Introduction:

Kilinski is a simple card game for 2 players. The game involves strategic planning, and some luck, and is fun both for players who "just want some nice game to pass time without planning too much", and for players who like deep and careful planning.

Kilinski requires 1 deck of cards (no Jokers, just 52 cards).

Rules:

Setup:

1. Shuffle the cards, and put 16 of them face-up on the table. The players alternately pick 1 card each, until all cards are picked.
2. Each player shuffles his 8 cards, and places them face-up on his side of the table in a row. These will be called the "Tables".
3. Deal 8 more cards to each player, so that each player can only see his cards. These will be called the "Hands".
4. The remaining cards will be called the "Deck". Used cards will be called the "Discard" and will be put in a pile, where the top card is faced up.
5. To summerize, so far each player has 8 cards in Hand, and 8 cards on the Table. The cards on the Table are in a row. the remaining 20 cards are in the Deck, and the Discard pile is empty.

Goal:

1. The goal of the game is to have a score of at least 38 at the beginning of your turn (i.e. before you play your turn). A score of a player is calculated as follows: Look at the player's Table cards, for the purpose of counting a score look only at cards that are strictly smaller than all the cards to their left (King > Queen > Jack > 10 >...> 2 >Ace). Now sum up their values where King Queen and Jack are worth 10 each, and Ace is worth 1. This sum is the score.
2. Example: Say that a player's Table is Q, J, 5, 5, 7, K, 1, K. The score for this Table is 10+10+5=25. This is because Q>J>5 but the next card (i.e. 5) is not smaller then all the cards left of it (Q, J, 5) because it is not smaller then 5. Another example: The Table J, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7 is worth just 10, because the next card after the leftmost J is a K and King > Jack, and therefore K is not smaller then J.

The Game:

1. The player that didn't start picking cards in the setup phase is the one that plays first.
2. In a player's turn he must select exactly one of the following moves:

1. Take a card from the Deck to the Hand. (This move is allowed only if the player has no more than 7 cards in Hand).
2. Swap two cards on your table (for example in the Q, J, 5, 5, 7, K, 1, K table you may swap the J and the 1 and get a Table that looks like this: Q, 1, 5, 5, 7, K, J, K).
3. Swap one card from your hand with the right most card on your Table. (In the above example this would mean you change the right K with a card from your hand).
4. (Optional rule) Select a card on your table. This card will not participate in any move till the rest of the game. This means that the card will not be moved, or replaced by any card till the end of the game, and it may not attack, and may not be attacked (see next move).
5. Attack. This is the only complex move in the game. If you select to attack, you should perform the next steps one after the other.
• Select a card from your Table. This will be the "Attacker" card. Select a card from opponent's Table. This will be the "Defender" card. The Attacker and the Defender are called the "Base" cards.
• Each player must select one card from Hand and put it face down on his Attacker or Defender. These are called the "Support" cards.
• Reveal both Support cards.
• Any player for which both cards (Attacker and Support or Defender and Support) are the same (for Ex. both are Queens) may choose to add another Support card. Place the additional Support card face down. If both players are allowed to place an additional Support, then the lowest between the Attacker combat score and Defender combat score (see in combat resolution) must say first if he wishes to place another card. Then the other player says if he wishes to place another card. If none of them wish to place another card then go on to combat resolution. Otherwise the player that wished to place a card places it (face down), and the other player is also allowed to place another card.
• Reveal additional Support cards if any.
• Combat resolution: Now each player has on his side of the combat 2 or 3 cards. Sum them up (King, Queen and Jack are each worh 10. Ace is worth 11 on the Defender side (even if it is a Support card). Ace is worth 1 on the attacker side, unless there are at least two Aces attacking together, in that case they are worth 11 each). If both sums are equal then there is no winner in the battle, otherwise the player with the higher sum is the Winner. A winner in a combat may do one of the following two options:
1. Swap opponent's Base card with any of the cards that faught the battle (Support or Base).
2. Swap any card on the winners Table with any Support card, provided that the difference between them is exactly 1. (for example relace a King with a Queen, or replace a 10 with a Jack, or a 2 with an Ace).
• Put all open cards that are not in a Table into the Discard pile face up.
• Attacker player draws a card, and then Defender draws a card.
3. Summary: In each turn a player must perform 1 of 5 moves. If he chooses a combat then there is a combat. At the end of a combat a winner has 2 options to pick from.
4. If at any time a player needs to draw a card and the Deck is empty, then join the Deck and the Discard, shuffle them together. This will be the new Deck, and the new Discard will be empty. The player then draws from the new Deck.

Player A's Table is K, Q, 10, 6, 7, 5, 1, 6. Player B's Table is J, 9, 6, 3, 5, 2, 8, 8. Player A's Hand is (1, 2, 4, 5, 8) in no particular order. Player B's Hand is (3, 4, 6, J, Q, Q, K) in no particular order. Player A decides to attack player B's J with his own 1. J is the Defender, 1 is the Attacker. A puts an Ace from his Hand, B puts a J from his hand. These are the Supports. They both reveal the supports. A's combat score is 11+11=22 (because he has 2 Aces attacking they are worth 11 each and not 1). B's score is 10+10=20. They have both played pairs of cards (2 Aces for A, 2 Jacks for B), so they are allowed to play another card. Player B has the low combat score (20 vs 22) so he is the first to say if he wants to add Support. He says he doesn't. Now A says he wants to add Support and puts a 2 face down. Player B is now allowed to react and put a card of his own face down if he likes. He decides to put a 5. Now the additional supports are revealed, and combat scores are recalculated. A has 11+11+2=24. B has 10+10+5=25. B has won the combat. Now B can do one of the following: replace the Base of A (which was the attacking Ace) with any of the 6 cards that faught the combat (i.e. with the Ace, Ace, 2, Jack, Jack or 5), or replace one card on his Table with a support card whos difference is no more than one (so for example he may take the supporting Ace and replace it with his own 2, or take the supporting 5 and replace it with his 6). Assume that he selected to replace the other's Base with his own Jack, the new Tables are K, Q, 10, 6, 7, 5, J, 6 for A, and  1, 9, 6, 3, 5, 2, 8, 8 for B. The rest of the cards (Ace, 2, Jack, 5) are put in the Discard. Player A draws a card, and player B draws a card.

Copyright ©2001 Rami Amir and Ido Milstein