This page is a translated archive of the original Académie des jeux oubliés, created on July 1, 2026, from the French original at salondesjeux.fr.
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This page is a translated archive of the original Académie des jeux oubliés, created on July 1, 2026, from the French original at salondesjeux.fr.
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Francion
Francion is a game invented in 1765 by the Marquis du Terrail, with the aim of competing with the English Whist, which had by then conquered the continent – Francion was described by its author as "the anti-Whist, or French game." Different from Whist, while retaining some of its traits, it draws inspiration from several games, such as Mouche in its Pamphile version, the game of Hombre, or even Comet. Francion did not, however, succeed in weakening Whist, which kept its popularity throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and which retains it still today, in the modern form of Bridge. The rules presented here are drawn from the issue of the weekly journal L'Avant-Coureur dated 29 July 1765, reporting on the book by the Marquis du Terrail. The main peculiarity of this game is that a card, called the Welche, is granted power superior to all others, except for the king of trumps. To understand the meaning of Welche, one may read the article devoted to it on Wikipedia. In 1764, Voltaire, in his Discours aux Welches, had stigmatized the French; the Marquis du Terrail, in 1765, gave the Welche pride of place in his card game, which he presented as the quintessentially French game.
1. Number of players, deck of cards, setup Francion
is played individually by 3, 4, or 5 players. Depending on
the number of players, a larger or smaller deck of cards is used : Before play begins, each player receives a box containing a desired number of counters and a multiple of 9 tokens. In this game, each counter is worth 9 tokens. Players sit around the game table as they see fit, or, failing agreement, by drawing lots. Then one of the players spreads the deck of cards on the table, face down. Each player draws a card from the deck, and the one who draws the lowest card is the first dealer. For this draw, the ace is the highest card, then the king, and so on. Francion being a French game, the direction of rotation for dealing the cards and for play is counterclockwise. After placing 9 of his tokens in front of him, the dealer gathers the cards and shuffles them, then offers them to be cut by the player seated to his left, who must not remove, or leave, fewer than four. The dealer now deals 9 cards to each player, one card at a time, counterclockwise, beginning with the player seated to his right. Finally, he turns over the next card, placing it half-visible beneath the rest of the cards, which form the talon. The talon will not be used during this hand. The card left half-visible under the talon is called the turn-up. The suit of the turn-up – spades, clubs, diamonds, or hearts – is the trump suit for the hand. A hand is the phase of play extending between two deals.
Within each suit, the cards follow this descending ranking : ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (for a full 52-card deck). However, the ace of hearts, called the Welche, stands apart from the other cards, having the following special features :
– it beats every card except the king of trumps ;
Francion is a trick-taking game that follows these rules for play : – one
must, if possible, follow the suit led, or play the Welche,
which may be played at its holder's discretion ; Once the four players have played their card, the trick is won by : – the
player who played the highest trump, including the Welche ; Tricks are kept folded in front of the players who won them. The piles thus formed must be placed partially on top of one another, half-crossed, so that they can be counted easily at any time, by any player. After the deal, the first to play a card is the player seated to the right of the dealer. For the following tricks it is always the player who has just won the trick – he is said to have the lead.
When the 9 tricks of the hand have been played, the dealer pays out 1 ninth of the number of tokens that were at stake for each trick won. The player who has taken the most tricks scores 1 point by placing a counter in front of him, and in case of a tie, the rule of precedence is applied, which designates as winner the player closest to the dealer on his right. The player or players who have taken no trick are beasted. Players who are beasted must stake the same number of tokens that were at stake in the hand in which they were beasted, without this exempting the dealer from staking his 9 tokens. If the dealer is beasted, he must stake it plus the usual 9 tokens. In summary, on the first hand of the game the stake is 9 tokens, then on later hands it may still be 9 or a multiple of 9, depending on how many beasts have been made previously and their amount. At the end of a hand, all the tokens at stake are shared out between the players who have taken tricks. A game is played to 6 points. When a player has 6 counters in front of him, the game is over and payments are made : – each
player gives the winner a number of counters equal to the number of points he is short
of 6 ;
Depending on how it is played, the Welche can either earn its holder tokens, or cost him some : – if
the turn-up is the Welche, each player pays the dealer 4 tokens ;
Payments are made in tokens : – to
pay for tricks at each hand ; Payments are made in counters (one counter is worth 9 tokens) : – to
pay the winner of a game. |
