Every round after cards are dealt, there are still some left in the deck. You will have some idea which cards your opponent might have, but not precisely. This is something you have to be aware of. There are 46 cards in the game, and each player is dealt 15, leaving 16 in the draw deck. If you don’t have a card, there is half a chance that your opponent has it. You can draw two cards on your turn by taking a writ. There are two risks. You may draw bad cards which make it harder instead of easier to go out. Also if your opponent wins the round, he scores extra points based on the writs you have taken.
The 3’s and 6’s have many different powers. One 6 can be played to specifically defeat the single 9. So your 9 is not necessarily invincible. Another 6 allows you to not respond, forcing your opponent to play the next set to defeat his own set. Using this power sometimes lets you win the hand because your opponent can’t respond. There is a 3 which lets you play a set of different numbers, and they are treated as the smallest number in the set. This can allow you to play many cards at one go, taking your opponent by surprise. It can even help you play a set of six 2’s and score the bonus. There is a card which cancels the power of another card just played. And then there is a card which cancels this cancel power.
This above was one interesting situation. I played against Han. I had only one card left. He played a 9, the highest card in the game. Normally only one card can beat that, the 6 named Liu Bang. However my last card was Xiang Yu (also a 6). Xiang Yu’s ability was to double the victory points for the rest of the hand while passing. Technically I lost this hand, because I passed, but I had played my last card, which meant I won the round. The various interactions of the card powers create interesting situations like this.
Chu Han certainly offers the shedding game experience. You have to start devising a plan to go out right from the get go. Or if your hand is horrible, maybe you can only plan for minimising losses. The game is not about playing as many cards as possible immediately. You may feel a lot of pressure if your opponent plays many cards early in the round. However your ultimate goal is to go out. You don’t necessarily have to rush. It is very much possible to come from behind, if you are able to keep playing sets that your opponent fails to respond to. Based on how your opponent plays, you get hints about what kind of hand he might have.
The special powers of the cards create the character of this game. It is not just the card distribution and the core mechanism. The game becomes more fun after you get familiar with the characters. You start thinking about counter moves, and how to counter those counter moves. You can better anticipate your opponent’s moves. I find Chu Han exciting and clever.
Chu Han is designed by Tom Lehmann. His Race for the Galaxy is one of my favourite games, a game I have played more than 2200 times. Chu Han is published by Matagot, and so is my game Dancing Queen. It’s exciting for me to know that I share this link with the designer of one of my all time favourite games.
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