Hartenjagen: 4 VS More

As any player knows, Hartenjagen is a card game played with four players strict, no more and no less. In fact in its early days, having more than four players in a single game was quite unheard of. However, in the years following its initial conception by the Dutch and its spread all across Europe, Hartenjagen began to spawn a number of new variants. While most of these variants were focused on altering the penalty points in order to add new twists to the game and make it more interesting, some of these variants focused on altering the number of players.

In Hartenjagen, the number of players participating in a single game has great significance and impact. Not only does the number of players dictate the entire pace of the game but it also sets the bar on the level of game play. There has been a friendly debate among players regarding the variants that alter the number of players. Some players argue that four-player Hartenjagen, like the original version, is the best as it perfectly personifies the character of the game. According to them, Hatenjagen is like Chess, you can’t play a decent game of Chess with three players. Three player chess just isn’t right, much like how the non-four player versions of Hartenjagen take away the very essence of the game itself. On the other side however, some players argue that having more than four players raises the bar on everything and adds a whole new dimension to the game.

Like any other debate, both arguments have their own merits and demerits. On one hand, four-player Hartenjagen does epitomize the game’s essence but it doesn’t do anything else. It doesn’t allow the game to grow into anything more than that. On the other hand, more player versions do have potential to add new dimensions to the game and grow beyond but they do however tend to be quite unstable and most still need fine tuning. It is still unclear whether these new variants will revolutionize the game or not. However one thing is clear, as the original game continues to rise in popularity, its variants will also continue to see a lot of action as well. For now, these more-player variants are recognized and accepted as true variants of Hartenjagen but only time will tell whether or not they’ll replace the original game as one of the most popular card games of all time.

Jan Kaas is specialized in writing about hartenjagen and hartenjagen online