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Ducks in a Row

Swap cards until your row goes up from left to right

Computer players

You get ten number cards in a row and can’t move them. Each turn, take a card and swap it into your row. First to get the whole row going up wins the round.

Not in the same room? Play online while you talk on a call, each on your own phone.

More info

How to play

The deck has number cards from 1 up: 40 cards with two players, 50 with three, 60 with four. Everyone gets ten cards dealt into a row, left to right, in the order they come. You can never move them around.

  • On your turn, take the top card of the pile (you can see it) or draw from the deck.
  • Swap the card for any card in your row; the old one goes on the pile. A card drawn from the deck can be thrown away instead.
  • The first player whose whole row goes up from left to right ends the round.

Scoring

The player who finishes scores 75. Everyone, including them, scores 5 for each card from the left that goes up before the first card that doesn’t. The first to 300 wins.

Tips

Give each slot a range of numbers early on. With cards 1 to 40, slot 1 wants 1 to 4, slot 2 wants 5 to 8, and so on up to 37 to 40 in slot 10. Leave room between neighbours: a row of 3, 4, 5 is hard to fit anything into. Watch what the others take from the pile, since it tells you roughly which numbers they need.