President - Card Game 2.2.3

Trick taking games are the sort of games that one enjoys or simply doesn't get. In them players are dealt a hand of cards, usually from the classic 52 card deck or variations on it. The starting player begins by playing a trick, which is one card or a specific combination of cards. Going clockwise, players will need to match or exceed the trick by playing higher value card combinations. If they can't or don't want to, they'll just pass. The last player who was able to play anything wins the trick, and gets to begin the next trick out of the cards that he or she still holds. Although the tricks and type of cards can vary from game to game, some use tiles, the principle is more or less the same. The point of it all may be to win the most tricks, win tricks that contain specific cards and even make bets on how many tricks you can win. It all boils down to what cards you're dealt and what you suspect the other players have.

Now that we've done the basic introduction, let's talk about President. This game is known by some other names which I will not pronounce for reasons that will become clear a few lines down.

President uses the standard deck of playing cards. It is played over a series of rounds in which player will race to get rid of their entire hand as soon as possible. The faster you play all of your cards the more points you will score. Sounds simple and even dull. The fun part though takes place between the rounds. Depending on how well they scored in the previous round, each player is awarded a title. In a four player game, the ranking goes from top to bottom like this: President, Vice-President, Vice-Asshole and Asshole. There, mystery solved. Not only the the top ranks scored more points (3,2,1 and 0 for the Asshole), but they will also benefit from what the lower ranks draw in the next turn. It goes like this. The Asshole must give the most powerful two cards he has to the President while receiving two cards of the President's choice in return. Sounds fair, right? Similarly the Vice's also trade but only one card each.

As technicalities go, tricks consist of any number of cards of the same value, colors don't count. Card values go from Three's up to Aces while Two's always trump any value and cannot be matched, not even by Jokers, which are on par with Two's but can also substitute any card in a trick.

Now that you know how to play, get some friends, grab some beers and enjoy. Oh, but you can also play the digital version from Eryod Soft!

The game lets you play against two to six AI players of various difficulties. You can also implement some variant rules and even change the titles if you are not comfortable with what is supplied.

The interface is very well done and the graphics and animations are smooth as coconut oil, although probably not as tasty (I must confess I haven't tried licking the screen).

The AI does a pretty good job even on the Easy setting. Although maybe that's just me, seeing that I generally lose at every trick taking game this world has to offer. Physically speaking, I do enjoy LECTIO because of the pieces but otherwise you wouldn't see me playing one.

Conclusion

President Card Game is a sweet implementation of the game with enough room to accommodate a fairly large array of options and variants. If you enjoy Trick taking or want to try playing one, then this should not get pass your radar.