However, these hexboards do not merely serve to show us the adjacent suits. Rather, they are the central element of the game and a genuine innovation in the realm of trick-taking games. The hexboards also record which tricks have been won. To this end, each scoring hexboards has numerous cut-outs into which white wooden markers are placed whenever a trick is won. The player who wins the trick decides for themselves into which of the adjacent hexboards to place the wooden marker. However, the marker must be placed in an available slot on the action type chosen that matches the suit. If this is not possible on either the player’s left or right, they receive a penalty (more on this later).

In principle, every marker awards victory points – to both neighbouring players. So, in a sense, you are always doing a favour for a neighbouring player when you place a marker on one of the scoring hexboards. However, there is a slight catch. Two of the eight colours are opposed to one another; they are situated opposite each other on the hexboards. And if there is already a marker on one side, a marker on the other side of the same hexboard effectively reduces the victory points. You must therefore always think carefully after each trick about which of the two hexboards to place your marker on.

A total of three rounds are played, in each of which a hand containing almost all the available cards is dealt. Naturally, the scoring hexboards gradually become fuller and fuller, and it becomes increasingly difficult to place a marker. This is because between rounds, the scoring hexboards are not cleared; instead, the white markers are simply replaced by orange ones (although, of course, orange markers do not award any victory points).

And this is where the penalties come into play. As mentioned earlier, you receive a penalty if, after winning a trick, you cannot place a wooden marker in a free space of the suit played. There is also a penalty if you cannot play even a single card into the trick. This can happen if you cannot follow suit and either have no adjacent suit or no card higher than the current highest value in the trick. This is because: you may only play adjacent suit colours if doing so allows you to take the trick. In the event of a penalty, you receive penalty tokens – which can lead to an early end to the game and negative victory points – whilst you must also remove orange markers from the adjacent hexboards. The penalty becomes more severe with each round, which makes the game increasingly interesting.