Choosing Tasks in The Crew: Pick What Your Hand Can Win

Before the first card is played, the crew splits the tasks. The commander picks first, then everyone takes one at a time going clockwise, until the middle is empty. You may not say why you want a task or what you hold. But the choice you make is still a kind of message, and choosing well wins more missions than any clever play later.

How to read your hand for a task

A task asks you to win one specific card. To win it, you need to take the trick where that card falls. Look for these strengths:

• High cards in the task’s color. If the task is the blue 4 and you hold the blue 9 and 8, you can win almost any blue trick. That is the cleanest way to claim it.
• A short color, plus rockets. If you have no green cards and hold a rocket or two, you can trump a green trick. When the green task card falls in a trick, you can take it, as long as you are out of green.
• Control of the lead. Winning a trick lets you lead the next one. If you can win early tricks, you can choose the color that brings your task card out.

Tasks you should usually avoid:

• The card you hold, when it is low. Your own yellow 2 can only win a trick if nobody else plays a higher yellow or a rocket on it. That rarely happens. The rulebook’s tips say the same thing: it is usually easier to win a card you do not hold.
• A color where you hold only low cards. You will be following that color with cards that cannot win.

There is one case where holding the task card helps: when it is high. If you hold the pink 9 and the task is the pink 9, you lead it and win. Nothing can beat it except a rocket, and a teammate can only play one if they are out of pink.

The commander’s first pick

The commander chooses first and leads the first trick. That is a lot of power at the start, so the commander should usually take the task their hand is best built for. Their pick also sets the tone. A commander who takes a task in a color shows they likely have strength there, and the others can plan around it.

What everyone else learns from your pick

You cannot say why you picked a task, but your crew can still reason. A player who takes the green 3 likely has a way to win green tricks: high greens, or no greens and a rocket. That is not a signal, and you must not mean it as one. But it is fair for your crew to read it as part of the game. Pick truthfully for your hand, and your crew will learn to read you.

The last task in the middle

Tasks go around until none are left. That means the last player to pick may get stuck with a task they cannot easily win, like the commander in the rulebook’s own example, who ends up with a yellow task while holding no yellow at all.

Two habits reduce this:

• Look at the whole spread before your first pick. If one task will be very hard for anyone, consider taking it early if your hand has any way to win it. Leaving it can mean the worst-placed player gets it.
• Count picks. With three tasks and four players, the commander and the next two pick; the last player gets none. With five tasks and four players, the commander picks twice. Know whether you will get a second pick before you make your first.

Tasks that can be won together

The rulebook’s tips call winning several tasks in one trick “worth gold.” If two task cards are in the same color, a player with high cards there might win both in one trick, or in two quick tricks. When the spread has a pair like that, the player with the strongest hand in that color should think about taking both.

After the picks: the first signals

Once tasks are picked, signals open up. Now is the moment to ask what your crew needs to know about your hand to make your task work, or theirs. A short color, a high card, a card that sits on a teammate’s task: these are the signals worth sending early. The last lesson covers how to choose.

For more on reading a table without words, our article on game night for introverts is a fun companion.