Réunion (card game)

Réunion is a historical German 10-card point-trick game for three players using a 32-card French-suited piquet pack. Players who cannot follow suit must trump. Otherwise the game can be described as a simplified version of Skat, but is also reminiscent of Euchre.

Rules

Aces are high. The Jack of trumps is elevated to the highest rank and known as the right bower. The Jack of the other suit that is the same colour as the trump suit is also considered a member of the trump suit. It is the second highest trump and known as the left bower. The right and left bower are worth 12 card-points each. The two Jacks of the opposite colour stay in their normal suit and retain their normal ranks and card-point values. The last trick is worth another 10 points, resulting in a total 150 points in the deal.

After shuffling and cutting, the dealer turns up the bottom card to determine the trump suit. Each player receives 10 cards in batches of 3–4–3. The dealer also takes up the remaining two cards including the turn-up card, then discards two cards face-down. The dealer must not discard any aces or the left or right bower.

Eldest hand leads any card to the first trick. Players must follow suit if possible. A player who cannot follow suit must play a trump if possible. The trick is won with the highest trump, or the highest card of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads to the next trick.

Side-payments occur in two cases. A player who loses the left bower in a trick pays one unit to the player who won the trick with the right bower. A player who does not win a single trick pays one unit each to the opponents.

A game consists of three successive deals, each player dealing once. Any player who scores (strictly) less than 150 points pays one unit to the winner, or two units if less than 100 points, or three if less than 50, or four if a player scored no points at all. (The latter case is very unlikely since every player once has the chance to discard a scoring card as a dealer.)

History

The game occurs in 19th century German game anthologies, where it was said to be popular in the western parts of Germany, and more specifically the area of the rivers Rhine, Main, Lahn and Neckar. Due to the Napoleonic Wars, this area was under a strong French cultural influence in the early years of the century. Despite the game's French name, it does not appear in the French game anthologies of the time, and the card-point schedule is more similar to German or Dutch games than to French games.

References

• Alvensleben, Ludwig von (1853), Encyklopädie der Spiele (in German), Leipzig: Otto Wigand, pp. 416–418 .
• Georgens, Jan Daniel (1882), Spiel und Sport. I. Illustriertes Allgemeines Familien-Spielbuch, Leipzig, Berlin: Spamer, pp. 550–552 .
• Parlett, David (2004), The A–Z of card games (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, pp. 303f, ISBN 978-0-19-860870-7 .