🃏 General Game Description
Welcome to a thrilling strategic card game where every move counts and time is against you!
Your goal is to collect as many points as possible by skillfully using food cards and the special Knife cards. But beware: food has an expiration date, and you must act quickly and wisely to gain the highest possible value before it spoils.
The game lasts 20 turns and can be played either against a human opponent (online or local) or against the Computer. The player with the highest score at the end wins.
🍎 Game Components
Food Cards
There are six types of food cards, each with its own point range and a limited lifespan before expiration. On the bottom of each card, you’ll see red dots: each dot represents 1 remaining turn before the card spoils.
Here are the details:
- Cheese
- Minimum value: 8 points
- Maximum value: 12 points
- Expiration: 4 turns
- Ideal for medium-term strategies: lasts longer than most, but not forever.
- Fruit
- Minimum value: 8 points
- Maximum value: 16 points
- Expiration: 3 turns
- Offers a solid average score but spoils quickly.
- Vegetables
- Minimum value: 6 points
- Maximum value: 14 points
- Expiration: 3 turns
- Versatile, but generally worth slightly less than other types.
- Cured Meat
- Minimum value: 10 points
- Maximum value: 20 points
- Expiration: 6 turns
- Long-lasting and high-scoring: perfect for accumulation strategies.
- Meat
- Minimum value: 10 points
- Maximum value: 24 points
- Expiration: 2 turns
- Very profitable but extremely perishable.
- Fish
- Minimum value: 12 points
- Maximum value: 30 points
- Expiration: 2 turns
- The most valuable but also the riskiest: it spoils very quickly.
Knife Card
Knife Cards are special cards that allow you to steal a food card your opponent has already played, as long as it matches the type of your Knife. If you do, you gain double the value of that card!
- The probability of drawing a Knife card is 1 in 10.
- Knife cards never expire.
- If you ever draw 5 Knife cards in your hand at the same time, the system will automatically replace them at the end of your turn.
🔄 Card Drawing and Replacement
Each card drawn from the deck is random:
- All types of food cards have equal chances of being drawn.
- The value of each food card is randomly assigned within its minimum and maximum range.
- At the end of each turn, expired food cards are removed and replaced with new ones.
🎯 Gameplay
The match lasts 20 turns. The active player is indicated by a colored square:
- Green → Your turn
- Red → Opponent’s turn
When playing against the Computer, it plays instantly, so the turn indicator is not shown.
🕹 Actions You Can Take on Your Turn
During your turn, you can:
- Play a Food Card
- You can place a food card on the table.
- If you already have a card on the table from a previous turn and it is still there, you can retrieve it, scoring its point value.
- Use a Knife Card
- You can play a Knife to steal a food card from your opponent’s table.
- The stolen card must be of the same type as the Knife.
- In this case, you gain double the card’s value.
At the end of your turn, you will always have 5 cards in hand again.
🏆 End of the Game and Scoring
At the end of the 20th turn, if you still have a card on the table, you automatically score its value.
The winner is the player with the highest total score after the final count.
📌 Strategy Tips
Use Probability to Your Advantage: Knowing that Knives have a low draw probability, save them for high-value targets.
Manage Expiration: Play long-lasting cards only when you know you can keep them until the right moment.
Attack with Knives: Stealing a valuable card not only boosts your score but also denies points to your opponent.
Balance Risk and Reward: Meat and Fish have the highest values but spoil the fastest; use them only when you can take advantage of them immediately.