CLAG Assistant

Welcome to the CLAG Assistant Support Page.

This page provides game play rules for CLAG and explains how to use the App to make scoring super easy.

Game Background

The CLAG game originated in the second world war and was created by service men in the British Royal Air Force. The game originally stood for “Clouds Low, Aircraft Grounded”.

The card game is played with a traditional 52 card deck and consists of a number of hands where players need to predict (or bid) how many tricks they will win, and then win that number of tricks to score points.

The winner of the game at the end is the player with the most points.

A number of variants of the game exist, supporting a different number of hands and points scored.

Rather than call out the variants in the app, the Application allows you to pick possible setup options so you can create your own variant (game rules).

Game Play

The game is played with between 3 and 7 players.

The game is played in 3 phases.

Phase 1 has between 6 or 7 hands with increasing cards in each hand. For example, the first hand each player is given 1 card, then the next hand 2 and the next 3 etc., up to either 6 or 7 cards/hands. (You get to choose.)

Phase 2 has between 6 or 8 special hands each of which have 7 cards per hand. This is the main common variant in the game.

If you pick 6 hands in phase 2, the special hands are:

Deal 7 cards, no trump suit.
Deal 7 cards, players predict their tricks before the trump suit is displayed.
Deal 7 cards, “Misere“ no prediction this time, and no trumps, the goal is to win zero tricks, get zero you win 10 points, win a trick you LOSE points.
Deal 7 cards, “Misere” again no prediction, but this time with trumps, same goal as #3 above.
Deal 7 cards, players have to predict their tricks without viewing their cards, then view their cards and play a normal round.
Deal 7 cards, players predict without seeing their cards again, but this time play their cards in the order they were dealt – without looking at the cards first.

If you pick 8 hands in phase 2, the special hands are:

Deal 7 cards, no trump suit.
Deal 7 cards, “Misere” no prediction this time, a trump suit is defined, the goal is to win zero tricks, get zero you win 10 points, win a trick you LOSE points.
Deal 7 cards, players predict their tricks before the trump suit is displayed.
Deal 7 cards, players have to predict their tricks without viewing their cards, then view their cards and play a normal round.
Deal 7 cards, if a player has any 2 card they can treat it as a wild card and declare the card suit and value when played. Wild 2’s beat natural cards (so if someone laid the Ace of hearts and you lay a 2 of hearts and say it’s the ace YOU WIN). If more than one player lays a wild card, the last one has the higher value.
Deal 7 cards, play a normal hand with predictions and trumps but this time with Aces low.
Deal 7 cards, here everyone makes their prediction, then the dealer can select the trump suit that best helps them.
Deal 7 cards, no predictions this time, players have to win as many tricks as possible, highest trick score wins 10 points, in a tie, no one scores.

Phase 3 is the reverse of phase one, so if you picked 7 cards for phase 1, a hand is dealt with 7 cards and the game played, next hand 6, then 5 etc., until the last hand of 1 card is played.

Scoring

If a player accurately wins their trick prediction, they win ten points, plus either one or two points for each trick won (as specified in the setup screen). If they don’t win their prediction, they just get the one or two points for each trick won.

The Misere rounds are different, you are trying to win zero tricks, in these rounds you get ten points for zero tricks won, but minus one or two points (based on the setup screen option) for each trick one.

While winning your predicted tricks usually wins you ten points, it can be too easy to always predict zero and try to never win any. To prevent this, you MAY wish to say that zero bids (predictions) only win eight points – this encourages players to try and win some tricks.

Scores are shared halfway through the game, and then again at the end of the game.

Highest score wins the game.

Using the App

The app has four tabs.

Tab 1 – Setup

In this tab you enter the number of players, the player names and the game options you want to select.

When player names have been entered, the “Start” Button is enabled and you can begin play.

There is also an option to display game guidance, you can turn this off if you know how to play.

Tab 2 – Game Play

This tab will display the player names and text fields for you to enter their bids and won tricks.

To use the app, ask each player for their prediction, then the dealer deals the cards and the hands are played. Then capture in the app the won trick count for each player.

It should be noted that the Dealer cannot bid a card count that collectively equals (with everyone else) the total number of cards. This forces SOMEONE to lose the hand every time.

Also, players cannot bid (or win) more tricks than cards dealt.

After tricks won have been entered, you can click on the “Next Round” button.

At the top of the tab, the app will remind you the round you are playing, who the dealer is and how many cards they should deal. If trump cards are in play, the app will tell you what the trump suit is.

If you enabled Guidance on the Setup tab, hand guidance will be displayed on this page.

Tab 3 – Scores

To keep you guessing, scores are only displayed halfway through the game and at the end. Players are listed in points order, the highest points at the top, lowest at the bottom.

This tab is automatically displayed at the right point in the game.

Tab 4 – Game Information

This tab just provides a summarized version of this support page, telling you about the game and quickly how to play.

Feedback and Further Help

I really hope you enjoy this game, it’s a lot of fun. The app is there to help you only and save you the effort of finding paper to keep score.

If you find issues or have a question, please contact [email protected]