Desperados (1990)

In Reiner Knizia's first published game, there are nine mine-opening cards and nine mine-closing cards. To score any points you've got to play gold, silver or copper cards onto the corresponding open mine and then close it. Trouble is, your opponents can close your mine before you want or even try to steal it with bandit cards -- a tough gauntlet to run, but here and there a few points trickle through and into the scoring column. On your turn you either play a card OR draw a card -- not both -- making this rapid-fire card game move at its own special pace, which is very quickly indeed. Designed primarily for partnership play, and appreciated best by players with good partnership skills, variations are described for 2 or 3 players. The Hexagames edition debuted in 1990; the recent Avalanche Press version has new pictures on the cards and a trivial rules tweak.

Released as Desperados in 2009 by Gryphon Games.