Tichu is a partnership, trick-taking game.
Title: Tichu
Year Published: 2014
Designer: Urs Hostettler
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Players: 4
Game Time: ~60 Mins
Set-up Time: >1 Mins
Ages: 12+
Theme: N/A
Mechanic: Hand Management, Partnerships, Trick-Taking
How to win: Score the most points as a team.
Game Description
Tichu is a partnership climbing card game, and the object of play is to rid yourself of your hand, preferably while scoring points in the process.
Set-Up
There are several variations of this game so I’m just going to cover the 4 players only game I know which is called “Tichu Nanking”.
Shuffle all the cards and deal all the cards (14) to each player. The player sitting opposite you will be your partner.
Each player looks at their hand and passes 3 cards, one to each player by placing a card in front of them. Once all players have 3 cards in front of them, players may pick them up and look at them.
Tichu Game Play
The player with The Mah Jong card will play first. (You don’t have to play the Mah Jong, just reveal it)
There are also special cards which I will explain in more detail later. To play, you can choose one of 6 types of hands…
Single
Pair
A run of 3 Pairs
Triple
Full House
A Run of at least 5 cards
Then in order around the table, you need to play the same combination of cards with a higher value or pass. If you pass, you can come back in to play on your turn.
When 3 players pass, the player who played last, and therefore has the highest value on the table takes all the cards facedown in front of them and starts the next round.
If you run out of cards in your hand, you sit out the rest of the round. When 3 players run out of cards in hand the round ends. The final player left in the round gives any cards in hand to the opposing team and any tricks they have won to the player who went out first.
Scoring
Each team counts each of the scoring cards in their score piles.
If both players on the same team go out first, they get 200 points and there is no other scoring for the round. Otherwise…
Kings & Tens – 10 points
Fives – 5 Points
Dragon – 25 Points
Phoenix – -25 Points
Game End
You play to a point total, usually around 1000. The first team there wins.
Tichu Round-Up
So what do those other special cards do?
The Dog card has no value and can be only used to lead a trick, passing play across to your partner.
The Phoenix can be used as a Joker in any card combination, or as a single card 1/2 higher than the previous card. So if it’s played on a 6, it’s technically 6.5.
The Dragon cannot be beaten as a single card and cannot be used in a run, but you have to give the trick to one opposing player if you win.
There are Bombs, which are a straight flush of 5 cards or 4 of a kind (You can not use the Phoenix in a Bomb) which you can play at any time (even out of turn) to win a trick. A bomb can only be beaten by a higher-value bomb.
One of those classic games you need to study to play well, a pro will destroy you. I’m no Bridge aficionado but I bet some of the skills are interchangeable… it’s that level of game.
But, playing casually its great fun.
Rating
A good game to play with casual players, but I can imagine an amateur would annoy a Pro 🙂
I give it 6/10
Tichu First Impression February 2015
A Chinese shredding game.
Arguably the most played card game in the world?
This is one of those games you need to play a lot to be good, but casually it’s good fun too. You’re not allowed to communicate with your partner you just have to play cards and hope you’re doing it right. 🙂
It’s a very good game and one I will probably end up buying.
Jesta ThaRogue