Charlemagne is an entertaining, social card game that can be enjoyed by four players. Players will need to bid and take tricks to win the game! Find the video tutorial and written explanation for how to play the card game Charlemagne below.
Charlemagne Tutorial
Needed
Four players; 34 card deck (Two Jokers, Aces down to the 7s)
Deal
Each player is dealt eight cards in sets of two cards at a time. During the deal, the dealer will deal two cards into the middle to form a kitty.
Objective
Charlemagne is a trick taking card game. A trick is created by each player playing a card into the middle. The player with the highest ranking card wins the trick. Each round there will be a trump suit, the trump suited cards for the round will outrank all other suited cards.
The two Jokers are considered part of the trump suit. The Jack of the same color as the trump suit will become part of the trump suit and is known as the little Jack.
Card Rank
Trump suit - High Joker, Low Joker, Jack, Little Jack, Ace, King, Queen, 10, 9, 8, 7
Non-Trump suits - Ace, King, Queen, Jack (if not little Jack), 10, 9, 8, 7
Bidding
The round begins with each player making a bid or passing on bidding. A minimum bid of 5 is needed to win the bid.
Possible Bids
5, 6, 7, or 8 - this bid means you and your partner are required to win that number of tricks. The player that wins the bid gets to take the two kitty cards in the middle and discards two unwanted cards from their hand.
Mulot - this bid means a player will play without their partner and try to lose every trick without using the kitty cards. There is no trump suit when playing a Mulot round, but the Jokers are still considered trump and will outrank all other cards.
If a joker is led, the player with the other joker must play it. If a player has a joker and cannot follow the lead suit, the player must play the joker.
Charlemagne - this bid means a player will play without their partner and win all eight tricks. The bidder of Charlemagne gets to use the kitty cards and gets one card from their partner.
The card from the partner is chosen by the partner without any discussion and before the trump suit is named.
Gros Mulot - this bid is the same as Mulot, but the bidder will play the round with their cards exposed. After the first trick is completed, the bidder will expose their cards.
Gros Charlemagne - this bid is the same as Charlemagne, but the player has to choose between using the two kitty cards or getting one card from their partner.
Game Play
The winner of the bid will name the trump suit for the round. With a 5, 6, 7, or 8 bid, the player left of the bidder leads to the first trick. The bidder will lead to the first trick for all other bids.
Play moves clockwise left. Players must play a card in the same suit that was led whenever possible. If a player cannot follow the lead suit, they can play any card.
After each player plays to the trick, the player who played the highest ranking trump suited card wins the trick. If no player plays a trump suited card, the player with the highest ranking card in the lead suit wins the trick.
The player that wins the trick will lead to the next trick. Players continue playing tricks until all cards have been played.
Scoring
If a team is successful in winning the amount of tricks bid or more, they score points based on the bid. If a team is unsuccessful in winning the amount of tricks bid, the opposing team scores points based on the bid.
5, 6, 7, 8 - Successful = score amount bid; Unsuccessful = opponents score amount bid
Mulot - Successful = score 15 points; Unsuccessful = opposing team scores 7 points
Charlemagne - Successful = score 16 points; Unsuccessful = opposing team scores 8 points
Gros Mulot - Successful = score 30 points; Unsuccessful = opposing team scores 15 points
Gros Charlemagne - Successful = score 32 points; Unsuccessful = opposing team scores 16 points
The first team to 32 or more points wins the game!