Crunchy Beetles

CUTwC plays 6 Nimmt! usually known either as a mis-heard “sex nymphs” or as “crunchy beetles” (because Stew thought the bull's head looks like a beetle), neither of which are useful when trying to buy a deck.

6 Nimmt! consists of a deck of 104 cards, each with a unique number written on it. Ten cards are dealt to each player, and four cards are placed face up in the middle of the table, starting four piles.

For each hand, the players should select one card each from their decks and hold it face down in front of them on the table; once the last player has selected, all the cards are turned face up.

In increasing order of card number, the exposed cards are added to the four piles: each card is added to the pile containing the nearest lower card. For example, if the top card of each pile is 13, 34, 75 and 80, a card of value 40 is placed on the pile topped by 34.

If a pile to be played on already contained five cards, the player of the card which would go on that pile takes the five cards (kept separately for fining, not returned to the player's hand) and replaces the pile with the new card.

If the first card in a hand is lower than the top of any of the four piles, the player has to take a pile and replace it with the new low card, but can choose which pile to remove. At a relatively low cost, this can be a way to mess with the strategy of other players.

Play continues until all ten hands have been played. The fines are accumulated according to the number of cattle (or “crunchy beetles”) on each card, with each beetle being worth a fifth of a finger. Traditionally, cards which have been picked up are placed face up in front of the player, and turned face down as the corresponding fine has been consumed. The total score is noted at the end of each round, although fines have already been determined (and usually consumed) by this point. The deal rotates.

The number of crunchy beetles on each card is: