Grandpa Beck’s Games has released quite a few card games over the years, but none has been quite so cutthroat as Cover Your Assets. In this high-stakes, high-energy card game, players will duke it out to see who is the first to reach millionaire status. You’ll draw asset cards to build your pile, stacking cards upon cards until the end of the round. But make sure to keep an eye on your assets, because stealing is par for the course! Cover Your Assets is the perfect game for all generations–just as long as they’re okay with a little competition.

Making a Pair

You start Cover Your Assets by shuffling all 110 asset cards together and dealing 4 cards to each player. Then, players take turns to build their assets taking one of four actions. The first thing you can do is to make a pair from your hand. If you’ve got a pair of matching asset cards, you can put them together and lay them down in your personal asset card pile. Wild cards can be used in place of any card you like, so feel free to use these as you see fit.

You can also make a pair using the top card in the discard pile if it matches one of your cards. As you grow your stack with different sets of assets, you’ll place them perpendicularly on top of each other to build your stack. Keep in mind that, even if you have more than two of a certain kind of asset cards, you can only play two cards to make an asset pair.

Steal or Be Stolen From

Stealing cards from other players is one of the most diabolical parts of Cover Your Assets. To steal your opponent’s assets, you’ll need to show an asset card from your hand that is a match to the one at the top of their pile. The other player isn’t helpless to theft, however, as they can defend by showing you another asset card of the same kind (or a wild card) from their hand. The would-be thief can then counter with their own matching or wild card, going back and forth until someone runs out of cards. Then, the winner gets all of the cards used in the battle.

Adding It All Up

If you can’t make a match or steal from another player (or you simply don’t want to), you can discard a card and draw a new one. The round ends until the draw pile is empty and everyone has played all their cards. At the end of each round, each player adds up their assets to see who reaches one million dollars. If no one claims that title yet, then a new round begins.

Cover Your Kingdom

There’s a spinoff to Cover Your Assets called Cover Your Kingdom, which takes these ruthless money-grabbers and turns them into royalty. This fantasy card game casts you as rulers recruiting clans of magical creatures to your kingdom in an effort to collect the most magic. This game adds to the fun of the original by giving free creatures the ability to perform actions such as forcing rulers to swap or remove clans. Players can employ their services during rounds to mess with the competition and sneak their way to the top.

Cover Your Kingdom also expands the game to allow up to 8 players, so it’s excellent for bigger families as well as fans of the original. If you’re a sucker for fantasy and love a little competition, Cover Your Kingdom is a worthy addition to the collection. Spice up any family reunion with a little magical backstabbing!

Cover Your Assets and Trust No One

Cover Your Assets is playable by 2-6 players, which makes it an excellent game for families. It’s also suitable for ages 8 and up, so younger players will have just as much fun double-crossing as the adults. Playing time lasts between 15-45 minutes, so you can toss in a round or two in a game night or on a lazy Saturday morning. Buy Cover Your Assets today and watch your competitive streak go wild!