What is Napoleon?

Napoleon is a trick-taking card game widely played in Japan. It uses a standard 53-card deck (including one Joker) and is played with 4–5 players (most often 5).

Each round, the player who wins the bidding becomes "Napoleon" and secretly teams up with an "Adjutant" to try to capture at least as many picture cards (10, J, Q, K, A) as they declared. The other players form the "Allies" and try to stop them.

Who the Adjutant is will be revealed during play, so guessing who is on your team and who is against you is a key of the game.

How to Play

Each round goes through the following steps.

1. Deal

All 53 cards are dealt.

• 5 players: 10 cards each, with 3 cards left in the stock.
• 4 players: 12 cards each, with 5 cards left in the stock.

2. Bidding

Players take turns declaring the number of picture cards they believe Napoleon's team (Napoleon and the Adjutant) can capture, along with a trump suit. Each bid must be stronger than the one before it. If you do not want to bid, you can pass.

On BGA, the minimum bid is 8. The maximum is 20 (all picture cards).

Bid strength is decided first by the number — a higher number is always stronger. If the numbers are the same, the suit decides, in this order^*:

♠ > ♥ > ♦ > ♣

For example, "♦ 10" is stronger than "♣ 10", and "♠ 12" is stronger than "♦ 12". Any suit at 13 is stronger than any suit at 12.

A player who has passed can bid again^*. Bidding ends when all other players have passed. The last player still bidding becomes Napoleon for that round. If all players pass, the cards are redealt.

3. Adjutant Selection

Napoleon chooses one card that is not in their hand and names it as the "Adjutant card"^*. The player who holds that card becomes the secret Adjutant and joins Napoleon's team.

Who the Adjutant is stays secret until the Adjutant card is played (except for the Adjutant themselves). If the chosen card is in the stock, Napoleon plays solo.

4. Card Exchange

Napoleon takes the stock into their hand and then discards the same number of cards (5 players: 3 cards, 4 players: 5 cards). Discarded cards are removed from the game. Any picture cards among the discards count as captured by the Allies.

5. Trick-Taking

Napoleon leads the first trick (plays the first card), and play goes clockwise, with each player playing one card.

Basic Rules

• Lead: The lead player can play any card. The suit of that card becomes the "lead suit" for the trick.
• Follow suit: If you have a card of the lead suit, you must play it. If you have no card of the lead suit, you can play any card.
• Trick winner: The player who played the strongest card wins the trick and captures all picture cards from that trick. The winner leads the next trick.

Card Strength

Card strength in this game is different from standard card games. There are several special cards, each with its own strength.

Strength order (strongest first):

1. Mighty (♠A) — The strongest card (exception: Enchantress).
2. Joker — The second strongest card after Mighty^*. When you lead the Joker, you choose which suit becomes the lead suit. When you follow with the Joker, it does not belong to any suit, so you can play it at any time regardless of the follow-suit rule.
3. Right Jack (J of the trump suit) — The strongest card among trumps.
4. Left Jack (J of the same-color opposite suit as trump) — The next strongest after the Right Jack. Example: if trump is ♠, then ♣J is the Left Jack. If trump is ♥, then ♦J is the Left Jack.
5. Same Two (2 of the lead suit) — Except on the first trick, if all cards played in the trick are the same suit, the 2 of that suit becomes special and is the next strongest after the Left Jack^*.
6. Trump suit — Trump cards are stronger than any other suit and beat even the Ace of the lead suit. Among trump cards, higher numbers win (A > K > Q > … > 2).
7. Lead suit — Among lead suit cards, higher numbers win (A > K > Q > … > 2).
8. Other suits — Cards that are not the lead suit and not the trump suit cannot win the trick.

There are also these special cards:

• Enchantress (♥Q) — Beats Mighty, but only when both are played in the same trick. Otherwise, it is just a normal ♥Q.
• Joker Request (♣3 on lead) — When ♣3 is led^*, any player who has the Joker must play it.
• Reverse Jack — When a Jack that is not the trump suit and not the Left Jack's suit is played in a trick, the play direction changes from the next trick onward (clockwise → counterclockwise, or the other way around). The direction changes each time a Reverse J is played.

Examples of Trick Resolution

The following examples show how card strength works. Trump is ♣.

Example 1: Basic trick

→ C wins (♥A is the highest card in the lead suit)

Example 2: Trump beats the lead suit

→ E wins (Trump ♣9 beats ♣5. Any trump card beats any lead suit card)

Example 3: Same Two activates

→ E wins (All players played ♥, so ♥2 activates as Same Two)

Example 4: Same Two does NOT activate

→ C wins (Not all cards are ♥, so Same Two does not activate)

Example 5: Special cards in action

→ D wins (Mighty beats even the Right Jack)

Example 6: Enchantress activates

→ E wins (♥Q is the only card that can beat ♠A, and only when both are played in the same trick)

6. End of Round and Scoring

When all players have no cards left, the round ends. Count the picture cards (10, J, Q, K, A of each suit — 20 in total) captured by Napoleon's team (Napoleon and the Adjutant).

• Napoleon's team wins: if they captured at least as many picture cards as declared.
• Allies win: if Napoleon's team did not reach the declared number.

Scores are Napoleon ±4, Adjutant ±2, Allies ±2 (±1 when Napoleon plays solo) (As a tiebreaker, each player on the winning team gains a sub-score equal to the difference between picture cards captured by Napoleon's team and the declared number.)

After the set number of rounds^*, the player with the highest total score wins.

Options

The following options can be set when creating a table.

Number of Rounds

Choose from 1, 3, 5 (default), or 7 rounds.

Pass Rule

• Can bid again (default): Players can bid again after passing. Bidding ends after (number of players − 1) consecutive passes.
• Once, out: A player who passes cannot bid again.

No Trump Bid

• Not allowed (default): Bids without a trump suit are not allowed.
• Allowed: No trump bids are allowed. No trump ranks above ♠.

Adjutant Selection Timing

• Before card exchange (default): Napoleon chooses the Adjutant before seeing the stock.
• After card exchange: Napoleon chooses the Adjutant after taking the stock and discarding. Discarded cards cannot be chosen.

Left Jack vs Same Two

• Left Jack wins (default): Left Jack is stronger than Same Two.
• Same Two wins: Same Two is stronger than Left Jack.

Joker Strength on Lead

• Below Mighty (default): When led, the Joker is the second strongest after Mighty.
• Strongest: When led, the Joker is stronger than Mighty (Enchantress cannot beat the Joker).

Joker Strength on Follow

• Below Mighty (default): When played as a follow, the Joker is the second strongest after Mighty.
• Weakest, allows Same Two: When played as a follow, the Joker becomes the weakest card. The Joker is treated as the same suit as the lead suit, so if all other players also followed suit, Same Two can still activate.
• Weakest, blocks Same Two: When played as a follow, the Joker becomes the weakest card. The Joker is treated as a different suit from the lead suit, so Same Two cannot activate.

Club 3 Joker Request

• Lead only (default): Only when ♣3 is led must the Joker holder play the Joker.
• On table: If ♣3 is played at any position (not just on lead), players after it who hold the Joker must play it.

Perfect 20 Loses

• Disabled (default): If Napoleon's team captures all 20 picture cards, they win as normal.
• Enabled: If Napoleon's team captures all 20 picture cards, Napoleon loses unless they declared exactly 20.

References

• BoardGameGeek: Napoleon