Tichu Online

Written by Cearbhail on April 30th, 2011

Tichu is probably the most popular traditional-looking cardgame among the hobby enthusiasts. The components couldn’t be simpler: a traditional deck of cards (four suits that go from 2 to A) but with four specific jokers instead of the normal two. The company even adds a second deck of cards, as if they were ashamed to charge us eurogame prices (or euro cardgame prices) for just a normal deck of cards (different art or not). Don’t worry, though: the game is great, the designer does deserve your money, and even the production values are nice, with the cards being made of resistant material (good, since they’ll spend a lot of time on your sweaty, tense hands) and sporting quite nice artwork.

The game is exclusively for 4 players, divided into two teams, and (usually) played until one team gets a thousand points. Even though there are variants for three and six players, I’d say that these are just for the desperate, even without having played them. The entire game was clearly designed for this strict player count, and the flow of it would be severely interrupted with any modification in that sense. As a supporting argument, every single report I’ve read online says that the variants are just excuses for the publisher to extend the player count in the box back. Since I’m specially picky about player counts, and consider my gaming time to be quite precious, I’d rather play other games with different player counts.

But with four, you can hardly beat Tichu. It takes a little bit to get used to the dynamics, and can be a little uneventful to play with newbies or players who don’t get into the spirit of the game, but it’s such a fun experience and so addictive that I’d be willing to spend an entire game-reunion on an extra-long tichu match. Though the game usually lasts 90 minutes (Varying a bit depending on how the game evolves, it could take twice that time or end in half of it),

The rules are rather straightforward, even if they do take about 10 minutes to explain. You have the traditional hierarchy of cards (2 at the bottom, ace on top) with the phoenix card being the standard joker (stronger than the strongest card that was played so far) and the dragon being the strongest single card out of them all. The mahjong card shows which player will start the dispute and the dog card gives the initiative to your partner, in case you deem it useful to do so. Players play cards until all hands are emptied. When you have the lead, you can begin with a single card, a pair, three-of-a-kind, a full-house or straight sequences with 5 cards or more. After that, all players have to maintain the style of game (you cannot play a pair in a dispute that started with a single card). This goes on until all players have passed, with the player that played the highest card taking the pile of cards and the lead for the next dispute (and thus defining what sort of card combination can be played).

The scoring value of the cards is quite simple: Tens and Kings are worth ten points and Fives are worth 5 points. The dragon is worth 25 points, but you have to give the pile of points to one of your opponents (you only take the lead). The phoenix, due to its flexibility (it can also fill up a hole in a sequence, or add up to a three-of-akind, a true joker-like card) is worth -25 points, as a compensation for its strength.

Up to this moment, what I’ve described is a rather bland game. Play cards, collect points, go on and on. What truly makes this game special is one small thing: the ability to call tichu. Any player can do this as long as he hasn’t played a single card yet from his hand: it’s a bet that says “I’ll be the first one to get rid of all my cards”. If you manage to do so, you get 100 points (which is equivalent to the value of all the cards in the deck.). If you fail (even if it is your partner that beats you to it), you get -100 points. This is the center of the game, to make a gutsy call like that and try to prove yourself afterwards, with your partner trying to help you (as hard as that can be) and your opponents doing everything to stop you. Things may even get really heated if one of the guys in the other team calls tichu as well.

Tichu is about gut feeling. You get your hand of cards, pass one card from your hand to each player (and receive one card from each player’s hand) before you begin, arrange them in a useful order and hope everything works according to plan. The game’s golden rule is the fact that you have to follow the type of combination that was used to initiate the dispute, so while your hand may have a killer 10-card combination, it won’t be useful if everyone keeps playing pairs or three-of-a-kinds. Try to get that initiative somehow, or watch as your killer hand nets you negative points. The juiciest decision in the game, though, is deciding if you should wreck your pre-set hand according to how the disputes are developing or if you should remain patient

I’ve played Tichu over ten times already and I’m pretty far from being sick of it. In fact, I’d guess that this is one of those games where you can play your entire life. I’m pretty sure 8+ kids could play it, since the game is about being reckless (and sometimes having it pay off). It’s not a brain burner like (there are some tough decisions, but most of it is based on instinct) but it’s a guaranteed good time with your friends, specially if you’re the talkative group. I give it a 10/10, I’m always willing to play it. It only takes two or three hands before the newbies get the spirit of it (unless nobody calls tichu, which renders the game quite bland), so I’d say it’s quite accessible. I totally recommend this, unless you hate traditional-like cardgames.

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