Board Game Arena is very proud to announce the availability of Haggis, a card game from Sean Ross, for online play on Board Game Arena.
Haggis is a climbing game in the same family as "Tichu" and "Gang of four". We are very happy to host this game and would like to give a special thanks to Indie Boards And Cards, Travis Worthington and Sean Ross for their personal involvement in this online adaptation.
To play, you need the rules, the game presentation and of course you need to read this interview of Sean, the game designer:
Board Game Arena: Hello Sean. We are very happy to welcome Haggis on this website. You manage to create a climbing card game enjoyable with only 2 players: this is the holy grail for all "Tichu" and "Gang of four" fans ! What's the biggest difficulty you have to overcome to achieve this goal ?
Sean Ross: The biggest difficulty, overall, was finding play-testers. The game took a long time to develop due to a lack of available testers. It was 3 years before I shared it with the BGG community. Another year of critical development followed that - but even then, with the game freely available to all comers, play-testers were few and far between. All of the other difficulties I faced during the design of the game, are detailed in my designer's notes.
BGA: What should be the qualities of a good Haggis player ?
SR: I'd say much the same as the qualities for a good Tichu player: good hand assessment and hand management; good planning and smart tactical play; card counting helps (but not as much as in Tichu) and having the patience to find your moment to strike also helps a lot.
BGA: If you could give just one tip about "how to win", what would it be ?
SR: Bet correctly. Seriously. The biggest difference between a weak and a strong player will be told in their betting. There are huge points to be had, for both sides, in the betting part of the game - the trick is getting more of those points for yourself. That doesn't mean bet all the time, it means bet smartly and go out first.
BGA: Does it happen to you to play board & cards game online ?
SR: Very rarely. Mostly, that's a self-imposed restriction. I have a tendency to over-indulge in things I like. If I played games online as much as I would want to, it would quickly take up most of my free time and very likely try to spill into my non-free time. So, I try to do it as seldom as possible. However, I'll have to see how much restraint I'll have now that my very own game design is available for online play at all hours of the day....
Note: at the time of this note, Sean is ELO leader at Haggis !
BGA: And finally, the question the whole world is asking: do you really like the haggis ?
SR: The food? Honestly, I don't know. I've never eaten haggis. That may make people wonder why I gave that name to my game; if so, they can find out why here.
BGA: Thank you ! Now, let's play and discover Haggis. If you like this game, you can buy it from Indie Boards & Cards.