We finished off with this latest little card game from Michael Schacht, which Bruno Faidutti described as a potential successor to Coloretto. Having played Diabolo, I am certain Coloretto is not under much threat.

Five heaven/hell cards of different colours are placed in the centre of the table and number cards of the matching colour are placed on either the hell side or the heaven side. However each row can only contain a maximum of 5 cards and no side more than 3. As soon as 2 rows are filled, the round ends and scoring takes place. Players have a hand of 6 cards and one card is played per turn and a replacement drawn from the deck. For each row, if the heaven side has the higher total, positive points are awarded to the player with the highest total of that colour on cards left in his hand. If the hell side is higher, negative points are awarded. After a set number of rounds, whoever has the highest positive total wins.

In our game, Nige and Mark scored well in the first round whereas Phil and I got totally stuffed. The basic problem is that once a row is full, you have no way of getting rid of bad cards that you subsequently draw in that colour. So, the luck of the draw in the latter stages basically determines how well you do. Nige continued to score well up until the last round and by then it was too late as he cruised to an easy win.

It's not as good as Coloretto as at least in that game your fortunes are down to the choices you make rather than being forced upon you. That said, it was ok and we quite enjoyed trying to stuff other people.