Partner up and call an ace, or prevail one-on-three in this strategic trick-taker! The name Schafkopf, seemingly “Sheep’s Head” may actually be a reference to the flat top of the beer barrels this game was once frequently played on.
Setup
Schafkopf is typically played with a 36-card German-face (Bavarian or Franconian) deck, from which the sixes have been removed.
After shuffling, the player to the right of the dealer must cut the deck, after which eight cards are dealt to each player, either in two packs of four, or four packs of two.
The game is dealt and played clockwise.
Object of the Game
The aim of the game is, as a player, to take 61 points, or, as a defender, to take at least 60 points (of 120 total).
Tricks are made by playing the highest ranked card, and you must follow suit.
After dealing, players bid for the right to choose the game, starting with the player left of the dealer (the forehand).
Schafkopf has three game options:
- Partner Game
- Wenz
- Solo
Partner Game
The most frequent game in Schafkopf and statistically the easiest is the partner game, in which the player calls an ace she doesn’t hold, but in whose suit she holds at least one card.
The aces that can be called are:
- ace of acorns
- ace of leaves
- ace of bells
The ace of hearts can’t be called, because in Partner Games it is one of the trump cards. There are 14 trumps in an Partner Game, ranked as follows:
| Cards by Trick Rank | Point Value |
|---|---|
| Ober of Acorns | 3 |
| Ober of Leaves | 3 |
| Ober of Hearts | 3 |
| Ober of Bells | 3 |
| Unter of Acorns | 2 |
| Unter of Leaves | 2 |
| Unter of Hearts | 2 |
| Unter of Bells | 2 |
| Ace of Hearts | 11 |
| Ten of Hearts | 10 |
| King of Hearts | 4 |
| Nine of Hearts | 0 |
| Eight of Hearts | 0 |
| Seven of Hearts | 0 |
| Ace of other suit | 11 |
| Ten of other suit | 10 |
| King of other suit | 4 |
| Nine of other suit | 0 |
| Eight of other suit | 0 |
| Seven of other suit | 0 |
| SUM | 120 |
Gameplay
In an Partner Game, the defender team will try to search for the called ace as soon as possible by playing a card of that suit. Knowing who has that ace will ensure you don’t accidentally give away points to the wrong person. If someone searches for the called ace, you are required to play it if you have it, even if it will be lost. You also are not allowed to butter the called ace, meaning toss it into your partner’s trick when you couldn’t follow suit. You are always allowed to lead with the called ace.
Special rule “running away”: if you have four cards of the suit of the called ace, you are allowed to “run away” by playing a different card of that suit when you lead. You can only do this when you lead (play out the first card). If you ran away like this, you are then allowed play the ace like any other card (e.g. withhold it when its suit is played or butter it into a partner’s trick).
As the offense team (the players), you hopefully chose to play because you have a lot of trumps, so it’s your aim to play these again and again to pull trumps from the opponents. Once the opponents are trumpless, it’s much easier to make tricks, even with low cards (because you have to follow suit).
Wenz
Wenz is a game with only the four unders as trumps. It can be a good game to play if you have lots of aces, but few potential trumps and equally distributed suits. Wenz and solo are the two games you play alone, one against three–but you still need to take home 61 points!
| Cards by Trick Rank | Point Value |
|---|---|
| Unter of Acorns | 2 |
| Unter of Leaves | 2 |
| Unter of Hearts | 2 |
| Unter of Bells | 2 |
| Ace | 11 |
| Ten | 10 |
| King | 4 |
| Ober | 3 |
| Nine | 0 |
| Eight | 0 |
| Seven | 0 |
| SUM | 120 |
Gameplay
In a wenz, it’s very important which unters you have and whose turn it is to be forehand, or the person to play the first card.
Even if you have only one or two unters, if you play the first card you can sometimes pull all the opponents’ unters in a single attempt. Whenever you don’t play first, it’s best you dont have any high scoring cards like a ten without also holding the respective ace– otherwise these high-scorers may fall prey to opponents’ aces.
Solo
A solo is a one-on-three game in which the bid winner gets to choose the trump suit. Solos have 14 trumps, just like Partner Games:
| Cards by Trick Rank | Point Value |
|---|---|
| Ober of Acorns | 3 |
| Ober of Leaves | 3 |
| Ober of Hearts | 3 |
| Ober of Bells | 3 |
| Unter of Acorns | 2 |
| Unter of Leaves | 2 |
| Unter of Hearts | 2 |
| Unter of Bells | 2 |
| Ace of Trump | 11 |
| Ten of Trump | 10 |
| King of Trump | 4 |
| Nine of Trump | 0 |
| Eight of Trump | 0 |
| Seven of Trump | 0 |
| Ace of other suit | 11 |
| Ten of other suit | 10 |
| King of other suit | 4 |
| Nine of other suit | 0 |
| Eight of other suit | 0 |
| Seven of other suit | 0 |
| SUM | 120 |
Gameplay
In a solo, it’s beneficial to have as few non-trump suits as possible, especially if you are not the first to play. If an opponent plays an ace of a non-trump you also have in your hand, you are not able to take it with a trump, because you have to follow suit. In this case your opponents may butter in high value cards for their team to take home.
How to Determine the Game: Bidding
The forehand (player left of dealer) is the first person to bid, and she indicates her willingness to take a game by saying “I would play” (regardless of the game she has in mind).
The next player then can either bid a higher game (Partner Game < wenz < solo), or say “pass”. If the next player passes, the remaining players also have the chance to bid a game or pass. If a player wants to outbid, they must say what they would play (Partner Game/wenz/solo), and then the original bidder has a chance to outbid (if not already the maximum, solo) or to rescind their bid and let the higher bidder play. If everyone passes, a negative game called Ramsch (German for junk) is played, each man for himself trying to make the least number of points possible.
Examples:
A: I would play
B: pass
C: pass
D: I would also play, a wenz
A: ok, it’s yours.
Result: Player D plays a wenz
A: pass
B: I would play
C: pass
D: pass
Result: Player B plays whatever she chooses.
A: I would play
B: I would also play, a wenz
C: pass
D: pass
A: I have a solo
Result: Player A plays a solo
A: pass
B: pass
C: pass
D: pass
Result: Everyone plays “Ramsch” for the least points possible.
Scoring
The ways of scoring Schafkopf vary from round to round and group to group. Nonetheless, there are a few constant elements.
Partner Game, Wenz, Solo
Three-on-one games (wenz and solo) are worth the same score, and Partner Games are worth a lesser score. A typical approach to scoring is to assign Partner Games the value 20 and wenz and solo 40.
This means that if the solo/wenz player wins, each other “pays” them 40 points:
| Brian | Hans | Christian | Jürgen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 120 | -40 | -40 | -40 |
If the solo/wenz player loses, the opposite happens:
| Brian | Hans | Christian | Jürgen |
|---|---|---|---|
| -120 | +40 | +40 | +40 |
In a partner game, both members of the offense win or lose together:
| Brian | Hans | Christian | Jürgen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | -20 | 20 | -20 |
Ramsch
Ramsch can be scored with each winner earning +10 and each “virgin” earning +20 (a virgin is a player with no points at the end of the round). The loser pays. In the below example, Jürgen had the most points and Hans had 0 points:
| Brian | Hans | Christian | Jürgen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 20 | 10 | -40 |
Schneider, Schwarz
Schneider
If the playing party scores 61 or the defending scores 60, they have won the game.
If they did a really good job, they may have won “schneider” meaning with a huge point majority. For this, the playing party must score 91 or the defending party 90.
Winning “schneider” makes the game worth another ten points:
| Brian | Hans | Christian | Jürgen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | -30 | 30 | -30 |
Schwarz
If either party wins every single trick, it’s called winning “schwarz” or black. This makes the game worth yet another 10 points. Thus, an Partner Game won black would be scored as such:
| Brian | Hans | Christian | Jürgen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | -40 | 40 | -40 |
Contra
As a member of the defender team, at any time before you play your first card, you may say “contra” to double the value of the game (Whether won or lost). Only do this if you are very certain of yourself, i.e. you have a ton of trumps.
End of Game
Before starting, it is typically agreed to play a “list” of a given number of games which is a multiple of four (to give everyone an equal number of times as forehand).
At the end of the list, if you kept score right, the final sums will themselves add up to zero. The winner is the one with the most points, and the loser buys the next round :D
Variants
Farbwenz and Geier
In addition to wenz and solo, some rounds also allow:
- Geier: only the obers a trump (four trumps total)
- Farbwenz: only the unters and a whole suit of your choice are trump (11 trumps total)
Laufende
Some rounds play that the value of the game is increased if one team has 3 or more “Laufende”. Laufende are the highest trumps in sequential order. E.G: if one team has the Ober of Acorns, Ober of Leaves and Ober of Hearts, that game costs 5 more each, for a total of 15 more– whether lost or won.
- In a wenz or geier, Laufende are counted from two or more.
Doubling
Some rounds allow doubling of the game value. To play this way, you must deal the cards in packages of four– before looking at the second package, each player can put a chip or token on the table to double the value of the round. But be careful! Your next four cards could be junk. And sometimes multiple players double.
- When someone doubles, take that as a signal that they have good cards.
Durchmarsch in Ramsch
Usually the highest score loses in Ramsch. But if you play with “Durchmarsch”, accumulate 90 points and the tables turn: you win the Ramsch for the value of a solo!
Playing with Three
It is possible to play a version of Schafkopf with three players with ten cards each and a blind of two cards.
- Deal each player three, two to the middle, each player four, then each player three.
- Partner games are not possible: only Geier, Wenz or Solo.
- The winner of the bid gets to exchange two cards from her hand with the two in the middle.
- The trumps are the same as in four-person Schafkopf.
Bidding
The forehand (player left of the dealer) beginns bidding by saying: “I would play”.
- Geier, Wenz and Solo are all equally ranked.
- To outbid the person before you, you must offer to win with more points (in increments of five):
- Example:
- Forehand: I would play!
- Middlehand: would you play 65?
- Forehand: yes, I would play 65.
- Middlehand: how about 70?
- Forehand: no, I pass.
- Rearhand: I pass.
- The bidwinner must make at least this number to win. In this case, the middlehand wins it for 70 points (if she gets 69, she loses).
- Another, less likely, example:
- Forehand: I would play!
- Middlehand: would you play 65?
- Forehand: yes, I would play 65.
- Middlehand: how about 70?
- Forehand: no, I pass.
- Rearhand: can you do 75?
- Middlehand: no, I pass.
- In this case, the forehand was outbid by the middlehand, who again was outbid by the rearhand, who now must score 75 points to win.
- Example:
Exchanging
The biddwinner has the option to exchange cards from the blind before declaring the game she will play.
- The exchanged cards are not revealed to the others, and they count toward her tricks.
- This gives a chance to become empty in one or more suits, or to already rack up points!
- “Hand”: if you win the bid and believe you don’t need to exchange to win, play Hand!
- Hand games are worth double.
Scoring
As in regular Schafkopf, defenders are schneider-free with 30 points, and schwarz with zero tricks.
- A won game can be valued at 40 points, with each loser paying this price to the winner, or the single loser to the two winners.
- Schneider gives you 10 points more, schwarz yet another ten, just as in the four-person game.
- “Hand” (without exchanging) doubles the value of the game.
- “Tout” (announcing you’ll take all the tricks) doubles the value of the game.
- But if you lose any trick, you lose.
Recommended Apps
- Schafkopf from Isar Interactive
- Nice for statistics.
- Also has great introductory “training” lessons that are interactive (but in German).
- Schafkopf Luduspecto (Android)
- This one is great for practicing against the computer and is worth the modest price.
- Unlike most other apps, you can double after four cards in this one.
- Also it has a vertical orientation.
- Schafkopf Palast
- Popular for online playing.
- Sauspiel.de
- There is an iPhone app and it runs in the browser with Android.
- The rules allow doubling and the format is quite nice for a few quick games with human opponents.