Moska
Introduction
Moska is a card game played mainly in eastern Finland and also by the Tampere Civil Engineering Students' Guild (TARAKI). It is related to the Russian game Podkidnoy Durak but uses a full 52-card deck and there are several differences in the attack and defence mechanism. There are many local variants of this game, some of which are known as Turamoska, emphasising the borrowing of some features from Durak. I am told that sessions often start with a lively discussion about which set of rules to follow.
On this page I will start by describing a version taught to us in Tampere by Cristian Seres and Mikko Saari. Then I will list some variations we know about and some sources of information about the game.
Players, Cards and Objective
There are usually from 4 to 6 players, each playing for themselves. It is possible for 3 to play but the game is then less interesting.
A standard international 52-card pack without jokers is used. (Traditionally the King, Queen and Jack in Finnish cards used to be numbered 13, 12 and 11 respectively, but nowadays most decks have the international indices K, Q, J). The cards in each suit rank from high to low: A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2.
The direction of the deal and play is clockwise.
As usual in this type of game the objective is to get rid of all your cards. The last player holding cards when everyone else has run out is the loser; there is no winner.
Deal
The first dealer is chosen by any convenient random method. Subsequently the loser of each hand must deal the next.
The dealer gathers the cards, shuffles them, and deals them one at a time around the table until each player has a hand of six cards. The dealer then places the next card face up in the centre of the table to indicate the trump suit and stacks the remainder of the deck face down crosswise on top the trump indicator so that its value can still be seen. These undealt cards form a stock from which players draw during the game to replenish their hands.
At any time during the game while the trump indicator card is still in the centre of the table, a player who has the two of trumps in their hand is allowed to exchange it for the trump indicator, sliding the two of trumps face up under the stock and taking the original face up trump indicator into their hand in its place.
The work of shuffling and dealing is seen as a punishment for the previous loser, and no other player should touch the cards during this process, otherwise they must take over the role of loser and do the dealing themselves. After shuffling the dealer may sometimes try to trick the player to their right by offering the deck to be cut, but that player should refuse. If they accidentally touch the deck they immediately become the new dealer.
Play
The play consists of a series of bouts in which one player, the defender or killer (tappaja) is attacked, initially by the player to their right, the attacker (hyökkääjä), after which all the other players can join in the attack. The attack consists of cards placed face up side by side in front of the defender, who may kill or knock down (kaatamaan) each of these attack cards by playing better cards on top of them.
The first attack is begun by the player to the left of the dealer, who attacks the player to their left. If the defender kills all the attack cards the defender becomes the attacker for the next bout. If not, the defender must add the attack cards that were not killed to their hand, and for the next bout the turn to attack passes to the player to the left of the defender.
Initial Attack
Each bout is begun by the attacker who must play either
- any single card, or
- a collection of cards consisting of one or more sets of cards of equal rank - for example (3, 3) or (6, 6, 6, 2, 2) or (Q, Q, Q).
An initial single card attack (a) can either be a card from the attacker's hand or the attacker can choose to turn up the unknown top card of the stock face up to begin the attack. When attacking with multiple cards (b), the attack cards must all come from the attacker's hand.
It is not possible to include unmatched cards in a multiple card attack - for example an initial attack consisting of (5, 5, 8) is not legal because it contains only one 8.
The number of cards that can be used to attack the defender is limited to 6 or to the number of cards the defender has in their hand before the attack, whichever is less.
The attacking cards are placed in a row, face up in front of the defender. After attacking, the attacker immediately replenishes their hand to six cards by drawing cards from the top of the stock. If the attacker already holds six or more cards after the initial attack, either because they began with a hand of more than six cards or because they attacked with a card drawn from the stock, they do not draw any cards from the stock.
Defence (Killing)
Each attacking card can be 'killed' by the defender playing a better card face up on top of it. Any card can be killed by a higher card of same suit, and a non-trump card can be killed by any trump card irrespective of rank. The killing cards are played to overlap the killed cards so that the values of both cards can be seen.
Note that there is no requirement to 'follow suit'. The defender can always use a trump to kill a non-trump, even while holding other cards of the same non-trump suit.
The defender does not replenish their hand until the end of the bout.
Continuation of Attack
At any time after the initial attack, players can add further cards to the attack. Every additional attack card must be equal in rank to a card already played during the bout, either an attack card or a card used by the defender to kill an attack card.
Any player other than the defender may join in the attack provided that the total number of attack cards is never greater than six, and never greater than the number of cards the defender had in their hand at the start of the bout. If too many attack cards are accidentally played, the defender immediately gives back any excess attack cards, which must be returned to the hands of whoever tried to play them. If the excess results from two or more attack cards being played simultaneously, the defender chooses which cards to return.
Any player whose hand is reduced to fewer than six cards by playing an attack card immediately replenishes their hand to six cards by drawing cards from the top of the stock pile. These newly drawn cards can be played to continue the attack if their ranks match cards already used in the bout.
The defender continues to kill any attack cards that they are able and willing to beat, and any new ranks played by the defender create opportunities for a further continuation of the attack using cards of the new rank, subject to the limit on the total number of attack cards.
Result of Bout
A bout ends in one of two ways.
A. The defender has killed all the attack cards and no one is able and willing to play any further attack cards. In this case the defender has succeeded in beating off the attack. All the played cards - attack cards and the cards used to killed them - are moved to a face down discard pile and are out of play until the next deal. If the defender has fewer than six cards in hand, they draw cards from the top of the stock pile to restore their hand to six cards. The defender becomes the new attacker and attacks the player to their left, who is the new defender, beginning with one or more cards as described in 'initial attack' above.
B. There are one or more live attack cards on the table which the defender is unable or unwilling to kill. In this case any killed attack cards are moved out of play to the face down discard pile along with the cards that killed them. The defender must pick up any remaining live attack cards on the table and add them to their hand. In addition the other players may play any further cards that could have been added to the attack (they match the rank of some card played during the bout and do not exceed the limit on the number of attack cards) and the defender must also pick up these cards and add them to their hand. If the defender still has fewer than six cards in hand, they must draw cards from the top of the stock pile to restore their hand to six cards. The defender who failed to kill all the attack cards does not get a turn to attack. Instead the turn to attack passes to the next player to their left, and this player initiates a new attack on the following player in clockwise order. Sometimes a defender, after picking up cards from an attack, will have a hand of more than six cards. There is no upper limit: the player just continues to play from this larger hand and will not draw from the stock again so long as they continue to hold six cards or more.
Example of a Bout
In a four-player game diamonds are trumps, each player has 6 cards and West is attacking. The defender is North, the player to West's left. North's hand is
3, 5, 
10, K, 
7, A.
West begins the attack with a pair of threes, hearts and spades, and draws two cards to replace them. North kills the heart with the 7 and the spade with the 3 of trumps. The attack can now be continued by any player with threes or sevens. East contributes the 7 of clubs to the attack and draws a card to replace it, and West adds the 7 of spades and draws a card. North kills the 7 of clubs with the 10. The table in front of North now looks like this:
and North has three cards left: 5, K, A. North has the following options.
- North could kill the
7 with the 5. There is still space for two more attack cards within the limit, and any of the other three players can now attack with 3's, 5's 7's or 10's.
- If they are unable or unwilling to do so, North has successfully knocked down the attack and the eight cards on the table are discarded face down. North draws four new cards and attacks East.
- If they continue the attack with a heart and a club, say the 10 and the 5, then North can kill these last two cards with the A and K. That ends the bout since 6 attack cards have been played and killed. All 12 cards from the table are discarded, North draws a fresh hand of 6 cards and attacks East.
- If on the other hand they continue the attack with a spade, say the 5, North is unable to kill this card. North must pick up the 5 and discard the other eight cards from the table. Since only five attack cards were used, the other players can now give North one more card, which must be a 3, 5, 7 or 10, and North must accept this card, and the player who gave the card draws a replacement. (If the other players were to try to give North more than one card at this point, North could choose which one to accept.) North now has four cards in hand: A, K, 5 and (say) 5. North draws two replacement cards from the stock so make the hand up to six cards but does not get a turn to attack. It is now East's turn to attack South.
- Instead of killing the 7, North might decide to save the 5 of trumps for later, pick up the 7 and discard the other six cards from the table. Since four attack cards have so far been played the other players can now give North up to two more cards, which North must accept, but these can only be threes, sevens and tens. For example North might just be given the 10, the other players have no other suitable cards that they want to get rid of. North's hand is now 5, K, 10, A, 7. North draws a sixth card from the top of the stock and it is East's turn to begin an attack on South.
Endgame
The last card of the stock to be drawn is the face up trump indicator card. This trump drawn in the normal way when a player uses it to replenish their hand, or as an alternative initial attack card during a bout.
When the stock is empty, the endgame begins. The rules of play are the same as before except that players no longer replenish their hands after playing, and therefore players will often have fewer than six cards in hand at the start of a bout.
When the defender begins a bout with fewer than 6 cards in hand, the number of attack cards is limited to not more than the number of cards in the defender's hand. Any player is entitled to ask and to be told how many cards the defender is holding.
A player who manages to play their last card, emptying their hand, drops out of the game and cannot lose. The turns of these players are skipped. For example if the defender holds 3 cards, is attacked with 3 cards, and kills all three of these cards, the turn to attack next passes to the next player after that defender in clockwise order who still holds at least one card.
When all players except one have run out of cards, the last player who holds cards is the loser, and has to shuffle and deal the cards for the next game.
There is no system of scoring. The aim is simply not to lose the game. It would of course be possible to keep track of how many games each player has lost during a session, but so far as I know this is not normally done.
Note that when only two players remain and the attacker attacks with all their cards, the defender loses the game as the last player holding cards even if the defender's cards would have been able to kill all the attack cards. This is different from the usual rules for similar games played in Russia, where the result in the case where the defender knocked down the final attack would be a tie, after which the same player who dealt the tied game would deal again.
Variations
TARAKI Moska with self execution
In this variant, the defender has the additional option to continue an attack by attacking themselves. The defender plays an attack card from their hand of the same rank as one previously used in the bout and must then immediately kill it with another card from their own hand. This process consumes two of the permitted attack cards.
For example if the initial attack is a set of three 4's, the defender might kill these with two 6's and one 8 of appropriate suits, and then attack themselves with another 8 which they immediately kill with the 9 of the same suit. The defender has now used five cards - three to kill the initial attack and two for the self execution, so only one more attack card is allowed. Also the defender is not allowed in this case to perform a second self execution, even if they began the bout with more than six cards, since that would exceed the six-card limit on attacks.
It is however possible to perform two self executions if the initial attack consists of only one or two cards. For example the initial attack is the 3, the defender kills this with the 4, then kills their own 4 with the 7 and kills their own 7 with the 8. Five attack cards have been used so the attackers can play one more card, which must be a 3, 4, 7 or 8.
No trump indicator exchange
Another feature of the TARAKI game is that the holder of the two of trumps is not allowed to exchange it for the trump indicator. The original trump indicator card remains in place until it is drawn as the last card of the stock.
Killing by drawing a card from the stock
Some play that if there are live attack cards remaining on the table that the defender is unable or unwilling to kill using cards from their hand, the defender may if they wish attempt to use the top card of the stock to kill an attack card. They turn the top card of the stock face up, and if it can kill a live attack card the defender must do so. If any live attack cards remain the defender may then continue to try to beat these using cards drawn from the stock.
After the defender has killed an attack card using a card from the stock, if the limit on attack cards has not been reached players may continue the attack, and if the card played from the stock introduced a new rank this becomes an additional attack option.
If the drawn card cannot beat any live attack card, the defender must add the stock card to their hand and this ends the bout. If there was space for additional attack cards, other players may give cards to the defender that match cards played during the bout, but not cards that match a new rank of drawn by the defender from the stock, since this card was not played in the bout.
Exposing the second to last card of the stock
Some play that when only two cards remain in the stock, the trump indicator and one face down card on top of it, the face down card may be turned face up so that both cards are known.
Turamoska vs Moska
Players of some of the above variants call the game Turamoska, but there does not seem to be general agreement on what the difference is between Moska and Turamoska. According to some but by no means all players, Moska is a simpler and less interesting game in which an attack can only be continued with ranks equal to those of the original attack cards, not with cards that only match ranks used by the defender to kill previous attack cards.
No six card attack limit in Turamoska
One characteristic of Turamoska is that the number of cards in an attack is not limited to six, but only by the number of cards held by the defender at the start of the bout. The attack can continue so long as the number of cards held by the defender is greater than the number of live attack cards on the table, and in the self execution variant, self execution is allowed so long as the defender holds at least two more cards than than the number of live attack cards on the table. Players are always allowed to ask and to be told how many cards the defender holds, so that they can know how many more attack cards can be played.
According to a message from Harri Junttila to Cristian Seres in 2005, Turamoska is played in Pyhäselkä, North Karelia with no limit at all on the number of attack cards in a bout. Provided that they respect the rule of only playing ranks that have previously appeared in the bout, the attackers can play as many cards as they wish, and if they play more cards than the defender is holding, the defender has no way to kill all these cards and must therfore pick some of them up, forfeiting their turn to attack. Harri Junttila describes this as a particularly annoying - but entertaining - variation of Moska.
Three losses in a row
There is sometimes a special penalty for a player who loses three consecutive games. These may include certain traditional insults, or being expelled from the game. According to Outi Pulkkinen, posting on Mikko Saari's website, in Punkaharju a player who loses twice in a row is said to be on a pedestal (korokkeelle). The session cannot end at this point: another game must be played and if the same player loses for a third time they become a 'reindeer's egg" (poronmuna).
Sources of Information
The comments on the following pages include descriptions of several more variants.
Cristian Seres' Moska page (archive copy)