While I have little love for Euros in general, as many strike me as mostly-solo-gaming in parallel, I do enjoy a few of them. And sometimes something nifty comes across the way, in this case courtesy of a visit by relatives who brought a dice game as a gift.
Update: I know how this is going to sound, but apparently it’s just Yahtzee - though with a prettier dice cup with the Kaiserslautern skyline. No, I never played this growing up. Life, Sorry, Monopoly, Risk, Candyland, never mind the bevy of AH games and RPG/Wargames, yes, but never Yahtzee.
Lautrer Würfelmeister
Or as near as I can translate it…. Clear dice master?
It’s a purely social game - there’s not even passive-aggressive interaction possible - but while heavily dependent on luck, a bit of strategy does improve your chances. All you need are five dice, a cup or something to consistently roll dice with, and scoring sheets as below:
The game
Everyone playing rolls a die, high roll goes first (though it doesn’t really matter). Play moves around the table with each player making an initial throw of five dice, and then optionally up to two more casts of any number of dice: this could be one, two, all, etc.. At the end of this, the die faces are compared to the available scoring options on the two tables, one is chosen, and then totaled up appropriately.
The overall objective is to fill out all of the scoring positions in a round. Each position can only be used once. If no score can be made, then one open option must be crossed out (deleted). As a result, as the spaces are filled, there are fewer and fewer possible die combinations to score on.
Obviously, you try to reserve easier combinations until the end, as possible.
The upper table is scored entirely on the sum of one chosen facing. If your dice show 3,4,2,4, and 3, you can either score 2 in the twos row, 6 on the threes row, or 8 on the fours row. But not all three.
Once the entire upper table is filled out, if the sum is greater than or equal to 63, you get a further 35-point bonus. Coincidentally, if you get three of a kind on every facing (three ones, three twos, three threes, etc), you will get the needed 63 points.
On the lower table, the positions are scored as follows:
Two of a kind: You must have at least two identical facings. Yes, you can score this if you have four of a kind and it’s otherwise tied up. Add up all of the dice.
Three of a kind: As above, but you must have at least three identical facings.
Four of a kind: As above, but you must have at least four identical facings.
Full House: The dice have two of one facing, and three of another.
Small Street - or straight: Four of the dice construct a straight numerical sequence (1234, 2345, or 3456).
Big street - or straight: All five of the dice are a consecutive numerical sequence (12345 or 23456)
Master throw: All five dice have the same facing.
2nd Master throw: Optional - if you manage to get a second result of all five dice sharing the same facing
Chance: If all else fails and you haven’t used this yet, you just add up the dice. There is no required specific combination.
Ending
Each round ends when all of the available scoring slots are filled in or deleted for each player, at which point you sum up the subtotals for the upper table (don’t forget the bonus) and the lower table for the score for the round.
Play for however may rounds you like.