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?
Mate was originally published in the pamphlet "Zwei neue Kriegspiele!" (that is, "Two New Wargames!") by the German chess player G. Capellen in 1915 as Matt.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Mate was originally published in the pamphlet "Zwei neue Kriegspiele!" (that is, "Two New Wargames!") by the German chess player G. Capellen in 1915 as Matt. Mate is a game of perfect information played with a 20 card deck. It is played in matches of two rounds and rounds of two games. Players exchange hands between the two games of each round, which eliminates luck of the draw. A winning move or "mate" consists of playing a card that the other player cannot follow either in suit or rank. A point score for the game is calculated from the rank of the mate card and the total number of moves in the game (the more the better). The player with the most points wins the match.