Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
The king is dead. Who will succeed him...
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
The king is dead. Who will succeed him... The two-player trick-taking game Awimbawé presents a duel for the throne of the animal kingdom, with each player trying to use the animals of the savannah to win more crowns than their rival while avoiding the pack of hyenas. Win two rounds to become the new king or queen of the savannah. The card deck consists of 28 cards: 24 animal cards numbered 1-6 in four suits, and four eagle cards in a fifth suit. Shuffle the deck, then deal four cards separately face down to each player, then deal four cards face up on top of these cards (to create four piles of two cards), then split the remaining cards so that each player has a hand of six cards. On a turn as the lead player, you can play any of your available cards, whether one in your hand or one face up on the table. The opponent must then play a card of the same suit, if possible. If they can't, they must play an eagle — and if they can't play an eagle, they can play anything. If the two cards played are of the same suit, the higher card wins. If the opponent played an eagle, they can make it flee (placing it in their own scoring pile and ceding the trick) or they can make it fight, winning the trick. If the opponent played off suit, the lead player wins the trick, collects the cards, and leads again. At the end of a trick, if you have a face-down card on top of a pile, reveal this card, making it available for play. The round ends when either a player collects their fourth hyena (losing the round immediately) or all cards have been played. In the latter case, count the crowns on collected cards to see who has the higher score. The first player to win two rounds wins the game.