4 players · you against three AI · one deal

Group Generals, Advisors and Elephants, Chariots, Horses and Cannons, and Pawns. Draw and discard until all twenty-one cards form valid sets.

1. 1

   Objective

   • Play individually against three computers. After taking a new card, win by grouping all twenty-one cards into legal sets. If the stock runs out with no winner, the deal is drawn.
2. 2

   Setup

   • Use Wei-Hwa Huang’s flower-card variant: 112 chess cards and five flowers, 117 total. Blank and title cards are excluded. Each flower forms its own meld and is not wild. Deal 20 each. A random dealer draws publicly first.
3. 3

   Legal melds

   • Single-card groups: one General or one flower forms a group on its own.
   • Identical groups: except for Generals, two, three or four cards of exactly the same color and character form a group.
   • Mixed-piece groups of one color: one each of General, Advisor and Elephant, or one each of Chariot, Horse and Cannon.
   • Mixed-color Soldier groups: three or four Soldiers, all of different colors.
4. 4

   Playing a turn

   • A drawn card is public. If you take it, immediately use it in a legal group. You cannot keep it concealed for later. If it is not taken, it becomes a discard and other players get another chance to claim it.
   • After grouping the new card, win and end the deal if all your twenty-one cards are grouped. Otherwise discard one card from your original hand and continue. Generals and flowers cannot be discarded, and exposed groups cannot be split or rearranged.
5. 5

   Claim priority

   • When a public card appears, each player chooses to claim or pass in turn. Resolve ownership after all responses. Clicking first does not give priority.
   • Winning claims come first: the drawer’s own win has highest priority, followed by another player’s win.
   • If no one wins: identical triples or quadruples come first, then the drawer’s own group, then the next player’s mixed group. Ties within a priority level follow normal turn order.
   • For a non-winning claim, the drawer cannot use the new card to form a pair. Other players can claim only identical triples or quadruples. The next player can also claim a mixed group of three or four. These claim restrictions do not apply to a winning hand.
   • If no one takes a drawn card, treat it as the drawer’s discard and resolve claims again. Only when a discard is also unclaimed does the next player draw.
6. 6

   Scoring and ending

   • A win ends the deal and reveals the winner’s remaining melds. Pairs score zero. Singleton Generals one. Flowers three. Triples one. Quads two. Show the winner’s meld total without regional cash settlements. An exhausted stock with no winner is a draw.