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What's this?

Each player must arrange a grid of 16 cards with values from 1 to 10 in such a way as to minimize their total score at the end of the game.

How do you play?

Game Play

The game is played over 16 rounds.

Each round, players simultaneously choose a face-down card from their grid and reveal it in the center of the table.

During the first round, the player with the lowest value card becomes the First Player and takes the associated token.

Then, starting with the First Player, each player chooses one of the revealed cards and inserts it into their grid, pushing it into a row or column to fill an empty space. It is forbidden to push diagonally.

The First Player token moves to the left at the end of each round, and the game starts again until all the cards have been played.

End of the Game

Once all the cards have been revealed, count the points in your grid. Adjacent cards of the same value cancel each other out and are removed from the game.

The player with the lowest score wins the game.

Is it good?

Often presented as the spiritual successor to Skyjo, Dékal introduces an original mechanic: the shifting of cards within its game board. This particularity adds an additional strategic dimension, while maintaining the accessibility characteristic of fast card games.

However, the game retains an inherent element of randomness in the drawing of cards, thus limiting the player’s control over the course of the game. Fans of deeply strategic games might find Dékal a little light.

A big thank you to the online store Espritjeu who allowed me to test this game by sending me a copy. To discover their catalog, I invite you to visit their website:

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6.5Average

Often described as the successor to Skyjo, Dékal brings a strategic touch thanks to its card shifting mechanic while remaining simple and quick to play. However, the randomness of the draws limits the player's control, which could frustrate those looking for more strategic depth.

Positives