Volle Scholle

Players: 3–4 players
Play time: 20 min
BGG rating: 6.2

In Volle Scholle, players need to balance their penguin and ice floe holdings in order to come out on the top of the world – er, make that the bottom of the world since penguins live in the Antarctic. In any case, the game includes 72 penguin cards – four colors valued 1-5 (x3) and twelve jokers valued 2 – and 18 ice floe cards, one game-ending card and 17 valued 2-10. The game-ending floe is shuffled among the bottom four ice floe cards, and each player receives a hand of twelve penguin cards. Each round, the active player reveals an ice floe card from the deck, then places one or more penguins of the same color (plus jokers) on the table to bid for the card. Other players can increase the bid using the same color or pass. Once everyone but one person drops out, that player discards his bid and collects the ice floe. All other players have the option of discarding their penguins or keeping them in a face-down pile. Players then draw 0, 1 or 2 cards to refill their hands based on the number of cards they played: 0, 1 or 2+. When the game-ending floe is revealed, the game ends and players discard their hands. Players then compare their ice floe total with their penguin points (the cards collected face-down). If the totals match, the player's score is the sum of penguin points. If the player has more floe points, he subtracts the difference from his penguin score; if he has more penguins than floe, he subtracts twice the difference from his penguin score. High score wins, with the number of floe cards in hand breaking ties.