1. Idea of the Game Mź is a trick taking game. Before the first trick, there is an auction to determine who will decide trump. Players bid by revealing cards. The two players that reveal the most cards, the boss and the vice, decide which suit will be trump. At the end of the game, each player receives writes down the value of their tricks. The boss and hs other partners have an additional chance: they can score bonus points together. However, the more cards the boss has uncovered, the more difficult this becomes and if they do not succeed the boss takes the sole responsibility for their failure. 2. Preparation If there are only three players, remove two of the colors. If there are more players then no cards are removed. Shuffle the cards and deal them evenly to all players. 3. Auction Revealing Cards Beginning with the dealer, the players in turn place cards from their hand face up on the table in front of themselves. The number on the revealed card represents the value of their bid. Little Steps The revealing of cards may continue for several rounds. On their turn players may only reveal at most enough cards to increase their revealed card count to one more than the player who has revealed the most cards. Therefore, the player with the most revealed cards before themselves may only reveal one more card on their turn. This also applies to the dealer, who will always reveal a single card. The dealer reveals one card so the next player may reveal up to two, etc. Underground Later bids need not equal or exceed the current high bid. Lower bidding, in the underground so to speak, is allowed. Passing Instead of revealing a card, a player may also pass. Players may still reveal more cards on later turns even thought they pass on this turn. Example 1: The table shows an auction. Anna opens with one card, Beate passes, Conny plays immediately, Dagmar (1) then ups the bid. Emma, who may now play up to three cards, also passes (2). In the next round Anna reveals the same number as Dagmar. After he had passed in the first round, Beate now reveals one card (3) in the underground, etc. In the last round, Emma may no longer bid (4) because she began the passing round. End of the Auction The auction finishes after the first complete round consecutive passes. 4. Boss and Vice Boss The player that has revealed more cards than any other player becomes the boss. Example 2: After the auction in example 1 Dagmar would be the boss. Stalemate If after the auction no one player has revealed the most cards, the game end immediately in a stalemate. Scoring a Stalemate The players with the most uncovered cards receive 5 points for every revealed card. Only the player who played the last card deducts double that amount from their score! No further cards are played and, after recording the points scored (see 9), start a new round of bidding immediately. Example 3: If Dagmar had played a card in the last round of example 1 and if everyone had then passed, including Dagmar, he would have scored -30 points. Anna and Conny would have both scored +15. Beate and Emma would score no points. If everyone passes in the first round, this is still a stalemate but no one scores any points. Vice If there is no stalemate then a Vice is chosen in addition to the Boss. The player that revealed the second most cards becomes the vice. If several players have revealed the same number of cards then the player that has played the card with the highest number on it is the vice. If there is a tie for highest number then the second highest card decides the vice, then the third highest, etc. Example 4: In Example 1, Conny was Vice. Anna also revealed a 9 but Conny held the second highest card with an 8 as compared to Anna's 6. no Vice In the rare event, that a Vice cannot be determined, there is no Vice. There is no Vice when there are only three players or the Boss has only revealed one card. 5. Selection of the Trump 1. Vice First the Vice (if there is one) names a trump then the Boss. Color, digit Either a color (e.g. "Red") or a digit (e.g. "Five") may be named as trump. The Boss and Vice may only choose from the colors or digits on the cards that they have revealed. Example 5: After the auction in Example 1 Dagmar may choose from blue, 1, 7 or 8. 2. Boss In contrast to the Vice, the Boss may also choose not to name a trump. In this event there is only one trump as chosen by the Vice, or, if there is no Vice, no trump at all. If the Boss names a trump then it outranks the Vice trump. The Boss indicates this by announcing, for example, "Green over red," to name green as trump after the Vice has chosen red. 6. The Boss' Team Team Partners If there are more than three players, the Boss now chooses a partner. The Boss should consider the information revealed by the auction when choosing a partner. The Boss may not choose the Vice as partner. The Boss and their partner together form the Boss' Team. The number of cards revealed by the Boss determine how many points the Boss' Team must capture in their tricks. The more cards revealed the more points they need. The exact number of points are derived from the following table. Example 6: Dagmar uncovered four cards in Example 1. Consulting the four card column and the five player row, you will see that his team needs 33 points. Tip 1: You should try for the Boss or Vice position when you have many cards of one color or digit that you want to name as trump and you also have other strong cards outside of this trump. With three player one must try for Boss. With four or more players you may also try for Vice or offer you services to the Boss as partner! Underground bids are also appropriate to demonstrate that you would be a good partner, strong in their chosen trump. Bluffing may often backfire as you will irritate potential future partners. When trying for the Boss position keep an eye on the strength of your own hand when bidding but also watch the strengths of potential partners. If you bid too low you will rarely take the position and miss out on points if you do win the bid. 7. Card Play Opening Lead The Boss plays any one of their cards. Played cards always come either from your hand or from the cards you revealed during the bidding. The players each play one card in turn. Waits If you hold a card of the color lead, you must play it. You may choose any card of this color, however. If you cannot play a card in this color then you may throw off a weak card of another color or play a trump. The Trump Color If trump is lead then trump must be played. The Boss trump and Vice trump join together to form one big color. The Boss trump is considerd to be a Vice trump and vice versa. For example, if the digit 6 is trump then the red 6 is no longer red but belongs, instead, to the trump color. Taking Tricks The trick goes to the player who has played the card with the highest digit in the lead color or, if the trick was trumped, to the player that has played the highest trump. The player should take the trick and place it beside themselves. Trump & Rank The Boss trumps are always higher than Vice trumps (e.g. a boss trump of 0 hits will defeat any vice trump). Within a color the normal ranks are used. If two cards with the same digit are played, e.g. two digit trumps with the same digit, then the first one played wins the trick. Double Trump It is possible that in a game there will be both color and digit trumps and one or more cards which are in both trumps. This double trump defeats all other trumps. If the 7 or 1 is called as trump then there will be two double trumps. Once again, if both are played in a single trick then the first one played takes the trick. A New Hand As long as the players still have cards in their hands or revealed on the table then play continues and the player that took the last trick leads a new card. Game End When all cards have been played the game ends. 8. Scoring Invidual Score There is 2 ways to score points: Each player gets the sum of the point values (0, 1 or 2) on the cards in the tricks they have taken. Team Score The individual scores of the Boss' Team are totalled and if they meet or exceed the team goal (see No. 6), otherwise they have lost. The bonus for fullfilling the team goal is based on the size of the game and the type of the Boss trump. The game becomes more valuable the more cards the Boss originally revealed and smaller the trump called. Both the Boss and their partner receive the bonus indicated in the table. Example 7: If Dagmar (in example 6) had revealed 4 cards and called a color trump then the bonus would be 40 points for both Anna and himself. Losing a Game First determine find the Boss' Team score on the correct row in the table in No. 6. Subtract the rank achieved (zero if neither the Boss nor partner took any tricks) from the number of cards revealed. The opposition gets 5 points and the Boss loses 10 points for every rank the Boss' Team fell short. The Boss' partner comes away with a black eye and neither gains nor loses points. Example 8: Dagmar and Anna (from Example 6) need 33 points with 5 players and 4 revealed cards. Assuming Dagmar takes 20 trick points and Anna 9, they have 29 points together, so they only achieved a rank of 2 instead of 4 for a difference of 2. Dagmar scores Ń20, and Beate, Conny and Emma score +10 each. Dagmar's partner, Anna, scores nothing. If Dagmar and Anna had only scored 18 trick points together there have been a difference of 4. 9. Recording the Scores The individual and team scores are listed for each player and totalled. The player to the left of the last dealer becomes the new dealer. Play until a player reaches a pre-arranged sum (200 points will take around an hour). The player with the most points then wins. Example 9: An example of recording scores. In one column one should always list the rank achieved and the type of the Boss trump. The first round ends in a stalemate after 4 cards were revealed. In the next round the Boss' Team wins a game with a rank of 5 and 7 as trump. In the last round, they lose a game with a difference of 3 between the target and achieved ranks. Team Score Number of Rank Points Players 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 in play 3 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 - - - 36 4 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 5 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 - - - 60 6 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 - - - - - 60 Fullfillment Bonus Boss Rank Achieved Trump Color 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+ 1, 7 - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9+ 0,2-6,8,9 - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8+ None - - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7+ Bonus 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Failed Game Scores (per rank failed) -10 for the Boss 0 for the Partner +5 for each of the opposition Stalemate Scores (per card) -10 for the player that provoked the stalemate +5 for the other players tied most revealed cards 0 for all others