Skull from Asmodee Games

Skull is one of those games where the art catches your eye, even if you haven't played it or heard of it.  The box art is beautiful and even got the wife's attention who is very much a non gamer.

So what is Skull? apart from a very pretty box...

At its most basic its a bluffing game, a game of nerves, and pushing your luck.  Its easy to learn, and can be played by anyone, even non gamers.

so how does it play wand what's in the box?

 You get 6 "bases" and 4 matching tiles for each one.  Of those 4, all have the same symbol on one side, and on the reverse 3 have a flower on, and one a Skull.

 You get a rule book that is very simple and easy to read, with plenty of diagrams.

 Each of the 6 colours have great individual artwork.

 The Art is definatley the star of the box, and worth it to enjoy that alone.

They are all thick nice quality card so will last if treated well.

Now onto the game......


Skull begins with each player picking a matching set of four discs and a base The four discs come together to make a hand; three discs have a flower, and one has a skull. These are then played onto the base.

Skull consists of several rounds, but they play fast.  The Round starts with the first player, then  each player must place one disc from their hand on their square with the flower or skull side face down unknown to their opponents.

Once you have played your disc you have a couple of choices.  You can play another disc either a skull or flower, or start a challenge.

Instead of playing a disc, the player may start a challenge by calling out a number between 1 and the number of dics that have been played.  This leads to a bidding process where the other players can withdraw, or bid higher.  When no more bids happen you attempt to flip over as many discs as you bid without running into a skull. The challenger must start with their entire stack of discs... regardless if they have a skull in there or not, and may only pick the top disc of other player's stacks first, before moving on.

If the challenger only flips over flowers, then they win the challenge.  If you flip over a Skull you lose the challenge, and must discard a disc at random.  If you lose all your discs you are out of the game.  The first player to win 2 challenges wins the game.
The game plays fast, and works great as a filler game for game nights, or for fun with family, or drinking games with friends, its easy to play, requires no real reading, minimal setup and pack up time and can be taught swiftly. Its fun for all kinds of gamers, and a good gateway game to slowly introduce your non gamer friends to more "hardcore" gamers.  Its small enough to even take with you to the pub, and wont take much space up either.

The key to the game is bluffing, playing your hand, judging others, and of course watching the other players bids, and judging if they have played the skull early or not, are the bidding high to make you think they know something, or low to fool you?

You can pick a copy up by finding your local game store here with an RRP of £14.99 it will provide plenty of fun gaming with young ones, or adults.

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