Take A Number AKA X Nimmt! Card Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

Objective of Take A Number (X Nimmt!)

The objective of Take A Number (X Nimmt!) is to score the fewest penalty points after two rounds.

Setup for Take A Number (X Nimmt!)

Place the 3, 4, and 5 Row Cards in a column with the 3 at the top.
Each player takes one # Row Card and places it face up in front of themselves.
Shuffle the Number Cards. Place one card face up next to each Row Card.
Deal eight Number Cards to each player. Players can look at their own cards, but should not let the other players see them.
Set the rest of the Number and Row Cards aside. You won’t use them until the next round.

Playing Take A Number (X Nimmt!)

You will play Take A Number (X Nimmt!) over a number of rounds. Each round consists of a number of turns. You will keep playing turns until one player has no cards remaining in their hand. Each turn consists of the following actions.

Choosing A Card

To begin each turn all of the players will choose one of the cards from their hand to play. They will place the card face down in front of themselves. After everyone has chosen their card for the turn, all of the players will reveal their chosen cards.

Playing Cards

Starting with the player that played the lowest numbered card, each player will play their chosen card to one of the three rows in the middle of the table.

Played Cards in Round — In the first turn the four players played these four cards. As the 34 card is the lowest, the player who chose the card will play it first. It will be followed by the 48, 73, and 93 cards.

You will play the card to the right of the rest of the cards in the row. You must follow two rules when deciding which row to play a card to.

First the card’s number must be higher than the rest of the cards in the row. The card values in each row should increase from the left to the right.

Playing A Card in Take A Number — First the player plays the 34 card. The 23 in the first row is the only row that has a card lower than the 34. The player will add the card to the first row.

If there are two or more rows that you can play the card to, you will choose the row whose number is closest to the number you played.

After a player plays their card to one of the rows, the player that played the next lowest card plays their card. This continues until all of the players have played their chosen card to one of the rows. If the round has not ended, another turn will be played.

Playing A Card — Next the 73 card will be played. The card is higher than all of the cards in each of the rows. Since it is closest to the 72 though, it will be played next to it.

Taking A Row

Each Row Card has a number printed on it. The number indicates how many cards can be added to the corresponding row before it becomes full. You may not play a card to a row once it becomes full. The player who plays the last card to a row, has to take all of the cards from the corresponding row. The card that they played to the row, stays in place as the starting point for the new row.

For an example lets look at the three card row. The player that plays the third card to the row has filled it. They will take the two cards previously in the row. The third card they just played will be placed next to the 3 Row card to restart the row.

Taking A Row in Take A Number — The next card to be played is the 56 in the bottom right corner. The player will play this card to the bottom row. Playing this card fills up the row though.

Taking A Row — The player will take all of the cards from the bottom row. They will replace them with the 56 card that they just played.

See the Taking Cards section below to see what the player does with the cards that they just took.

Playing A Low Card

Sometimes you will play a card that is lower than the highest card in each of the rows. In this case the player gets to choose one of the three rows. They will take all of the cards from the row they chose.

The card they played will then replace the row that the player took.

Playing A Low Card — The player decided to replace the top row with the 11 card. They will take the two cards that were previously in the row. They will then play the 11 card to the row.

See the Taking Cards section below to see what the player does with the cards that they just took.

Taking Cards

Throughout the game players will end up taking cards from the middle of the table due to either taking a row, or playing a low card.

First they will chose one of the cards they took to add to their # Row. They will place the first card in their # Row face up next to their # Row Card.

Placing A Card in the # Row — This player had to take the 23 and 34 card. They decided to add the 23 card to their # Row. They will add the 34 card to their hand.

Choosing A # Row Card — This player collected four cards this turn. They have chosen to place the 51 card in the # Row. The other three cards will be added to their hand.

After the first card is added to the row, all future cards must be higher than the highest card in the row. Thus the card values should increase moving from the left to the right.

Adding Cards to Your # Pile

Should you end up taking cards that are not higher than the highest card in your # Row, you will collect all of the cards currently in your # Row.

Placing Cards in the # Pile in Take A Number — This player acquired some additional cards. As all of the cards they acquired are lower than the highest card in their # Row, they will have to collect all of the cards already in their # Row.

You will turn these cards face down and place them to the left of your # Row Card. These cards will form your # Pile.

Placing Cards in the # Pile — The cards that were previously in this player’s # Row were turned face down and placed to the left of the # Row card. These cards are now part of this player’s # Pile. The player also chose the 16 card from the cards they took to start the # Row again.

The card that you were trying to add to the # Row will now be placed to the right of the # Row Card to start your new row.

If the player ended up taking more than one card from the middle of the table, they will add the rest of the cards to their hand.

End of Round and Scoring

The round ends as soon as one of the players has no cards left in their hand at the end of the current turn. If the player has to add cards to their hand after playing a card, this does not end the round. All of the cards played in the current turn will be played to the rows like normal. The game will then move onto scoring.

Players will score penalty points as follows:

You will score one penalty point for each bullhead pictured on the cards left in your hand at the end of the round.
You will score two penalty points for each bullhead pictured on the cards in your # Pile.
You will not score any penalty points for the cards in your # Row.

Scoring in Take A Number — The round has ended. The three cards at the bottom of the picture were left in the player’s hand. They will score five penalty points for the cards (five bullheads). They will score twelve penalty points (6 bullheads x 2) for the # Pile (the cards to the left of the # Row card). Finally they will score zero penalty points for the cards in their # Row. This player will score a total of 17 penalty points this round.

Someone will write down how many penalty points each player scored in the round.

You will then play a second round in the same way as the first round.

End of Take A Number (X Nimmt!)

The game ends after the players complete the second round.

All of the players will compare the total number of penalty points they scored in both rounds. The player that scored the least penalty points wins the game.

Year: 2016 | Publisher: AMIGO | Designer: Wolfgang Kramer, Reinhard Staupe | Artist: Oliver Freudenreich

Genres: Card

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 20-30 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light-Moderate | Luck: Moderate

Components: 100 Number Cards, 7 Row Cards, Instructions

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