The LSkat Handbook
Martin Heni
Eugene Trounev
Reviewer: Mike McBride
The LSkat Handbook
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Contents
1 Introduction 5
2 How to Play 6
3 Game Rules, Strategies and Tips 7
3.1 Game Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2 Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.3 Strategies and Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4 Frequently asked questions 10
5 Interface Overview 11
5.1 The Game Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.2 The Settings Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6 Credits and License 13
Abstract
This documentation describes the game of Lieutenant Skat version 1.50
The LSkat Handbook
Chapter 1
Introduction
G AMETYPE :
Card, Arcade
N UMBER OF POSSIBLE PLAYERS :
Two
Lieutenant Skat (from German Offiziersskat) is a fun and engaging card game for two players,
where the second player is either live opponent, or built in artificial intelligence.
The game is played using a single deck of cards. Cards are shuffled and distributed amongst the
players in such a way that half of them are face down and half of them are open. Each participant
plays one of the open cards per turn. As soon as all the cards are played the round ends and
points are calculated and awarded.
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The LSkat Handbook
Chapter 2
How to Play
O BJECTIVE :
Score more than 60 points in a single game.
Once dealing is finished each player ends up with 16 cards each. Cards are displayed in two
horizontal rows - four cards per row. Half of the cards are face down and half are face up. As
a player you can see the cards of your opponent as well as your own. You can make a move
then by clicking on any of your cards which are currently face up. The opponent has to reply by
choosing a corresponding card form his/her own stack.
N OTE
If your opponent is artificial intelligence, its cards will be chosen automatically.
Once the exchange is finished values of the played cards are evaluated and either you or your
opponent is awarded points. The game is complete in 16 rounds (when all of your and your
opponent’s cards have been played). After the game ends your score is being compared to that
of your opponent and the player with the higher score wins the round.
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The LSkat Handbook
Chapter 3
Game Rules, Strategies and Tips
3.1 Game Screen
1: Active player indicator, 2, 3: Card stacks for player one and player two, 4: Stack of won cards
(if any), 5: Gameplay area, 6: Score board with player’s name, points in the current game, the
overall score of the player, and the amount of wins per game, 7: Player’s controller (Human/PC),
8: The ‘trump’ in the current game
3.2 Rules
• Every player owns 16 cards. 8 of them are face down 8 of them are face up.
• A face down card can only be opened after a face up card covering it has been played.
• Each game has a randomly chosen ‘trump’ card [8].
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The LSkat Handbook
• All four Jacks are counted as trumps and do not belong to their suits.
• If a color (e.g. heart) is selected as ‘trump’ all seven hearts as well as all four Jacks count as
trumps, making 11 trump cards.
• Jacks beat each other in order (greatest to least): Cup->Spade->Heart->Diamond.
• The sequence of cards for a trump color: Jack of clubs, Jack of spades, Jack of hearts, Jack of
diamonds, Ace, Ten, King, Queen, Nine, Eight, Seven.
• The sequence of cards for a non-trump color: Ace, Ten, King, Queen, Nine, Eight, Seven.
• The values of the cards (highest to lowest):
Card Value
Ace 11
Ten 10
King 4
Queen 3
Jack 2
Nine 0
Eight 0
Seven 0
• A special ‘trump’ game is called the Grand. In this game no suit is trump and only the four
Jacks count as trump. This game type is indicated by the symbol of a Jack’s head [8] on the
score board [6].
• If player starts the round he has a choice of cards to play with, either a card from a suite or a
‘trump’ card.
• Only the face up cards from the player’s own stack can be used to play the round.
• Player who wins the round starts the next one.
• The player who wins the round adds values of the cards played in that round to his/her score.
• Player with more than 60 points wins the game.
• If both players finish with 60 points each the game ends in a draw.
• For each game a certain amount of victory points is awarded and added to the overall score.
Points Score
60 1
61 to 90 2
91 to 119 3
120 4
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The LSkat Handbook
3.3 Strategies and Tips
When the game starts, the starting player should play any of the face up cards from own stack. If
the second player currently has face up cards that are of the same suit as the card played, he has
to reply with one of those cards. If, however, the second player does not have a card of the same
suit, he can play with any other card including a ‘trump’ card.
If there is at least one ‘trump’ card, the highest ‘trump’ wins both cards.
If there is no ‘trump’ card, the highest card of the suit played by the starting player wins both
cards.
If the replying player has no card of the requested suit and no ‘trump’ card, he has to play any
card and the starting player wins both cards.
The player who wins the round leads the next one.
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The LSkat Handbook
Chapter 4
Frequently asked questions
1. Can I play with a different deck of cards?
Yes. Refer to this section of ’Interface Overview’ for details.
2. I have made a mistake. Can I undo?
No. This game does not have an ‘Undo’ feature.
3. Can I use the keyboard to play this game?
No. This game cannot be played using keyboard.
4. I cannot figure out what to do here! Are there hints?
No. This game does not have a ‘Hint’ feature.
5. I have to quit the game now, but I am not finished yet. Can I save my progress?
No. This game does not have a ‘Save State’ feature.
6. Can I change players’ names?
Yes. To change the names displayed on the right hand side of the game screen refer to this
section of ’Interface Overview’ for details.
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The LSkat Handbook
Chapter 5
Interface Overview
5.1 The Game Menu
Game → New (Ctrl+N)
Starts a new game.
Game → End Game (Ctrl+End)
Ends a running game.
Game → Clear Statistics
Clears the all time game memory. This statistic is saved when the game ended and shows
the overall score and the amount of played and won games per player. This is cleared with
this menu item.
Game → Quit (Ctrl+Q)
Quits the program.
5.2 The Settings Menu
Settings → Starting Player
Selects whether player 1 (top) or player two (bottom) begins the next game.
Settings → Player 1 Played By
Chooses who should play for player 1 (top). The player can be either controlled by the local
player with the mouse or the computer will control it.
Settings → Player 2 Played By
Chooses who should play for player 2 (bottom). The player can be either controlled by the
local player with the mouse or the computer will control it.
Settings → Theme
Chooses a visual theme. This changes the appearance of the game but not of the cards.
Card decks are selected with their own menu item.
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The LSkat Handbook
Settings → Select Card Deck. . .
Choose the face and back of the card deck used for playing. You can select these in a
preview dialog showing all card decks installed.
N OTE
Some card decks or card sets are marked as scalable graphics (SVG) in the dialog. Choosing
them will display better quality of the graphics when the game is scaled or enlarged. Fixed size
graphics will loose quality when resized different than their original size.
Settings → Change Player Names. . .
Change the names of the players.
Additionally Lieutenant Skat has the common KDE Settings and Help menu items, for more
information read the sections about the Settings Menu and Help Menu of the KDE Fundamentals.
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The LSkat Handbook
Chapter 6
Credits and License
LSkat
Program copyright 2000-2007 Martin Heni kde@[Link]
Graphics copyright 2007 Eugene Trounev [Link]@[Link]
Documentation copyright 2000-2007 Martin Heni kde@[Link]
Documentation converted to KDE 2.0 by Mike McBride no mail
This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
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