Haiclue: Clue Words and Haiku Party Game

With fifteen words to choose from, can you clue the other players in to which one of the four words in the center of the table is yours?

Originally funded through Kickstarter, Haiclue is the first game from Tiger Board Games. Gameplay is simple, but you will have to do some creative thinking in order to clue in the other players to your words and guess their words in turn.

Gameplay

You start setup by shuffling the deck of cards. Each card shows one of four symbols. On the table you place four stacks of word tiles, and place each stack next to a card showing a different one of the four card symbols. The words on top of each stack are the active words for the round. The number of tiles in each stack varies from one to three based on player count. The tiles are double-sided with a different word on each side, with one side being white and one side being black. Each player then draws fifteen word tiles and places them face-up in front of them, white side up.

Each round, every player draws a card from the deck and looks at it secretly. The symbol tells you out of the four stacks on the table, which of the active words is your word for the round. Each player then makes a clue for their word by selecting at least two of their fifteen word tiles.

Once everyone has created their clues, each player’s clue is read out load and everyone else uses guessing tiles to make their guess simultaneously as to which of the four word tiles was the clue giver’s word (more than one player can have the same word during a round). Everyone who guesses correctly earns a point and the clue giver earns a point for each correct guess.

At the end of a round when the tiles are showing their white sides, after every player’s clue has been guessed, the four tiles on top of each stack are flipped over, and players flip over their fifteen word tiles, so that all visible tiles are now showing their black sides. A new round begins. When a round ends where the tiles are showing their black sides, the top tiles of each stack are discarded, and each player flips their tiles over to their white sides before passing them to the player on their left.

When the four tile stacks are empty the game ends, and the player with the most points wins the game.

Review

Haiclue cleverly allows all players to take on both the role of clue giver and guesser each round, so that everyone gets to enjoy both roles and you don’t have to wait for your turn to come around.

There is a nice balance in the number of tiles each player has to work with, as you have enough that you are unlikely to be stuck with absolutely nothing to use for your clue, but you can still end up in situations where you have to be creative. How words play off each other can help you to clue towards more difficult words.

When playing with larger groups, you can run into a bit more downtime as you wait for everyone to finish their clues, particularly if you went fast on your own. But gameplay is relatively smooth, and the guessing phase runs quickly as well.

If you wish to increase the difficulty of the game, there is even a haiku variant, in which each player has twenty tiles instead of fifteen, and must make their clue form a haiku poem: a fun, if tricky, alternative that certainly tests one’s ingenuity.

Haiclue is not a loud or boisterous party game, it is creative, easy to teach and set up, has lots of word tiles to keep things fresh, and has original gameplay. For players looking for a more low-key party game it is a lovely fit, and it’s certainly fun to discuss each other’s clue choices and see what everyone came up with.

Pros: Clue giving is done differently than in other party games, easy to teach, everyone takes on both roles each round, haiku variant

Cons: Slows down a little at higher player counts

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.