Cobras

About this board game

Cobras is a 2017 trick-taking game for 1–5 players, with games lasting about 45 minutes. In this tense contest, cobras are overrunning a village, and the authorities have offered a bounty for dealing with them.

Players secretly breed cobras to earn extra income, but the scheme cannot continue forever. When the authorities cancel the program, any cobras still in your possession become a liability. The game unfolds over a series of rounds, with each trick creating a choice between profit and danger.

The players who do not win a trick divide up the cobras shown on the cards played in that trick. The player who wins the trick instead turns in their cobra tokens for points. Winning tricks is therefore central to building a strong score, while avoiding an overflowing basket is just as important.

• Trick-taking gameplay: Play through a series of tricks across multiple rounds.
• Cobra management: Players who lose a trick divide the displayed cobras among themselves.
• Point scoring: The trick winner turns in their cobra tokens for points.
• End-of-round penalty: Each cobra remaining in your basket costs 1 point.

Scores are added from round to round, so an early lead can change as players handle their cobra tokens and chase valuable tricks. The pressure rises when a round ends with one or more players at 100 points or more.

At that point, the game ends, and the player with the most points wins. With its unusual combination of trick-taking, token distribution, scoring, and penalties, Cobras turns every trick into a calculated risk: winning may bring points, but losing can leave you holding the consequences.