On first viewing, Tichu is a standard deck of cards with four added extra cards adorned with intricate animal pictures on them. My introduction to Tichu – a trick-taking, climbing card game played in pairs – was as an answer to the question ‘what card game would be good to play on holiday with my family to gently introduce them to games with a little more strategy than Snap?’ Tichu wasn’t that (it turns out my family can’t manage much more than Snap to be honest), but it is many things: ‘thinky’, rewarding, complex, funny… and, given the paired teams element to the gameplay, with the potential to make or break just about any relationship!
