FallCon - A Cornucopia of Gaming

Jambo was published in 2004 and is designed by Rudiger Dorn. This is a two player card game and it is about buying and selling goods with a bit of a “take that” added to the mix. This review was originally posted on BoardGame-Reviews.com.

Jambo:

• Designed by: Rudiger Dorn
• Published by: Rio Grande Games
• Number of players: 2
• Playing time: 45 minutes
• Player ages: 10+

Jambo comes in a nice square box and is in the Kosmos 2-player line of games. It is neatly packaged and comes with a nice instruction booklet and beautifully illustrated cards. For me, the artwork just adds that much character to this delightful game.

A Quick Overview

“Jambo” is Swahili for “hello” and what better way to start the game by saying “Jambo” to your opponent! Players take on the roles of African merchants trying to sell wares.

Throughout the course of the game, players draw cards to add to their hand and can use these cards to better their position or to “attack” their opponent. It is a very fluid game and each game is a race to the finish.

Game Play

Players start with a hand of 5 cards and a market stall containing spaces for six wares. Over the course of the game, players acquire and make use of the cards in their hand.

There are two parts to every turn. Drawing a card from the deck and playing cards. The bulk of the time will be spent in calculating how to best play the cards in your hand.

In Jambo, there are four types of cards:

• Ware Cards
• Utility Cards
• Animal Cards
• Extra Market Stalls

Ware cards contain the wares you either acquire (by buying them) or sell (by selling the described wares from your market stall). The Utility cards provide some assistance during the game and the Animal Cards are used to cause grief to your opponent.

The Extra Market Stall cards allow you to have a greater number of wares on display.

When one player acquires 60 or more gold, then the other player has one more turn. The winner is the one with the most amount of gold after the last player’s turn.

Summary

Jambo is an extremely easy game to teach and to play. In the beginning, games take a bit longer as there is a bit of text on each card. It may be a bit daunting to keep track of the variety of cards and their effects but after a few games, they are known.

This is an economic game at heart because it is about buying and selling wares and increasing your wealth. Players who like these types of games will enjoy Jambo very much.

As well, this is a very nice card game to play with two people and those I have introduced this game to have fallen in love with the card art and the gameplay.

It is not as quick playing as other card games, such as For Sale, but it is a great game to play with your spouse after dinner.

Happy gaming.

Thushyanthan

Despite my best intentions, I didn't get to my promised post about survey results until now. The silver lining is that it gave folks more time to fill out our survey... Without further ado, here are the main takeaway points:

• We had 54 survey respondents. Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you thought. We appreciate the feedback (all of it).


• 90% of our respondents gave us a good or great rating overall. Zero bad or terrible ratings. Thanks for the vote of confidence!


• Most of the constructive criticism revolved around food services and our auction.


• Regarding food services, we'll work with the St. Peter's Youth Group to have more selections, more consistent portions and better value.


• Regarding the auction, we know many of you were disappointed when you weren't able to submit your games into the auction. We agree that it wasn't fair and we will again implement limits on how many games people are allowed to sell at the auction. The starting limit will be around 25, which should allow most folks a fair shake. If the auction limit of 500 isn't met by Saturday at noon, we will open the floodgates to anyone with extra games (but we don't anticipate that to occur). In addition to this reinstatement of a hard limit on auction items, the cleverest among the committee are working on some auction enhancements which will make your heart flutter. More on this later on in the year.

We received a ton of other feedback and rest assured that we are taking it all in in the hopes of improving your experience for next year. Our ears are always open, so feel free to drop us a line.

I have two quick community announcements while I'm on my soapbox.

Some board game friends from Medicine Hat are organizing a Risk Tournament on December 5th as a fundraising event to support the local Santa Claus Fund. More information about the event can be found at the Game for Good website.

I've been chatting with Jonathan over at CalCon and he'd like to give our FallCon attendees a break on the CalCon registration fee. Until November 15th, you'll be able to get a weekend pass for $30 with promotional code "Fun". You can register and pay with the code by going to their registration page.

Until next time, wishing you lucky rolls.

Jasen
 

For Sale is a card game that is usually considered to be a "filler" game. This designation is typically given to games that are meant to fill time between some longer games. Filler games take between 15-20 minutes to play. This review was originally posted on BoardGame-Reviews.com.

This card game is designed by Stefan Dorra and has been recently republished by Gryphon Games in 2008/2009.

For Sale is:

• Designed by: Stefan Dorra
• Published by: Gryphon Games
• Number of players: 3-6
• Playing time: 20 minutes
• Player ages: 6+

The version that I am reviewing is for the Uberplay version. The new version has a few minor graphics changes and card size changes.


There are two parts to this game; In the first part, players bid on properties. Once all the properties have been sold, players then try to sell their properties for the highest amount.

The player with the most amount of money at the end of the game is the winner.


There are two decks of cards. Property cards and Cheque cards. There are 30 of each. Players begin the game with a small amount of money to bid on the property cards.

In the first part of the game, property cards are flipped up and players take turns bidding on the cards until players drop out of the auction. Every time a player chooses not to continue with the auction, they pay half of their current bid and take the lowest valued card.

The last player with a bid is the winner and pays the entire bid to take the highest valued card.

Once all the property cards have been auctioned, then the Cheque cards come out. The fun part of this second set of cards is that you use your acquired property cards to bid on the Cheques.

Players place a property card face down in front of them and simultaneously reveal their cards. The player with the highest property card takes the highest valued Cheque; the player with the next highest property card takes the next highest valued Cheque and so on.

The winner is the one with the most amount of money in Cheques (and any remaining money from the property auction).



For a game that takes about 20 minutes to play, there is quite a bit of fun inside!

This is a very easy game to explain and that is why I love this game. It is very easy for kids to pick up this game as well. It also helps that the illustrations on the cards are cute.

All the kids I’ve played with always bid very high for the “Space Station” (value 30) just so they can say they live in a Space Station. While this is fun for them, they don't quite get that it is the relative value of the cards that is important on the auction.

Still, they have a great time and are always begging me to play it with them.

For Sale is a very quick game and is very accessible to a broad range of players and ages. I would highly recommend that you play this game when you get a chance.

Happy Gaming!
Thushyanthan

Since Alan Moon first designed Ticket to Ride in 2004, it has since become a great success and has spawned a family of games bearing the Ticket to Ride name. This review was originally published on BoardGame-Reviews.com.

The original Ticket to Ride consisted of a map of the United States. Since the successful launch, new maps now include Europe, Germany, Switzerland and the Nordic Countries.

In fact, there is even a Ticket to Ride Card Game and a Ticket to Ride Dice Expansion. This review is about Ticket to Ride: Europe. While the games share many rules similarities, there are a few changes in each version.

Ticket to Ride: Europe:

• Designed by: Alan Moon
• Published by: Days of Wonder
• Number of players: 2-5
• Playing time: 45-60 minutes
• Player ages: 8+

Days of Wonder is the publisher of Ticket to Ride and their production is superb. The game comes in a beautiful square box with plastic molded trains in 5 player colors.

The cards are nice and sturdy. The map is beautifully drawn, 6-fold board with a nice linen finish. The map is clear to read and is, for the most part, geographically accurate.


The game is essentially a set collecting game where you collect sets of various cards. You use these cards to build routes between cities on the map. The goal of this game is to score the most points by building routes to connect your destination tickets.

At the beginning of the game each player receives:

• 4 train cards
• 1 "long route" destination ticket card
• 3 destination ticket cards
• 45 trains of a particular player color (not related to train cards at all)

Each player must keep at least two of the four destination ticket cards.
Now the game begins...


On your turn during the game, you can perform one of four actions:

• Draw destination tickets (pick 3 and keep at least 1)
• Build a route by playing train cards
• Pick up two train cards
• Build a Station

What is wonderful about this game is that the players are constantly engaged as each turn means only choosing one of four actions. This keeps the game play fast and smooth.

The destination tickets that a player was dealt at the beginning of the game decides the course of play as this is the one of the major ways to score points. For each completed destination ticket completed, players add points to their score.

If destination tickets are not completed, players will instead subtract the value of the ticket from their score!

During the game, there will be tension between the players as they race to build track to finish their destination tickets in order to score the most points.

The values of destination tickets range from about 6 points to 20+ points.


In TtR:Europe, there are a few new twists that are different from the base game, Ticket to Ride. The additions are:

• Stations
• Ferries
• Tunnels
• 6 "long distance" tickets

In the original game, it was difficult to complete your route if someone claimed a route before you did. With the Europe map, it is now possible to build a station that will allow you to make use of another player's route to complete your ticket. I feel this makes the game a bit more "gentle" to newer players.

Each player gets 3 stations to build. Any unused stations are worth 4 points at the end of the game. The first station you place costs one card; the second, two; the third, three.

Ferries are another addition to the map. Ferries are built like a normal route but require between 1-2 locomotive cards per route.

Tunnels are the most confusing part of the game to the players I have explained it to. Tunnels are fraught with risk and to simulate this, players announce their intention to build a tunnel. Next, the top three cards from the face-down deck are revealed. If any card matches the cards you played, then you will have to pay one additional card from your hand per card that matches.

If you don't have the cards, your action is wasted but you do get your cards back. The best time to build a tunnel is when the face down deck is nearly depleted.

The "long distance" tickets ensure that each player has a chance to complete tickets worth between 20-22 points. This creates a more equal starting hand than that provided by the original Ticket to Ride game.


Ticket to Ride Europe is a well thought out game that offers a lot of fun for players. It is a highly interactive game and is very engaging. The more you play this game, the more strategies unfold.

I prefer Ticket to Ride: Europe over Ticket to Ride. It is because I feel that it is a bit more friendly toward newcomers. However, the additional rules about ferries and tunnels may be slightly complicated for some players.

What is really nice about Days of Wonder is that with the purchase of the board game, you are able to visit their website and play the game online.

Happy gaming!
Thushyanthan