Sheepshead the App Reviews

I have been playing this game since I was 7 years old. I understand the tricks of the trade. SheepsheadtheApp is poorly designed as the player playing behind me is always designed or “programmed” to have one card higher when attempting to take tricks home. The record of keeping track of this is astounding from my attempts at taking tricks home from a fail suit. Such as “Ace walker or trumped trick. This game is also designed to set(lose)SheepsheadtheApp user as picker and partner. If I were to have close to what is a “barn burner” hand and go alone it is again designed for SheepsheadtheApp user to lose. For as much as I have been playing SheepsheadtheApp, I should have had what you call all queens and highest jacks hand, but have not. More designing sequences needed.

This game can’t be more aggravating because computer players are more than just dumb but engaging in sabotage. For example I’m partner with 5 trump to the Q-diamonds, lead a 7-diamonds with picker on the end. Comes to picker with a diamond ace and J-hearts on the trick, and he plays the 10-diamonds under the jack to lose a 20+ point trick. Worse is the lead coming back is a heart 7, picker uses Q-spade to trump in, and plays a Q-clubs next. Computer intentionally lost 27 points to blow what would have been a no tricker. Don’t play this game, I’m going to find a different game

I binge played and found several systematic programming errors. The basic mechanics are ok, but the playmaking has errors. Plus, you seldom get to pick... seldom.
Often called ace does not get trumpted by a non partner even when that player has numerous trump. Almost always when called ace is trumpted, the trick taker leads trump next when there is no sane reason to do that. Often a non partner will smear to called suit trick when the next and last player is the ace partner and is for certain to take the trick. On a loaner, often the first lead from an opponent will be a trump card with no sane reason to do so. These are not strategic guess plays that do not work, they are systematic logic errors because the results are nearly always bad and the play nonsense.
And again... you seldom get to pick even if you are willing to pick with a thin hand. I kept track on a rainy day and picked 4 times out of 100 hands and 2 of those were thin hands.

5 handed is almost unplayable. 4 handed there is always one person taking tricks from a teammate, or smearing the wrong team. Also it seems to me that there is always one player that makes terrible game decisions, like leading trump with the picker on the end in 4 handed, only to find out the guy leading trump may have had 3 with a low queen, middle jack and a 9. There used to be an app that let you decide what “level” you wanted to play at. I’ve got to see if I can find that. We taught two 14 year olds to play both 4 and 5 handed this weekend and after two hours both play the game better than the computer partners in SheepsheadtheApp

This has a pretty good screen view, better than the others. Fairly easy to see who picks the blind, scoring is seamless. My issue is that the dealing seems skewed to the game. I mostly play in the tournament mode. After I was ‘hooked’ by winning a tourney or two, I played over 100 without even breaking the top two players. Very frustrating also to have the game pick the blind with a crap hand then call you for partner. Not as fun as I’d like it to be…

I gave this two stars because it is not a bad app for learning the mechanics of the game and for developing strategies to take more tricks. However, I have had hands where five queens were played, or a player didn’t play trump when trump was led and they had it in their hand (because it is played by them in the next trick), I’ve seen cards show up twice in a game. It HAS made me a better player, and as long as I know it’s going to appear to “cheat”, I don’t get to cranked up about the weird mistakes it makes.

Cards dealt seem biased to one or two players. And the “AI” makes dumb mistakes, like often leading trump on the first trick if not the partner or picker. And the indicator of who picked shows on one player always and another that actually picked, making it unclear which player picked (the “stuck” one seems to change when restarting SheepsheadtheApp ).

Adding call an ace would be a nice improvement. Also other variants like fewer players, first two queens, etc.

Thank you for making this game as there are almost no other offline options, but a few refinements would help a lot.

I used to live this game, but then started noticing how ridiculously it cheats. Tell me how 93% of the time, yes 93%, because I kept track over hundreds of hands that the pickers partner has covered the pickers fail, unless of course I pick, then it’s about 9%. Why is it that I get less than 2 trump almost 88% of the time, and when I do get a decent picking hand the AI picks in front of me with absolutely nothing for them to pick on. Don’t get me started on the AI picker leading low fail when I’m in the partner, there’s no reason a picker should lead if a game with the 8 of clubs when he has a handful of trump. But again, it only seems to be when I’m partner. I don’t know what happened to this game, but it’s pretty much unplayable at this point.

Many frustrating issues with this game! PLayers frequently lead trump when they are not the partner! Also, when playing call an ace, often players don’t lead the called suit when they can. They also frequently throw off fail instead of putting a trump on in front of the picker and save their queens to the end rather than take a trick earlier when they should .

Overall good. Biggest complaints are the AI picking for no reason often times in front of me. Second complaint is there is not an Alone button if you pick and don’t have the Jack of Diamonds. Can’t tell you how many times my tournaments would have changed or I could have gone alone. Trump tight with 5 of the top 8 cards and don’t have the jack of diamonds and am bringing an AI along for a free ride and sharing points. It’s also always the one that’s in the points lead. Otherwise, no other real issues.

This is a fun game. I wish it had a couple options, one to look at the previous hands, and a notification showing what the partner card is, as it flashes up briefly on the screen and if you aren’t looking you don’t know. The help also has some blank graphics, so the scoring values don’t show up on my phone. It is also pretty slow graphically with unnecessary spinning cards. It would also be nice if a player has the rest of the tricks that it would just lay the cards down and end the hand.

Recently- I’ve seen my ‘team’ when we aren’t the picker act dumb and sacrifice points when later the have trump in had. For example; Comp picker sets hearts as partner. I win a round and choose hearts to show the partner. One comp player who has the 10 of diamonds plays the 10 of clubs effectively giving the picker an extra 10 points. When they could have played 10 of trump(which they played later in their hand that still went to the computer picker. And, they choose when they don’t even have a single queen in their hand. And loose catastrophically. But if they pass I could have a regular win. Or a close one. Which make the game fun. It’s not fun when I’m playing with.. computer that are distracted.
They aren’t doing a good job of giving p you points when you will obviously take the half and the partner has been revealed.

This is a fun game to learn. However, it would be more fun if the human player received more trump. I’ve been playing daily for weeks and have rarely gotten enough trump to be able to pick the blinds. I usually get from 1-3 trump and they usually are not high trump. It gets to be sort of boring after awhile. I’d like to win once in awhile like the computer players do. I might have to search for another sheepshead game.

3 handed seems pretty good.

5 handed was not enjoyable. Too many totally non logical plays (ie: non partner with multiple trump, uses Q clubs instead of smaller trump on call ace: another time non partner can trump called ace-smears!!).
This version I would give a 2 1/2 stars.
Needs to be re-written.

They did a great job here. I wish we could play against other live players. Any way to make this happen? Also, it often shows two different pickers during the game and I have to remember who actually picked.

Also the picker always bury Aces and then often leads out fail even if they have a decent hand. Should keep an Ace and trump people out and later play Ace and it walks...

Otherwise great game

Quick smart play and it’s basically add free. The only way it could be improved is if after a hand you could look back through the tricks or tap on a player to see what their cards were, or more options on the rules such as partners in four hand or being able to call off a partner if you have the jack of diamonds. THANK YOU FOR AN AWSOME GAME!!!!

I grew up playing Sheepshead while living in Wisconsin and for eight years in the Navy. Every time I played the rule was that you could not lead trump until they are played on a trick or trump is the only “suit” you hold. That rule is not factored into this game. It is amazing how it changes the play. I loose all the time, partially because I still think that way.

Gameplay is solid! The players are tough; this feels more like the first round of tournament sheepshead at Germanfest, less like social drinking sheepshead night.

If the implementation allows for it, maybe the developer could create less worthy NPCs having personalities to allow for a beginner PC difficulty ramp.

Only complaint is that the AI will pick the blind on way too little power. I’ve been through at least 100 hands and haven’t had a single doubler/leaster, but seen the picker lose dozens of times. Other than that, the AI makes sensible plays. The game functions well.

Great explanation and leasters or doublers you can choose. It’s a tough game to learn so it’s nice to learn against the computer rather than the stress of people. You can set it so you must tap before the hand/trick is collected which enables you to learn the reasoning of what is the highest trump. It’s a good app to learn sheepshead. I would recommend it to all learners.