I cannot believe I hadn't written about this game yet. We've played it so many times since I began this blog. I only post games that we are playing for the first time since the inception of this blog, and we play this game so much that I and the rest of the family just assumed I had posted about it already! Despite its edgy, punny name, it's an elegant game - elegant in its simplicity. It's also very fast paced. It can bring about a lot of laughter as things get pretty heated (when the stealing begins), but it can also get pretty frustrating and feel a bit personal when you're the one getting stolen from all the time - never getting a chance to "cover your assets." It's OK, though, because it goes so fast that you can just play another round, and chances are the the tables will turn on someone else, and you'll come out on top!
The photo above is of what I was dealt to begin the game. The fact that I had pairs of cards was really SWEET, because in order to really begin the game (to be able to place or steal or do anything but discard and draw) you need to be able to lay down two of a kind. It was also really sweet that one of my pairs was the Jewels, which are worth $15,000 each or $30,000 for the pair. No one can steal the first pair you lay down, so to have $30,000 that was mine to keep to begin the game was awesome. In the picture below I show some of the cards (just laid out for this purpose after we played). Notice that the item cards vary in value from $5000 to $20,000. The silver ($25,000) and gold ($50,000) cards are wild, which means you can pair them with anything (other than themselves) and that you can use them for stealing or for protecting the cards on your stack from getting stolen. These are obviously really nice cards to have, but deciding the timing on playing them can be tricky.
After just my first two turns I had my pair of jewels and also a pair of stocks out there for a total of $50,000. Not a bad start! But the stocks are vulnerable since they are on top, so I want to get them covered up!
As we continued playing, I was gaining a lot of valuables. Caleb tried to steal my Classic Autos (a high-value pair of cards) by playing a Classic Autos card on his turn. If I couldn't counter, I would have to have handed them over, but I had a silver (wild card) and was able to counter with that. He countered with another auto, but I, unlikely as it might be, had another silver wild card. He had nothing more to come back with, so that part of my stack ended up being worth $110,000 all by itself. Sometimes it can be good to have someone try to steal from you!
It's always the top cards on your stack that are in danger. If someone else has a matching card or a wild card on their turn they can use it to try to steal what you have on top. That's why this game is called
COVER Your Assets. The cards that are covered are safe (unless they get uncovered!). Below you see Jacob handing over his Cash Under the Mattress to Caleb who had stolen it.
My stack (unfocused in the foreground below) was getting pretty big. That can feel really good, but you don't want to get complacent. Another name for this game could have been "Easy Come, Easy Go," because all it takes is for another player to steal what you have on top and then the next person to steal what you have under that, and so on; your stack can diminish very rapidly! When there's a high value set, like my Classic Autos, someone might hold onto a Classic Autos card or a wild card on the off chance that they get uncovered and are vulnerable again.
Thankfully, mine didn't get uncovered, and my stack just kept growing!!
Even with such a nice stack of assets, I came in second. David had a stack of about the same height, but his cards were of higher value in general (and he had more gold wild cards). I remember when I first played this up in Redding at Anthony and Brianna's place, I lost BIG TIME every time I played! Big time as in $40,000 to $525,000 - over and over again! So while it seems like there is a lot of luck involved (and there is!), there is certainly strategy as well - such as what cards to hang onto in order to try to steal or to protect your collection and also the timing in which you play your wild cards and what you choose to use them for. It leans a bit more toward luck, but it has a reasonably good balance between luck and skill. It's a good game - fun - fast-paced - potentially frustrating, but because it's so fast you can just play another round and leave any losses in the past!
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