About Charuma, from BoardGameGeek:
Charuma is a trick-taking game with a fast bidding phase and a partially closed hand. The card game has only two suit colours (blue and red). The cards are numbered from 1 (Ace) to 10, and there are two copies of each card.
In a game of Charuma, each player has two cards in their hand, which they do not show to the other players. The rest of their hand is placed on the table in front of them, face up.
At the start of each round, you must use your victory points to buy these visible cards in a quick bidding phase based on the cards you have in your hand, your position in the turn order, and the other cards you see on the table. It is up to you to decide which hand is best for you and how much you are willing to pay to get it.
Once the auction is over, the game phase begins. The first player starts the first trick by playing 1 or 2 cards. If you play 2 cards, you must play a pair (two-coloured or single-coloured), i.e. 2 cards of the same value.
Charuma offers some fairly simple tricks to disrupt the natural value of the cards and ensure that it is not always the 10 that wins the trick:
- If two identical cards are in a trick, the second card played is stronger than the first. This will occasionally prompt you to lose the hand to reverse the cards' value.
- If you have the suit requested visible in your hand, you must play it. If you do not have the requested suit visible in your hand, or if you have it but it is hidden, you are not obliged to play it. You must discard the number of cards requested, but you cannot win the trick.
- If an ace and a 10 of the same suit are in the same trick, then the ace is not worth 1, but, in this case and only in this case, it beats the 10.
If you open a trick with a pair of cards (e.g. two suits), you force your opponents to play pairs (in this case, two suits). The three rules above apply.
If a player does not have a two-colour pair, they discard two cards without any colour restrictions but cannot win the trick.A pair 2 reds cards can therefore beat a nine and a ten.
Each trick earns you 1 point, or 2 points if it is an open trick with a pair (2 cards per player). Each Ace earns you a bonus of 1 point, and the last trick earns you another bonus of 2 points.
Charuma thus encourages you to take risks with the cards you keep for the end of the round. There are quite a few points to be earned, but you don't know whether to keep blue, red, or a specific combination.
All this means that each bidding phase requires you to make choices and manage your victory points throughout the game.
Charuma is a trick-taking game that involves analysis, control, and a degree of risk-taking. It's up to you to find or place the cursor between these different factors.
-description from the publisher
