The Wicked Cribbage Lugger card gave us the idea of trying a hybrid game of 10-card cribbage and Crib Wars today. I can’t contain myself; I finally won!
The rules for 10-card cribbage are on the Lugger card from the Wicked Cribbage game although we’ve played it before. We finished the game in 1 hour and 15 minutes. This is despite the confusion from having 3 piles of cards in front of you when you’re the dealer (your regular 4-card hand, the other 4-card hand, and your crib).
It actually plays pretty well, and the scores are easier to count than the 9-card variant because there are only 4 cards to count at a time. I managed to skip all the Red Skip Zones, all the Blue Time Traps, and all the Blue Penalty Zones, but also missed out on the Green Advance Zones. Sena cycled through one of the Blue Time Traps three times.
Sena relies on strategy in card play for Crib Wars and it doesn’t always work. I think luck is the biggest factor, but that doesn’t mean I relax. Sorting through my cards to pick out the best two 4-card hands was tough. We both agree that picking out the two cards to throw to the dealer’s crib was the easy part. Counting holes on the board was a chore because they’re very small. The number of holes in a group can vary a lot. Standard cribbage board holes are always 5 in a group.
I’m still leery of trying to film us playing a game of Crib Wars. The time to play is still way too long for that, mostly because of all the water hazards and sand traps. By the way, why do I not see comparisons of Crib Wars to golf (which I don’t play)?
Some people say that Crib Wars reminds them of Chutes and Ladders. I had to look this up on the web (despite having played this as a kid), but in Chutes and Ladders, chutes slow you down and ladders speed you up. So, it isn’t just the board layout alone of Crib Wars that reminds people of Chutes and Ladders.
Sena and I talked about what cribbage game variant we like best so far as a hybrid with Crib Wars. She kind of likes 9-card but settled on 7-card. I tend to agree with her because, while I think 6-card cribbage might tend to make the game seem too slow after a while, the 7-card might better rather than trying to manage too many cards, even though you can get some pretty high scores in 7-card.
Overall, we both like Crib Wars. It’s fun and absorbing and we’ll probably keep playing. At between $25-30, the price is right.
Go Retire Psychiatrist 
Hy Jim, I´m also retired and have been an avid Cribbage player since very young, 13 or so, when my dad taught me the game; he learned it as a Navy radar man in a submarine in southeast Asia during the war. I´ve just recently ordered both the Wars and the Wicked versions of the game. looking forward playing these NEW VERSIONS of a much beloved but totally ancient game. Good news. On another front, I´ve looking into some of the games played by what used to be THE older retired folks, ironic that we both fit snugly into this group, games like Bocce Ball from Italy dating some 600 years. I´ve re designed the game-set and created a more flexible version that can be played on lawns and other soft surfaces without the play area setup required by the original game. It also includes extras that can make the game much more challenging and competitive. Let me know if this spikes your interest. Rgds
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Hey there, right now I’m more interested in trying to figure out what strategy I need to win at Cribbage Wars with my wife–who wins nearly every game! Good luck with Bocce Ball!
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