Watten, regionally also called Waddn, Watteln or Wattlung, is a card game that is mainly played in Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol, including Ladinia.

According to Parlett, Watten is "hard to describe [but] fun to play and easy to learn.

"[2] According to tradition the game emerged in its present form in the Kingdom of Bavaria during the time of the Napoleonic Wars.

However, Tyrolean historian, Hans Fink, believes the game originated in formerly Austrian South Tyrol and came from the Italian word battere (in Ladinian: báte), "beating" or "thumping".

[4] In 1911 in Chieming an altercation over cheating arose during a Wattspiel (game of Watten) in which a man was stabbed.

[5] In Bavaria, the most common form of the game uses three permanent top trumps called "Criticals".

It is usually played with a German-suited Bavarian or Franconian pattern pack, each player being dealt five cards.

The three permanent highest trumps are the three "Criticals" (Kritische or Kritten)[b]: Then follow the four Strikers (Schläge; singular Schlag), four cards of a specified number or rank.

The three remaining Strikers, also called Left Ones (Linke) do not have a particular order of precedence; instead the first one played always wins.

The trumps rank in the following order as far as tricks are concerned: Before the cards are dealt, they are shuffled by the dealer and cut by the player to the right.

However, if all five moves of the game are executed without the cutter playing a Critical, the team are penalized 2 points.

The dealer deals five cards each, usually in packets of three and two, clockwise and in turn beginning with forehand.

Once Strikers and trumps are settled, forehand leads to the first trick, followed by the other players in clockwise order.

Unlike many other card games, there is no compulsion in Watten to follow suit or win the trick.

An exception is the leading of the Chief Striker as the first card of a hand accompanied by the call "Trump or Critical!"

In this case, the opponents must either play a Critical or a trump card (the other Strikers are exempt from this rule).

If the Chief Striker is beaten by a Critical, the remaining players no longer have to play a trump.

If a player has all three Criticals or (regionally different) another card combination which, regardless of the order in which it is played, inevitably leads to winning at least three tricks, this is called a Machine or Engine (Maschine).

Some rules require such a player to reveal his or her hand before play begins, automatically winning the game with 2 points.

If a player or team wishes, they may, when on lead, raise the number of points played for during the hand by one.

At the end of a hand, either the winning or losing team receives a black blob (●), the so-called Bummerl or a Bohne, on the slate.

Because the partners in a team do not know the cards that each has, signalling to one another (known as deuten, funken or mucken) using facial expressions and gestures is not only allowed, but a full part of the game.

No signalling is allowed before the Strikers and Trumps are decided; up to that point only the dealer and forehand may look at their cards.

Although not all cards are dealt in Watten, in Bavaria for traditional reasons it was not considered as illegal gambling even when betting for money.

Mostly, however, as in regional and national tournaments, a 'non-critical' variant is played, in which only Strikers and trump cards have greater trick-taking power.

Another different in the South Tyrolean variant is that, for those players who have bet, Farbzwang applies, so that should a trump card, the Rechte or the Guate be played, they must follow suit with a trump if they have one (the Rechte and the Guate do not have to be played).

In Blind Watten, trumps and Strikers are determined as follows: after the deal, the dealer and forehand show each other their lowest cards.

After the cards are revealed to each other, one player from each team knows the trump suit and the Striker, the other two have to guess this information during the course of the game.