Lucky Numbers (Nordic)

Your challenge in Lucky Numbers is to fill your grid first, but you never know which Pieces you will get!

To prepare the game, each player takes a set of Pieces numbered 1-20 and shuffles them so they are face down. Each player has a 4x4 grid, and to complete the setup, each player randomly takes four Pieces and places them in order from low to high down the diagonal from the top left to the bottom right corner.

On your turn, you can take either a face-down Piece from the pile or a face-up Piece from the table. You can (1) place this Piece in an empty space in your grid, (2) swap this Piece with a Piece that is already in the grid, or (3) discard this Piece face up on the table. However, all Pieces in your grid must always adhere to one rule: A Piece must have a higher value than any Piece directly above or to the left and a lower value than any Piece directly below or to the right. The first player to fill their grid with sixteen Pieces wins. (If the pile runs out, the player with the most Pieces in their grid wins.)

You can play Lucky Numbers in tournament style by playing multiple games, where each player starts once. The winner of a game receives 2 points, while each loser receives -1 point for each empty space in their grid. After as many games as there are players, the one with the highest score wins.