“Up, up & away in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon”
Sandbag is a trick-taking game where the goal is to not take tricks. Sounds easy enough but what if I told you, the trump colour can change in the middle of a trick? You thought you were sluffing off but all of a sudden, you’re winning the hand with a trump card. WHAT???
OVERVIEW/GAMEPLAY
Sandbag plays 3-6 players & consists of 5 colours (4 in a 3-player game), ranging from 0-10 plus 5 rocket cards. Cards are shuffled & dealt evenly to all players. Of your cards, you’re gonna pass 1 card to the player on your left & 1 card to the player on your right (probably a high card, since you don’t want to win tricks). Next, you’ll place 3 cards face-down in front of you. Once everyone has done this, you’ll flip over 2 of those cards (the 3rd is left face-down as a “sandbag”, which can be used during a trick to sluff). The 2 face-up cards are available for other players to play, replacing it with one of their cards (face-down), giving you another sandbag (point) BUT it’s better than not having those cards taken because if you end the round with any face-up cards in front of you, those are full points equal to the number on them (a 7 would then be 7 points & again, you don’t want points).
The other point of the face-up cards is to determine trump. Whichever colour has the most cards, is the trump colour. If this is tied, you’d decide which of those colours has the highest total. If still tied, all tied colours are trump. With this in mind, if someone swaps one of their cards with a face-up card, this may change the number of trump cards shown & therefore, the trump colour would change in the middle of the trick (when that player grabbed that card, it was trump but after taking it, if the number of cards for that colour is less than another shown colour, that card is no longer considered trump).
The first trick is led by the player with the highest trump in front of them (if tied, the player closest to the dealer’s left) & can play any card from their hand, their face-down sandbag or a card in front of another player (you’re never allowed to play one of your own face-up cards). Each player must follow suit, if possible but are allowed to play their sandbag or a rocket card even if they have a card of the led suit. A sandbag will never win the trick & if led, the first colour played becomes the lead colour (if all sandbags are played, those cards are set aside & no one wins them. The same lead player starts again).
The winner of the trick will be the highest played card of the led suit or the highest trump (if there are multiple trump colours & the highest trump is tied, the first trump of those tied wins the trick). Typically, winning tricks is bad but if someone plays a rocket, it’s not so bad since rockets are negative points (-5 or -7, depending on the player count). Therefore, a winning trick with 3 players and one of those cards is a rocket, that’s negative 3 points (2 points, 1 per colour card, minus 5 for the rocket card). WINNING!
Play will continue until everyone has played all of their hand cards as well as the sandbag placed in front of them at the start of the round (which is typically gonna be a high number, since it will never get played as a regular card). Less high cards in your hand is a good thing.
Each player will then add all of their sandbags that they won (each card in a trick is 1 sandbag), any sandbags played in place of a face-up card, & any face-up cards still in front of you (which is the printed number, not just 1).
Play 3 rounds & the player with the least points wins. If tied, the player with the lowest score in round 3 wins. If tied, lowest in round 2. If still tied, the lowest in round 1 & finally, if still tied, the tied players all lose for wasting everyone’s time figuring out the tiebreaker & the player with the next lowest score wins.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I love trick-taking games and this one is better than average. The artwork is colourful & easy to read. The idea that trump can change in the middle of a trick is genius & such a fun way to screw over your friends. Wrapping your head around the way trump works can be a bit tough at first but Sandbag plays quickly so it’s easy to get a 2nd game in once you’ve figured it out.
GAMER RATING – 7.5
NON-GAMER/FAMILY RATING – 7
You can find Bezier Games online at beziergames.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/BezierGames.
