Card Sequence Board Game

AD-FREE VERSION ALSO AVAILABLE - search for “Card Sequence Deluxe” in the Google Play Store.

OVERVIEW

Card Sequence is a free version of a classic strategy card and board game, sometime also called Wild Jacks or Crazy Jacks, the object of which is to place counters on the board to form lines of five adjacent counters in any direction - horizontally, vertically or diagonally by matching board squares to cards in your hand.

PLEASE NOTE RATHER THAN LEAVE A BAD REVIEW OR RATING

* THIS IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SEQUENCE GAME ALLOWS YOU TO PLAY AGAINST A COMPUTER AI PLAYER ONLY, NOT AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS.

* THE COMPUTER AI DOES NOT CHEAT IN ANY WAY (HONEST!). The computer does not know what cards you are holding and the cards (including Jacks) are dealt completely randomly. However just like in the real game, sometimes a player will be dealt a better than average hand by chance, for example several Jacks. This luck will average out if you play many games.

* IF YOU ARE NEW TO SEQUENCE, THE COMPUTER MAY BEAT YOU MOST OF THE TIME, IF SET TO THE HIGHEST DIFFICULTY LEVEL. This is just because it works out the best way of playing its cards to make sequences or block your sequences, and not because it cheats. To help beginners, I have weakened the way it plays on the lower difficulty settings.

FEATURES OF THE GAME

* Play anywhere - no Internet access required.

* Accurate representation of the real board game with higher resolution images of the cards and board than other versions.

* Challenging computer-based opponent - the computer player uses sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms to provide three levels of computer player skill. Can you beat the computer at the highest level?

* The game controls have been carefully optimised for ease of play on all sizes of screen. For example the board cards matching a selected card are automatically highlighted and one -eyed and two-eyed Jacks are colour coded for ease of recognition.

HOW TO PLAY:

The object of the game is to place counters on the board to form lines of five adjacent counters in any direction - horizontally, vertically or diagonally by matching board squares to cards in your hand. Each line of five counters is called a "sequence" and to win a game the player must form a specified number of sequences (1, 2 or 3) before the computer opponent.

The board has 100 squares consisting of 96 playing card pictures plus 4 corner squares. Each card in a standard pack of playing cards is represented twice on the board, with the exception of the Jacks which have no matching squares (see later). The four corner squares are "wild cards". No counters can be played on them, but any line of four adjacent counters plus a corner square also forms a sequence.

Each player is initially dealt seven cards from a double pack of 104 playing cards. The cards the player holds determine which board squares the player may play a counter on. At each turn the player plays a card from his hand, puts a counter on one of the matching squares on the board and receives a replacement card. Play alternates between human and computer players with each player trying to form his own sequences of five adjacent counters (or four plus a corner square), while also trying to block sequences that the other player is trying to form.

The Jack cards have special values in Card Sequence:

* Playing a "Two-eyed" Jack (Jack of Clubs or Diamonds) allows the player to place a counter on any unoccupied square on the board.

* Playing a "One-eyed" Jack (Jack of Hearts or Spades) allows the player to remove any one of the other player's counters, provided it does not already form part of a sequence. Note that when playing a one-eyed Jack, the player does not also play one of his own counters.