Show HN: Tiao, A two-player turn-based board game

A fresh indie board game just hit the scene, and the crowd is already loud about it. Tiao is a simple-to-learn, two-player strategy game you can play on one screen, challenge an AI, or jump online with friends or strangers using time controls or no clock at all. But the community’s main character today? “Easy” mode.

Chess dabblers wandered in with swagger and left humbled. One player joked they “need an AI easier than easy,” while another admitted they “can’t beat easy,” turning the comments into a meme factory about the world’s most polite bully: the Easy Bot. There’s a mini-controversy brewing too—matchmaking drama. With lots of time-control options and queues, early adopters worry the player pool is split too thin. The rising consensus: trim the number of queues so people actually find games.

Then comes the lovefest: the tutorial is getting standing ovations. Multiple users called it one of the best intros they’ve ever seen—clear, kind, and quick. It’s the delightful twist: the game is easy to learn, tricky to beat, and players want more of it, just with a gentler AI on-ramp and fewer queues. Verdict from the peanut gallery: addictive, clever, and already sparking speedrun-level pride and shame.