Post by Gilvan Blight on Feb 20, 2009 14:44:28 GMT -5
Quickly: Great two player game, easy to learn hard to master.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow] Jambo is a two player non-collectible card game. Players each take on the role of merchants in Africa trying to sell their wares to foreign visitors.
Each player starts with a hand of 5 cards and a vendors stand with room for 6 items. Each turn players get 5 actions. The first action is always to draw from the draw pile. The player then gets the option to keep the card and then take their remaining 4 turns or give up the card to the discard and draw another card. The player can use any number of actions to draw cards, potentially looking at 5 different cards and keeping one.
Aside from drawing the rest of the actions are used by either playing cards or using face up cards. Along with their vendor stand players can place up to three items in play. These include a variety of items like boats, urns, tiki masks etc. that usually allow players to draw more cards or to discard cards for various benefits. Players always have the option to take less then 5 action and even get 2 gold if they have any actions left at the end of their turn.
Besides items the deck also contains People and Animals. These are event cards that are played with an action and then discarded they generally either give the person playing a benefit or hinder the opponent. Along rest of the deck are ware cards. These list from 3-6 wares of 6 different types. Each card has two values, one is the cost to buy those wares and the other is the amount a player makes by selling those wares. To sells wares the player must have the exact same wares as shown on the card, to buy there must be enough left in the general stock pool in order to draw.
Play goes back and forth with players each taking up to 5 actions until one player has 60 gold. That player is declared winner.
[glow=green,2,300]The good:[/glow]Basic rules are very simple to learn. Like many card games this is a game of exceptions, the basic rules are rather simple but each card adds to or breaks these rules in some way. Nice and quick, a round of Jambo only takes about half an hour to an hour. The tokens given to keep track of your 5 turns is a great mechanic I may steal for other games with multiple turns.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]Having extra market stands is a huge advantage in this game and with only 5 in the rather large deck it can happen that one player gets them and the other does not. This seems to lead to that player winning pretty soundly. This adds a randomness that I don't think is needed by this game. I'd almost be willing to change the rules so you can buy one any time like a 3rd bean field in Bohnanza.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]Nothing. I can't think of anything that wrong with this game. Perhaps only that it's a two player game and can't be scaled up to more players.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]Picked this one up off of WGR member MontyCircus and really enjoyed it. Don't regret my purchase in any way. Out of the three I bought (Clans, Babel and this) this is my favorite. Quick to learn, quick to play with enough strategy to keep you coming back.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow] Jambo is a two player non-collectible card game. Players each take on the role of merchants in Africa trying to sell their wares to foreign visitors.
Each player starts with a hand of 5 cards and a vendors stand with room for 6 items. Each turn players get 5 actions. The first action is always to draw from the draw pile. The player then gets the option to keep the card and then take their remaining 4 turns or give up the card to the discard and draw another card. The player can use any number of actions to draw cards, potentially looking at 5 different cards and keeping one.
Aside from drawing the rest of the actions are used by either playing cards or using face up cards. Along with their vendor stand players can place up to three items in play. These include a variety of items like boats, urns, tiki masks etc. that usually allow players to draw more cards or to discard cards for various benefits. Players always have the option to take less then 5 action and even get 2 gold if they have any actions left at the end of their turn.
Besides items the deck also contains People and Animals. These are event cards that are played with an action and then discarded they generally either give the person playing a benefit or hinder the opponent. Along rest of the deck are ware cards. These list from 3-6 wares of 6 different types. Each card has two values, one is the cost to buy those wares and the other is the amount a player makes by selling those wares. To sells wares the player must have the exact same wares as shown on the card, to buy there must be enough left in the general stock pool in order to draw.
Play goes back and forth with players each taking up to 5 actions until one player has 60 gold. That player is declared winner.
[glow=green,2,300]The good:[/glow]Basic rules are very simple to learn. Like many card games this is a game of exceptions, the basic rules are rather simple but each card adds to or breaks these rules in some way. Nice and quick, a round of Jambo only takes about half an hour to an hour. The tokens given to keep track of your 5 turns is a great mechanic I may steal for other games with multiple turns.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]Having extra market stands is a huge advantage in this game and with only 5 in the rather large deck it can happen that one player gets them and the other does not. This seems to lead to that player winning pretty soundly. This adds a randomness that I don't think is needed by this game. I'd almost be willing to change the rules so you can buy one any time like a 3rd bean field in Bohnanza.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]Nothing. I can't think of anything that wrong with this game. Perhaps only that it's a two player game and can't be scaled up to more players.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]Picked this one up off of WGR member MontyCircus and really enjoyed it. Don't regret my purchase in any way. Out of the three I bought (Clans, Babel and this) this is my favorite. Quick to learn, quick to play with enough strategy to keep you coming back.