Banque Fatale (1997)

Overview

In Banque Fatale, players bid with colorful chips for cards (called Card Fatales) which show an Ace or Aces in the 5 colors. The value of the colors start at 6 million and rise and fall according to the total chips played. The most dominant color bid rises by 2 million (as long as there were at least 2 chips of that color submitted). But if only one chip of a certain color was bid, that color falls by 1 million. If no chips of a color were bid, that color tanks in value all the way to the bottom of the chart (only worth 2 million now). If a color reaches 11 or 12, there is a pay-out for each Ace of that color owned by all the players (5 or 6 million), and that color's value is reset to 6 million.

Then the bid chips are drafted back, one by one, starting with the player to the left of the auction winner. So if you didn't bid at all, you'll be taking chips from high bidders.

Finally, then the starting player can sell a Card Fatale to the bank at its current value or values (cannot sell the card just won in the auction). The player clockwise to the starting player is now the starting player. When the deck of 16 cards runs out, cards held are cashed out, chips still held are worth 1 million each (variant suggests they are worth nil), and the most cash wins.

It isn't clear if players should hide the cards they own, or if it should be an open knowledge game, which would greatly affect the dynamic. An amusing mechanism that draws you to brinkmanship.

Simple and smart, you'd reckon this was a Knizia game, but it's not!