Strijdkaart

The most difficult game in Daleth is Strijdkaart. To make it even more difficult, almost every place has it’s own rules to the game. It is also difficult to explain the game, but read on, I’ll try to explain, so please try to understand:
Strijdkaart is played with a set of 70-80 cards, and is a game for four persons (usually one extra person is a referee who does the counting). The cards show weapons, fighters or events. There are four sets of weapons and fighters (clubs, swords, stars and cups). The weapon cards are numbered one to ten. The fighters -each in its own set- are page, squire, knight and king. The names of the events can vary, and some events are actually things.
(If you like to try the game off-Daleth, use a standard 78 or 80 card tarot deck for it; available in many “New Age” stores).

The game starts with a deck of weapons. Each player draws a weapon and the one with the highest score (1 to 10) must start the game.
All cards are put together and are shuffled. The first player draws a card. If it’s a weapon or fighter, (s)he should play with this set exclusively. The card is put in front of the player on the table (special tables for this game are popular in salons and some taverns). If it’s not, the card is put “on hand”, not visible for the other players.
Then the second player draws a card. If it’s a weapon or fighter, not from the same set as player 1, it is put in front of the player, otherwise it is put “on hand”. Same for player three and four. Each player should have a set to play with (clubs, swords, stars or cups). Players who have cards of a different set “on hand” can put these card away later in the game or keep them “on hand” to prevent the opponents to get hold of them. Sometimes it takes a few rounds to let everybody get a weapon.

After the initial round(s), the first part of the game has started. In this part, players collect cards to build a strong army, and meanwhile they try to figure out a strategy. Players keep on drawing cards and build their set of weapons and fighters in front of them. Useful events are kept “on hand”. Players can get rid of card by putting them in the “dump”. If the stock of cards is empty, the dump has to be reshuffled and is used as new stock.
At the end of the first part, all players have to select five cards from the ones they have "on hand" and return the other cards to the dump.

The second part of the game starts when a player feels strong enough to attack one or more of the other players. To make an attack, at least one weapon and one fighter of the same set are required; event-cards are highly recommended. The more weapons, the more fighters can be activated:

a page requires at least one weapon
a squire requires at least two weapons
a knight requires at least three weapons
a king requires at least three weapons and another fighter

Example: a player with card cups-6, a page, a squire, a knight and a king from the cups-set can use the six cups to fight with the king and the knight, or with the page, the squire and the knight. With cups-4, cups-2 and cups-6 twelve weapons are divided between the fighters and their strength will double.
To make an attack, the player declares war on one or more opponents. The player with the strongest army wins the attack. A player who hasn’t drawn a card in the actual round yet, gets one weapon-point more when attacked. Players without fighters and/or weapons can’t be attacked. The winner of an attack may take a card from the hand of the loser, if there are any. If a player decides to attack, (s)he cannot draw a card in that round.

This seems pretty easy, but the events are important to the second part of the game. Events can make an army stronger or weaker, remove cards from the table, let players use armies from “neutral” players, put spells on certain cards, et cetera. To make the game more exiting, the events are not shown to the other players until the event is used in the game. More events can be played at the same time. Used events are put in the dump, and the effect is cancelled.
The following events and things are common in Dalethian Strijdkaart:

Foolishness: the player gets another chance when this attack fails
Magic: the player may take one card from another player, being it on the table or on hand (in that case the card is taken blind)
Female priest: all players have to show their cards to their right hand neighbour
High King: the strength of the king doubles
Love: the player with this card chooses a “neutral” player and uses the army of this player with his/her own army
Intuition: before the attack, the attacked player has to show all cards (s)he has “on hand”. After seeing those, the attack might be cancelled by the attacking player.
Male priest: all players have to show their cards to their left hand neighbours
High Queen: the strength of the knight doubles
Wagon: victory over this attack to whoever plays this card during the attack
Hermit: the player gives the hermit to another player. This player cannot attack in the next round
Justice: all other events are cancelled, the strength of the armies is the only thing that counts in this attack.
World: everybody has to give the cards on hand to their left hand neighbour
Power: the power of the army doubles.
Hanging man: one fighter of the opponent is “hanged” and cannot attack in this round.
Sobriety: the attack of the opponent can only be performed by one warrior
Death: one of the opponents armycards is taken out of the game
Evil: All cards are shuffled again, except three cards on hand and the army. The player may decide what cards are kept on hand. However, the player who puts this card on the table, may decide to keep all his cards on hand, though this is a great way to lose some useless cards.
Truth: Turns the page and the squire into knights during this attack, and the number of weapons into at least the minimum of weapons required to keep those knights (if the weapon amount is higher, this higher score is the number of weapons)
Disaster: the player with the strongest army has to remove the army from the table and has to build it up again
Moon: Every player has to put two cards away and blind pick two new ones. Of course, in between the cards are shuffled
Star: Same as Moon, but the player who plays this event is allowed to choose the two cards (after the other players have put their cards on stock, and before the other players have to make their blind pick)
Sun: Same as Star, but with Sun, all players are allowed to pick the two cards by choosing
End of times: All cards are being shuffled again, except the cards that are placed on the table and form the army
Universe: Until another eventcard is played, all cards on hand are to be placed on the table, so everyone can see them

The game ends when there are no more cards left to play. (S)He who has won most “wars” is the winner of the game.

Because the game has four different sets, some people think Strijdkaart is a divine game (see elemental religion). Sometimes the weapons are replaced with symbols of the four gods, but the core of the game stays the same.