Jack and Jill Reclaim the Hill
Cuttle
Powercreep!
Deck of SpiesRules summary
Goal
Defeat all 10 monsters on the Hill. Jack defeats the black ones and Jill the red ones, and every card you play is gone for good. If you win, your score is the number of cards on your score pile, and a score of 10 or more earns a medal. Play alone, or as a team of two.
Cards
Use a standard 54-card deck. The 12 Jacks, Queens, and Kings make the Hill. The 40 Aces to 10s are the Well, the cards you play: an Ace is worth 1 and every other card its number. The 2 Jokers sit beside the Hill for the Abilities.
Starting hand
Draw 5 cards from the Well. With two players, each of you draws 5.
Setup
Shuffle the 12 face cards and lay them face up in a ring of 12 spots, the Hill, with the Well face down in the middle. As you lay them, turn the first black Jack face down and stand Jack (the black pawn) on it, then turn the first red Jack face down and stand Jill (the red pawn) on it. The other 10 face cards are the monsters.
Play
Defeat the monsters in rank order: both Jacks, then the 4 Queens, then the 4 Kings. A monster’s Defense is 10 for a Jack, 15 for a Queen, and 20 for a King. A card of the monster’s own suit never counts toward an Attack on it.
Each turn, take one action:
- Move. Play 1 card and move Jack or Jill exactly that many spots around the Hill, either way. Draw 1 card.
- Melee Attack. Jack attacks a black (♣ ♠) monster while he stands on its spot. Play cards that add up to at least its Defense. Draw back up to 5.
- Ranged Attack. Jill attacks a red (♥ ♦) monster from any other spot. First Aim: play cards that add up to exactly the number of spots between her and the monster, counted either way around the Hill. Aim cards can be any suit and don’t count toward the Attack. Then Attack: play more cards that add up to at least its Defense. Draw back up to 5.
- Rest. Discard 1 card and draw 1.
A defeated monster is turned face down and stays on the Hill as a spot. If an Attack adds up to exactly the Defense, put all the cards of that action on your score pile, Aim cards included. Otherwise discard them. The Well is never reshuffled.
Abilities. Flip a Joker face down to use an Ability. That’s 2 uses in the whole game, and you can spend both in one action.
- Jack: 1 card of the monster’s suit can count toward a Melee Attack.
- Jill: an Aim can be 1 more or 1 less than the distance.
Two players. One of you plays Jack and the other Jill. Each of you keeps your own hand of 5 hidden from the other and has 1 Joker for your own character’s Ability. Take turns, acting only with your own character, or pass instead. You share the Well, the discard pile, and the score pile. While Jack and Jill stand on the same or adjacent spots, your hands are open to each other, and a turn can be a Trade: swap 1 card of yours for 1 of your partner’s.
Scoring
When the last monster is defeated you win, and the cards left in your hands and in the Well go onto your score pile too. Your score is the number of cards on it, which is 40 minus the cards you discarded. You lose if the cards left can no longer defeat every monster left.
| Score | Medal |
|---|---|
| 20 or more | Gold |
| 15–19 | Silver |
| 10–14 | Bronze |
Variants
King of the Hill. As you lay the Hill, put the Crown on the first King laid. That King is the King of the Hill: it has a King’s Defense of 20 and must be defeated last, after the other 3 Kings. It works solo and with two players.
Playing with your own deck
Two pawns or coins, one black for Jack and one red for Jill.
How this version differs
- The game ends in a loss as soon as the loss is certain: the cards left add up to too little, the cards not of one suit can’t cover that suit’s monsters, no 5 cards can beat one monster (4 for Jill, who also has to aim), or the Well is empty and no way of playing your hand wins. A game that’s lost but not yet certain plays on.
- An exact Ranged Attack scores its Aim cards too, as the rulebook’s picture of one shows.
- An Aim is always at least 1 card.
- Two Joker uses in one action add up: 2 cards of the monster’s suit in one Melee Attack, or an Aim 2 away from the distance.
- With two players, the hands are open whenever Jack and Jill are in trading range, and the player whose turn it is picks both cards of a Trade. Once the Well is empty, the game is lost when no way of playing both hands wins, trades included.
- The Two as One variant isn’t here.
Strategy tips
- Every point you spend on anything but Defense is gone. The 40 cards add up to 220 and the monsters’ Defense to 160. Moving, aiming, resting, and overshooting all come out of the other 60.
- Walk Jack in small steps. Two small cards usually cost less than resting until the one card that lands him on a monster turns up.
- Keep 9s and 10s for the Kings. A King needs 20 from at most 5 cards, and Jill has only 4 of those to attack with once she has aimed.
- Watch the suits before the Kings. Each King needs 20 from cards that aren’t its suit. Open the Well to see what’s left.
- Every discard costs a point. A win scores 40 minus the cards you discarded, so Gold allows 20 discards. A Move, a Rest, and an attack over the Defense all discard. An exact attack doesn’t.