Réunion (card game)

Réunion, Reunion or Vereinigungsspiel is an historical German point-trick game for three players which, despite its French name, appears to have originated in the central Rhineland and lowland areas to the east.

Otherwise the game can be described as a simplified version of Skat, but is also reminiscent of Euchre with its two permanent top trumps, the Right and Left Bowers.

The game occurs in early 19th century German game anthologies, where it was said to be popular in the western parts of Germany, and more specifically the area of the rivers Rhine, Main, Lahn and Neckar.

[1] Due to the Napoleonic Wars, this area was under a strong French cultural influence in the early years of the century.

After shuffling and cutting, the dealer turns up the bottom card to determine the trump suit.

(The latter case is very unlikely since every player once has the chance to discard a scoring card as a dealer.)

Two versions of Réunion are described by August Schneider in 1883 under the name Ekart in his book on the card games of Alsace.

Schneider also describes how the game may be played with 4 or 5 players, only three being active at any one time and the remainder sitting out as kings.

Scores from a round of Reunion. Note that player M has a stange in for failing to take any tricks in the 3rd deal.