Vanilla milkshake and dipping my french fries in it.
Long Island Iced Tea. Becuase I’m that guy.
Tricks:
Played lots of Hearts in my youth. I have nothing bad to say about except when people try to add yet more rules to it.
Played Bridge in college and afterwards, but haven’t in 20+ years. I tried to get better by reading books, but I never graduated above hack.
Played bunch of Spades. I like the simplicity, but dislike the scoring. Made my own variant to address these issues but never got up the guts to playtest it.
Was recently retaught Pinochle and bounced off it. Like Cribbage, I know there is something deeper going on–because I always lose–but it is opaque to me.
Takes:
I wish I could play some of the modern games. That would require a) a group that would be interested in trick-taking games and b) a group.
I forgot Pinochle. We dabbled in that, too. But yeah, for melding I’d just play cribbage, and for tricks… I think I’ve already written more than anyone needs to read.
Shakes: A chocolate biscoff mix one in town does for me.
Tricks: Parents introduced us to whist at a young age, they played bridge a lot, but that was seen as more adult, so we progressed to a game I can’t remember the name of, but was bridge adjacent. Me and my brother came up with ways we would adjust our hand to tell each other what aces and kings we had, and ended up winning a lot. Because we were cheating of course.
Fast forward and I got my dad Nyet for a gift, and he loved it. Great game where you bid on everything- who your partner is, what tricks score, what’s trumps etc. Then I got The Crew, and gave it to him. Another great game, I think we did around 4 hours of it last Christmas, until I mathed out the only way to acheive certain missions was entirely determined by starting distributions and we just redealt until that happened.
Not that fussed for the rest TBH. Agree with a lot here that Cat in the Box is ok but wouldn’t scream to play it. Someone told me Brian Boru was a trick taking game, but you don’t even have to follow suit! It’s a pure auction game, no tricks involved. I was pitched an interesting looking trick taking game where people are controlling an explorer, but it’s just layers upon layers of action selection at that point. Ultimately, I ike trick taking games that play quickly and simply. Bash out a few tricks, draw lucky or unlucky, and just deal again.
Unless my initial comment could be interpreted as „liking it well“. I thought it was pretty boring, so did my partner and we definitely grew up playing Skat enough that trick taking is a mechanism that needs no explanation or learning curve.
Shakes: chocolate or strawberry or peanut butter. I am a simple man of simple pleasures.
Tricks: I started like many probably did: Hearts on Windows. I actually played with human opponents at my dorm in college. There was one memorable game where I was able to assist someone with shooting the moon, as she never won normally, and it put the rest of us over 100, so we all went bust except for her. That was good fun.
Other than that, I have only played one or two games of Fox in the Forest, though my wife didn’t really get on with it or understand how it worked, so it just languished on the shelf. Amd despite knowing this, I have purchased other games with trick taking as a mechanic (The Crew, Brian Boru, Tournament at Camelot), though none have hit the table yet.
I have enjoyed my game(s) of Yokai Septet, and can see myself picking it up if it comes back into print.
Chocolate milkshake. Although I haven’t actually had a milkshake for - decades, possibly.
Cocktail? Boulevardier. There are lots of other nice ones, but this is the nicest.
Trick taking games don’t seem to appeal to me. I’ve never played any of the games mentioned in this topic, and we don’t seem to own any trick takers at all. While I might have overlooked something - I haven’t combed the shelves all that thoroughly - I reckon I can say I’m not an enthusiast for the genre.
Lots of talk of Fox in the Forest, but I’ve only played FitF Duet which has a board, a time limit, and silent co-op where your guesses can send the other player in the wrong direction.
Has anyone played both? Because it sounds like most of the complaints about 1 could be solved by 2.
Shakes - Just a really good vanilla milkshake. Don’t think it can be improved on tbh. For a cocktail, I’m a big fan of whiskey sours but generally not a cocktail man.
I played a lot of Hearts and Cribbage as a kid (also 13 card Brag - does that count?) but I only really got into the modern trick takers with Skull King. We’ve played it a lot as a family and a group and everyone enjoys it. I’ve only played the Crew a few times so not really got bored of it like a lot of you seem to have.
I do like card games tho - there is something immediate and ‘friendly’ about a game made up just of (or at least mainly) cards. Poker excepted, of course!
The only trick taking game I remember is Euchre, which Mum taught to me. And I played a little bit of 500.
Apparently I have 51 trick taking games, my favourites are Charms, Inflation!, 9 Lives, The Crew (of course), Nokosu Dice, and Scharfe Schoten. The first three of that list are by the same designer (Taiki Shinzawa). he also designed Big Top, which is not a trick taker (it’s an auction game), but is still awesome.
It does seem as if trick taking is doing well at the moment. The only bad part is that some of them can be hard to track down in Australia. I had to make my own Nokosu Dice.
Milkshake- vanilla for plain and usually something caramel/butterscotch/toffee based for something more adventurous. Unless they have blueberry. Always blueberry.
Cocktail- amaretto sour is standard go to. If at a cocktail bar or similar, whatever overly sweet special they have on their menu that sounds appealing
Classic trick takers- I was playing most the standards with my family in elementary school. Pitch, pinochle, hearts, spades, etc. Not bridge, though
Modern trick takers- there’s a guy in my game group who loves these and seems to have 2 or 3 new ones every month. I’ve played a few and enjoyed them but haven’t been wowed by any of them. Examples include Chimera and Mü I’m glad this current fad is happening for people like him but am content to let it pass me by
My only experience with trick takers was in my childhood or teenage years. I’m sure I played Whist and Hearts with the family early on, and French Tarot was popular with my Sea Scout group so we played a lot of that on camping trips. My older school friends were into 99 which is great, and I think we tried a little Bridge but not for long. I don’t have the group or interest to try any of the newer trick taking games.
Not a huge milkshake or cocktail fan either, although I do have fond memories of the McDonalds Chocolate and Strawberry shakes of my youth.