Claude
fb70396d09
Three more card games, engine to screen. Kaiser: 32-card prairie trick-taking with bidding, the five of hearts worth five and the three of spades costing three. Bidding is capped at ten because ten is all a hand can be worth, and a losing score gives the game a floor — without one a table that keeps bidding and going down never reaches a result. Crazy 8s: eights are wild and name the suit in force, which is why the table states that suit in words rather than leaving it to be read off the pile. Blocked rounds are scored rather than hanging. Wizard: the 60-card deck, one more card dealt each round until the pack runs out, bid your tricks exactly. The shared card model gains WIZARD and JESTER ranks, so every ordinary deck now builds from Rank.standard rather than walking the whole enum. Also fixes a lobby bug this would have hit: hosting seated the catalogue minimum rather than the table the host had just set up, so a six-handed game would have been rejected by its own rules engine. 164 engine tests pass locally.
2.9 KiB
Kaiser — implemented rules
Kaiser is the prairie game, played hard in Saskatchewan and not much anywhere else. This is the ruleset the engine enforces. Anything marked toggle is in the game setup screen.
Table
Four players in two partnerships, sitting opposite. Seats 0 and 2 are one team, seats 1 and 3 the other.
The deck — 32 cards
Eight through ace in every suit, plus:
- the seven of clubs and the seven of diamonds, which are ordinary cards making up the count, and
- the five of hearts and the three of spades, which replace the other two sevens and are what the whole game is played for.
Eight cards each, and the deck is exhausted.
What a hand is worth
Ten points, always:
| Source | Points |
|---|---|
| Each of the eight tricks | 1 |
| Taking the five of hearts | +5 |
| Taking the three of spades | −3 |
So a trick containing the five of hearts is worth six, and one containing the three of spades is worth minus two. Both in the same trick is worth three.
Bidding
Bidding opens to the dealer's left and goes round. Each bid is a number of points the bidder's side undertakes to take.
- The floor is 5, 6, 7 or 8 — toggle, six by default.
- The ceiling is ten, because ten is the most a hand can be worth. Bidding above what exists is only a way to guarantee going down, so it is not offered.
- No trump — toggle, on by default. A no-trump bid outranks the same number bid with a suit; it pays double and costs double.
- Each bid must beat the one before it.
- If the first three players pass, the dealer must bid — there is no throwing the hand in from the dealer's seat. If all four pass (only possible when the dealer's forced bid is somehow not reached), the hand is redealt.
The winning bidder then names trump, or is committed to no trump if that is what they bid.
Play
The bidder leads. Follow suit if you can; otherwise play anything.
There are no bowers — Kaiser ranks straight down from the ace, so the jack is just a jack. Trump beats every other suit; otherwise only the led suit can win.
Scoring
- Bidding side made it (took at least the bid): they score every point they took, doubled if the contract was no trump.
- Bidding side went down: they lose the amount of the bid, doubled if it was no trump.
- Defenders always keep what they took, made or not.
First side to the target wins — toggle for 32, 52 or 62 points. A side that falls to the matching negative score loses outright; without that floor a table that keeps bidding and keeps going down never reaches a result at all.
What the computer opponent does
It rates each suit by trump length and top cards, adds for holding the five of hearts and subtracts for holding the three of spades, and bids the floor rather than reaching. In play it chases the five of hearts, ducks when the three of spades is on the table, and lets its partner have a trick it is already winning.