Joffre
BGG rank
BGG #20,141
BGG rating
7.2

Joffre

Rules assistance for Joffre

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 3–4 players
  • 20 min
  • 10+
  • Complexity 1.6/5

Rules assistant for Joffre

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

Joffre is a board game for 3–4 players, 20 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. Its main mechanics are Trick-taking.

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About the game

Fanatically popular 32-card trick taking card game played, with special deck, in the Quebec region of Bellchasse (St-Anselme). It was first published as a World War 1 propaganda game in November 1914 by the Tribune newspaper in Sherbrooke, Qc, and was then sold as "Shoo le Kaiser". It was renamed Joffre, after the victorious French general, in the 1920s. It is a re-emplementation of Lost Heir and was re-emplemented in Saskatchewan as Kaiser. It is played with 2 teams of 2. Players bid on the number of tricks they think they will win. High card taking the trick, and each trick being worth 1 point. Each suit represents a different army from WWI (ex: instead of an Ace of Hearts you have a 7 General of Russia) There are 4 special cards in the deck. If you win a trick with the "Joffre" (French commander in WWI) then he is worth an additional 5 points and taking the German "Kaiser" will cause you to lose 3 points. The other 2 special cards (England and Russia) have no value.

Mechanics

Publishers

  • (Public Domain)

Questions and answers

Joffre supports 3–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.