Hawser
Original · a tug-of-war for two
Lead a card, and the rival answers at sight — the difference moves the knot, and no single pull can reach the mark.
Ready to play now.
A demonstration of Hawser, played by the computer against itself.
Hawser — playing itself
Ways to play
Alone, against the computer
Your own pace, no arranging anything. Take a move back whenever you like.
Play alone3 opponents, weakest first
- The TenderLeads its lowest and answers with the cheapest card that beats the table — one tidy habit, and a bad one: it concedes the difference every time it is out-led. The Deckhand takes it 134–48 over two hundred ropes, and against the Mate its mean lean is 8.7 knots the wrong way with the mark passed in 128 ropes of 200.
- The DeckhandAny card left on the rail, from the seed. No habit at all, which on this rope beats having a bad one: 134–48 over the Tender, and 55–133 against the Mate.
- The MateAlpha-beta over the real rules, two plies — the card it lays and the best answer to it. The first rung that knows a lead is a question: 133–55 over the Deckhand and 149–39 over the Tender. Against itself the rope finishes almost level (mean lean 0.04) and goes to the lean rather than the mark in 175 ropes of 200, which is what a rope between two crews reading the same nine cards looks like.
Together, in the same room
2 players. One device goes round the table, or everybody plays off the same screen.
Play in the same roomOnline, at a table
A room code, joinable from anywhere. Pause tonight and pick it up next week from your device.
Play online
About
A tug-of-war for two, played wholly in the open. A hawser spans the harbour gap with a knot at its middle: Ivory pulls west, Coral east. Each rail holds nine of the same ten cards, face up — the harbour master strikes one off each at the deal, so no two ropes are the same rope. Each round the lead lays one card; the responder answers AT SIGHT; the higher card pulls the knot its way by the DIFFERENCE, and equal cards cancel. The crew the rope is DRAGGING leads the next round, so a lead has to be earned and then held. Past the twelfth segment either way the harbour is taken outright — further than any single pull can reach; empty rails go to the lean, and a rope dead centre is a shared harbour, said plainly.
How it feels
- Leading the 2 and watching the 3 get spent on it
- Conceding one knot with your best card, because nine would end you
- The knot one segment from home with the 10 still on your rail
What the design is for
The answer comes at sight
The responder sees the lead before choosing — so leading a card is asking a question: “what will you spend to beat this?” Answering is the advantage, which is why the rope decides who gets it: the crew the knot leans toward answers, and the crew being dragged has to ask.
The difference moves the knot
A 9 answered by a 1 pulls eight; a 9 answered by an 8 pulls one. Winning a pull is cheap — winning it by nine is ruinous — and equal cards cancel to nothing. The arithmetic is the whole tactics.
The mark is further than one pull
Twelve segments, and the biggest pull a round can make is nine — the 10 answered by the 1 — so the harbour takes two pulls at least. That is not decoration: at seven, leading the 10 from the middle won on the second ply of the game, and the probe’s mirrors read 40–0–0 for the first crew. The number was the bug.
One card struck off each rail
The harbour master’s tithe, drawn from the match seed and lying face up: your rail is without its 6 and theirs is without its 2, and the whole rope is played out of that difference. Nothing is hidden by it — what a crew is without is as public as what it holds — and it is the reason two ropes are two games.
Nothing hidden, everything spent
Both rails face up from the first lead; the view is the state. Nothing is hidden and nothing rolls after the deal — pure questions, answers and arithmetic, nine rounds at most.
Taught pull by pull
Six steps: the lead, the cheap answer, the price of a lost pull, the bait, the mark — and then a whole rope to yourself. Every step poses a rope the rules could have produced and accepts one card: the tutorial’s own arithmetic is checked by the test suite.
- Best at
- 2
- Kind
- Strategy
- Table
- Competitive
- Studio
- Board.game Originals
The opponents
The Tender
Leads its lowest and answers with the cheapest card that beats the table — one tidy habit, and a bad one: it concedes the difference every time it is out-led. The Deckhand takes it 134–48 over two hundred ropes, and against the Mate its mean lean is 8.7 knots the wrong way with the mark passed in 128 ropes of 200.
The Deckhand
Any card left on the rail, from the seed. No habit at all, which on this rope beats having a bad one: 134–48 over the Tender, and 55–133 against the Mate.
The Mate
Alpha-beta over the real rules, two plies — the card it lays and the best answer to it. The first rung that knows a lead is a question: 133–55 over the Deckhand and 149–39 over the Tender. Against itself the rope finishes almost level (mean lean 0.04) and goes to the lean rather than the mark in 175 ropes of 200, which is what a rope between two crews reading the same nine cards looks like.
Achievements
0 of 5 earned
The Harbour
Win a rope of Hawser.
Past the Mark
Take the harbour at the mark, not by the lean.
A Short Rope
Win with four or more cards still on your rail.
Four Knots Back
Win after trailing by four knots or more.
Baited
Win a rope in which the rival conceded five knots or more on a single answer.
Key art
Key art — Board.game art system
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