The game is for two players using 36 card pack ranking A (high) K Q J T 9 8 7 6 (low). These players are you and your computer. The goal of this game is get rid of all one's cards. The last player who is left with cards is the loser and is called "The Fool". The game involves some luck but mostly strategy. Like in chess, you may develop your own style of playing. Each player is dealt six cards, and the remaining cards are placed face down on the table to form a stock. The top card of the stock is turned and placed face up to the left of the stock. This face up card determines trump suit. (Look at figure below).

Game Play

Attacking. You get a chance to get rid of cards. First attack is yours. Attacker reveals a card from his hand by placing it on the table. Just click on the card that you want to drop. After the first card has been defended attacker may add cards to the table as long as they are of the same face value as other cards on the desk. Maximum cards to be defended will be as many as have been originally dealt to each player (six) or until the defender runs out of cards, whichever is less.

Defending. You are threatened with having to add cards to your hand unless of course you are successful in defending yourself. Defender must respond to the revealed card by beating it with a card of the same suit of higher value or a card of the trump suit. Click on card you need. If the defender has no appropriate card he must pick up the card and add it to his hand, thereby losing his turn to attack. If the defender picks up the first attacking card, the turn is over. You may pick up cards and continue by clicking on any cards in play. Defender must beat all revealed cards. Otherwise, he must pick all cards in play including ones that lying on the table. A successful turn ends when the defender beats all attacking cards. All cards that have been revealed during this turn are removed from the game.

End of Move

When a defender has successfully beaten all the attacking cards all the cards that have been in play are removed from the game. Your hand will be refreshed by taking as many cards from deck as needed to bring your hand to a total of as many as have been originally dealt (six). You may end of turn by clicking on the play area or choosing option End move (Alt-E) from menu Game.

The final phase begins as soon as the deck is exhausted and there are no more cards to refresh one's hand. As cards are eliminated, strategy becomes much more important than luck.

You may want to collect cards of the same value to increase the punch of an attack.

Defender may want to keep trump cards to the end of the game, but not necessarily.

By defending with a trump of the same face value, the defender minimizes the risk of further attacks.

Picking up the first card can sometimes be a wise move.

When you start “The Fool”, the main window appears. It looks like this picture. There are few zones in the game window: A — computer’s hand, B — cards in play, C — trump card, D — stock, E — your hand.

Playing with “The Fool” is very easy and pleasurable. You can fully concentrate on strategy while computer will do all “dirty” work — shuffle the deck, deal cards and so on. All you need is just clicking in two areas: your hand (zone E) and cards in play (zone B).

The game starts with your attack: choose card you want (zone E) and click on. Clicking in another zones at this point of game has no effect. If computer can beat your card, It will be overlapped by computer’s one. If no, the message “I take the cards” appears. It does mean that computer add not beaten cards to his hand. To confirm this and continue, click on cards in play (zone B). Game desk will be cleared and you can start the new attack.

When you defend yourself, probably you will need to take the cards too. Click on cards in play (zone B) and not beaten cards will expand your hand.

In addition, there are few words about the Menu system of the game. It consist of three items: Game, Options and About. Each item may be accelerated by hot keys. What can you do with these items?

Game|New. Alt-N

Start new game. Choose this item when you want to redial the deck.

Game|End Move. Alt-E

The end of a turn. If you have no cards on hand to attack or beat off opponent’s ones you may choose this item. More quick and easy way to do this is a click on any cards in play.

Game|Scoreboard. Alt-B

You can review your scoring based on the ratio of played and won games.

Legend: A — computer’s hand B — cards in play C — trump D — stock E — your hand.

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Last updated 22.03.05