to the special card deck, face up.
These Are The Special Cards:
- 5th Row
- 7 nimmt!
- Insert
- Replace
- Shift
- Stop
- Negative = Positive
5th Row
When you play this card, start a 5th row. The number card you played becomes the first card of the 5th row. As long as there are five rows to place cards in, another 5th Row card can’t be played. As soon as any player must take a row, they don’t just have to put that row on their bull pile: they also take the number card they played. After that, you have four rows again.
Hint: To help you keep this in mind, place the special card to the left of the 5th row and only put it on the discard pile when you’re back to four rows.
7 nimmt!
When you play this card, you don’t have to take a full row. Instead, place the number card you’ve played in the 6th place of the full row and this special card in the 7th place. Now, whoever adds the 7th card has to take this row. The special card remains in place until that row has to be taken. The player who takes the row takes the six cards, and their number card becomes the new first card for the row. You may place this special card in the seventh place of a row even if it holds fewer than five cards at the time.
Insert
When you play this card, don’t add the number card you’ve played to the end of the matching row. Instead, insert it between two number cards in any row of your choice or even at the start of a row. The played card only has to fit in its row in ascending order. If the row is full, you’ll still have to take it. In this case, the last card in the row becomes the new first card.
Replace
When you play this card, take the number card you’ve played back into your hand. Pick another number card from your hand instead and place it in a matching row immediately. The new number card does not change the order in which the other players place their cards.
Shift
When you play this card, move any number card to another row before placing your card. The new row may contain the special card “7 nimmt!,” but not the special card “Stop.” The card you move only has to fit into its new row in ascending order. When you’re done, place the number card you played earlier at the end of a row following the normal rules.
Stop
When you play this card, place it at the end of any row before placing your number card. This row is blocked: No one can add cards to it, remove cards from it, or take the whole row. Then place your number card in another row according to the normal rules.
Important: There can only be two rows with a “Stop” card at the same time.
The next time one of you must take a row, also remove all “Stop” cards from their rows.
You may place a “Stop” card next to a “7 nimmt!” card.
Negative = Positive
You can only use this card when you’re about to take a row. It transforms the negative points of one number card from that row into positive points. Take the row and immediately subtract the bullheads on one of those cards from those on your other cards, either from the same row or that you’ve taken earlier. Put the number cards you’ve cancelled out with the leftover cards you did not use in this round. If you don’t have enough bullheads in your bull pile, the remaining positive points go to waste.
Swapping Special Cards
Whenever you take a row, you may swap one of your special cards by placing it next to the special card deck face up and drawing the top card from that deck. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discarded special cards and turn them into a new deck.
The End of the First Round
The first round ends when you’ve played all of your number cards. The scorekeeper writes down your respective negative points on the pad. Then you shuffle all 104 number cards and deal twelve to each player again. If you still have any special cards left from the first round, you may keep them for the second round. In addition, each player receives three more special cards. If you don’t have enough special cards left to give three to each player, everyone only gets two (or one).
The End of the Game
The game ends when you’ve played all of your number cards in the second round. Set aside any special cards you still have left in your hand. Write down your negative points from the second round and add them to those from the first round. The player with the fewest negative points is the winner. If there is a tie, you may have multiple winners.
Overview of the Special Cards
5th Row
Start a 5th row. If there are 5 rows already, you can’t play this card.
7 nimmt!
You don’t have to take this row when playing the 6th card, but you do for the 7th.
Insert
Play your number card in any position in any row in ascending order.
Replace
Swap your played card for another number card from your hand.
Shift
Move a number card to another row in ascending order: at the start, the middle, or the end.
Stop
Block a row. This row cannot be changed. At any time, there can only be two copies of this card on the table.
Negative = Positive
When you take a row, this card turns the bullheads on one card from negative to positive points.