Schotten Totten

Schotten Totten is a two-player card game designed by Reiner Knizia and first published in 1999, its odd title combining the German words for Scottish people and for the Khoikhoi people once called Hottentots in older European usage. The two players compete along a row of nine boundary stones set between them, each stone representing a separate contest resolved much like a hand of poker played with only three cards at a time: players alternately place numbered cards from their hand onto the stone of their choice, and once one side has three cards in front of a stone, its owner may claim that stone if their trio beats whatever the opponent has placed there. A player wins by claiming five of the nine stones outright, or by claiming three stones in a row. A full game needs only a couple of minutes to set up, plays in around thirty minutes, and is rated for players eight and older. Schmidt Spiele, ASS, Pro Ludo, PS-Games, and Ubik have all published editions over the years, and in 2000 GMT Games released a militarised reskin called Battle Line, some of whose added tactical cards were folded back into a 2004 reprint of Schotten Totten itself.