Game summary
👥 A game for 2 players
⏳ Playing time is 25 minutes
🏢 Publisher is Matagot
Introduction
Chu Han is a card game about dynastic intrigue set in ancient China before and during the Chu-Han Contention, 206-202 BC. Two clans, the Han and Chu, battle to defeat the weak Qin rulers and forge China’s first true dynasty. Historically, the Chu started in a stronger position, but the Han managed to defeat them. Can you overcome your rival and found a new dynasty?
Let’s get it on the table
Set the score track between the players. Choose a player to go first, who puts the Han scoring token on the track’s 0 space. The second player puts the Chu scoring token on the track’s 1 space. Each player gets 15 hand cards, 1 summary card and 2 summary punchboards per player, red for the Han player and blue for the Chu player.
Shuffle the 46 dynasty cards and deal them into 3 piles of 15, 15 and 16. Form the dynasty deck from the 16-card pile. Turn the bottom 4 cards sideways as a reminder that they will never be drawn.
Place the writs next to this draw pile and each player picks up their hand of 15 cards. The Han player is on lead and begins play.
A game of Chu Han consists of 4-7 hands. A hand consists of a series of tricks. The player on lead plays a set of one or more cards, all the same rank. Their rival then must either play a set of equal size and higher rank or pass.
The player with the fewest points is the starting player (also known as the lead) of the round. In case of equal points, the player who won the previous round starts. When a player is at the start (lead), like the starting player at the beginning of a round, this player may this player performs the following actions:
1) Optionally, in order of choice: play a card with a a LEAD power and/or take a command tile (writ) and draw two cards.
2) Mandatory: Play a set of 1 or more cards of equal value.
Then, starting with the other player, players’ turns alternate with reacting (response) to the last set played:
The player whose turn it is, may take a writ and draw 2 cards, and then
– must either play a higher rank set or pass
A set played on response must be the same number of cards as the set led (and of higher rank than the last set played). Continue step 3 until a player passes and gives the lead. Then discard all played cards
Going out
Once a player runs out of cards (and all REACT powers have been played and resolved), a hand ends. If both players run out of cards due to REACT powers after playing a LEAD power, the player who ran out of cards first is the player who went out. The player who went out scores: – 1 point per remaining card in his rival’s hand, limited to a maximum of 5 points, plus – 1 point per write turn taken by his rival (0-6 points).
The Game ends
Once a player has 31 or more victory points (and any REACT powers have been played and resolved), the game ends (even in the middle of a trick) and that player wins. If one player achieves 31+ VPs by scoring points within a hand while the other player goes out while resolving that play, the first player wins before going out is scored.
Final Conclusion & rating
Weight: 2.20/ 5
Replayability: 8
Our rating: 7 out of 10 dices
The game is quick to play, only the game rules were a bit tricky at the beginning. We think this could have been explained a little better. But once you start playing, you have a fun game on your hands, especially if you like stroke games. We are not very fond of these, but the great artwork had made us very curious. We still won’t put this kind of game on the table anytime soon but this was a fun game to play. What makes this game unique is how simple it is to set up but how deep the decisions feel. You start with 15 cards, but every trick counts and once someone reaches 31 points, the game is immediately over.
Thanks to Matagot for this review copy and the opportunity to write about it.
