Warp 99

• Designer: Reinhard Staupe
• Publisher: Bezier Games
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4fEhs9k
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Zoom through space in the super-fast card game Warp 99!

On your turn, add 1 card to your own growing card row—it has to be a bigger number than the last one, and NO repeating colors!

Then blast as many cards as you can onto the 2 middle piles using cool rules like Same Color, Plus 1, or Total 10. Get Stuck? Change the rules! Match extra rules? Get bonus cards! Empty your hand? Get another turn!

Score big points by making long card rows and get 15 more points every time you use up your Personal Draw Deck. First to reach 99 points wins!

The deck consists of cards numbered 0-10 in ten colors, with each player starting with deck of 15 cards dealt to them – from this personal deck, each deals themselves a hand of six cards. Start two discard piles with a face-up card.  Three rule cards which are also placed in the center of the table . Designate a start player, this player starts with 0 points.  Each player later in turn order starts with one point more than the player before them.  The goal of the game is to score 99 points.

On a turn, play one card from your hand into your personal row. Cards in your row must increase in value and be different colors; if you can’t play, you must score and discard your row, then start a new one. A row scores the square of the number of cards in it, e.g., a row of four cards is worth 16 points when scored. (You can choose to score your row before playing a card, if desired.)

Next, you may discard as many cards as you wish onto the discard piles, but each discard must either:

• Be the same color as the card covered.
• Be exactly one number higher than the card covered.
• Add to 10 if summed with the card covered.

(These three rules are for the suggested rules to use in the first game.  The game includes three double sided cards which can be set up however you like…)  In general, just follow the three rules shown on the cards.  If you make a play which follows two or more rules, you get to draw a card from your personal deck as a bonus.

For example, with this current set of rules, you can discard a green 10 on a yellow 9, then a red 0 on the 10, then a red 8 on the 0. 

If you manage to discard all the cards in your hand onto the discard piles, you refill your hand to six cards, then take another turn immediately. If you discard the next five, take another bonus turn!

In the case where you cannot discard any of your cards in this phase, you can show your hands to everyone to verify that you cannot legally discard, and then you can flip one of the rule cards over and continue your turn.

Finally, end your turn by refilling your hand from your personal deck. At any time in the game, when you empty your personal deck, immediately score 15 points, then create a new personal deck by taking 15 cards from the supply.  (If the deck is empty, shuffle all the cards from the discard piles except the top card of each to form a new deck). 

As soon as a player scores 99 or more points, they win.

My thoughts on the game

So Ted Alspach is one of the great tinkerers in our hobby (along with say Daryl Andrews and Tom Lehmann).  Ted seems to have an eye for how to change things around in a game to make it better.  Warp 99 may sound familiar to you as it is essentially a further developed form of 99, a Kendi release from last year.

This new version includes a couple of tweaks that really makes the game snappier and less prone to freezing up.  The main changes are:

• Multiple rule cards
• The ability to flip over a rule card when you cannot discard
• Making the optional rule of an extra turn when you discard your whole hand become a regular part of the game

We’ve played the new version a few times, and the game itself is much improved. The inclusion of new rule cards makes the game different from game to game, and the new rule of being able to flip over one of the rule cards prevents people from having dud turns where they only play a single card.

And, if you’re looking for even more variability, the Hyperdrive expansion adds ten additional double sided rule cards to really give you more choices than you’ll ever need!

The rules are quite simple – though I will say that everyone needs to be vigilant during the discard phase of each turn.  At least around here, players fall into the trap of thinking that all UNO plays are legal – and they are NOT!   This was more of an issue with Ninety Nine as the fixed discard rules there allowed you to play the same color onto a discard, but NOT to play the same number (it has to be one higher).   As there are many different possible rules to follow, it’s actually harder for your brain to slip into UNO mode.

A lot of the fun in the game is trying to set yourself up for plays where you can get a bonus turn and thus churn through your personal deck at rapid speed.  Trying to get this pattern set up is one of the main challenges of Warp 99.  

There will come turns where you have to make an interesting decision as far as playing a card which is better for the growth of your personal row versus a play which then gives you a bonus turn.  I still don’t know if I will even be able figure out the math about which is better – so I just pick one and go with it – usually figuring that taking the extra turn ends up to be a better score than trying to get a full row of cards.

The scoring is a bit cumbersome.  We initially scored on a dry erase board, but then later moved to using mini-poker chips so that one person wasn’t constantly having to keep track.   The chips make the game move along smoothly and each person is in charge of their own score.  We just try to color up when possible so that each player’s score is easily visible.

Bezier has also come up with a fix of the scoring with their optional scoring dials – which honestly will come in helpful for any number of games.  Interestingly, the documentation references the usual four gaming colors but my set provides a much more Bengal-compliant set of Black, Orange, White and then my favorite color of Yellow.  To be honest, even when we’re not playing Warp 99, these Bezier accessories will have a permanent tableside home in the Gaming Basement!

Warp 99 takes a cute filler and makes it a bit more strategic. I’d happily play this as opener/closer/filler at a game day, and as you can play Ninety Nine with it, it totally fires the original version from my game collection.  (As an aside, as a budding game designer, I’m also definitely not sad to have an extra deck of cards that is 0-10 in ten suits)

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral. 
• Not for me…

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4fEhs9k