Jambo

[Brel]

In 1996 a German company called Kosmos launched a line of games exclusively for two-players. Since that time Kosmos has produced more that a score of games in the series, including such highly regarded titles as Lost Cities, The Settlers of Catan Card Games, and Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation (a personal favorite of mine). Recently, though, the line has seen few mediocre games and one downright bad one, and some began to wonder if the series had run its course.

Then came Jambo. Released last year, the game is being heralded as amongst the very best in the Kosmo two-player series, and was recently nominated for the prestigious "German Game of the Year" award.

Players are merchants, buying and selling wares in a Swahili marketplace. The game is played almost exclusively with cards, although there are also some counters representing the assorted goods players will trade. On a turn, a player receives five actions, which he can use to do a number of things. The first thing a player typically does on a turn is use one or more actions to draw cards from the deck until he finds one that he wishes to keep; the remainder of his actions may then be used to play or use cards.

Central to the game are the Ware Cards, which allow players to buy and sell the six available commodities (cloth, fruit, herbs, hides, salt, and jewelry). Ware Cards (usually) depict three goods -- maybe three of the same kind, maybe all different, maybe two of one ware and one of another -- and two prices. The first price is the amount the player pays to the bank if he wishes to purchase the shown wares; the second is the amount he receives from the bank when he sells the shown wares. In general, the selling price is about twice that of the purchase price. But as with most cards in Jambo, Ware Cards can only be used once before being discarded. So after using a Ware Card to buy two salt and one fruit, a player cannot then use the card again to immediately sell those commodities for a profit. Instead, a player will typically play a few Ware Cards to purchase goods, and then use subsequent Ware Cards to sell different combinations of the goods he now owns.

Other "play and discard" cards allow a player to take special actions or hinder his opponent in some way. Utility Cards, however, are played face-up in front of a player, and can be invoked once per turn, at the cost of one action per use. Most of the Utility Cards allow a player to exchange two of the game's three resources (cards, money, and wares) -- the "Well" card, for instance, allows a player to buy a card from the deck for 1 gold, while "Boat" let a player discard a card and take the ware of his choice. The more Utility Cards a player has in play the more options he'll have on a turn, but he's still limited to five actions, and choosing how to spend them makes for some difficult decisions.

Jambo shouldn't be good: it's too random, it doesn't allow for much strategic play, and the theme is largely superfluous. Trumping all these negative point, though, is the fact that the game is unaccountably fun, way out of proportion to what it oughtta be. There's plenty of player interaction, as you sic crocodiles, elephants, and all manner of beasts on one another, and the game becomes quite tense when someone nears the winning score of 60 gold. Best of all, the whole thing plays in about half an hour.

It's a bit more involved than the aforementioned Lost Cities (which continues to be the best "gateway games" of the Kosmo two-player series), but Jambo works pretty well for introducing new players to modern games. And although there are many different cards to learn, the basic framework of the game is fairly simple: draw cards, play cards, buy wares, sell wares. The artwork is very nice too, and somewhat makes up for the deficiencies of theme.

All in all a neat little offering, and one that again has me looking forward to what the Kosmo two-player series has in store.

- Spiel des Jahres Finalist 2005
- BoardGameRatings.com Best 2-Player Game 2005

Source: Defective Yeti

[Brel]

In 2004 Kosmos released Rudiger Dorn's Jambo with the tagline "Good business for two clever merchants." I find this game enjoyable. My wife and I play several 2-player games and we find ourselves back to Jambo more often than the others. It is our compromise game. Although I enjoy the Catan Card Game more than this game, my wife would rather play Jambo.

Jambo is a nice mix of luck, strategy and timing. You will start with a small allotment of gold chips and a few action cards and take aim at earning more gold chips than your opponent. Each turn you are allowed 5 actions spread between drawing a card and playing cards. Cards range in ability and include: utility cards (used now and later), animal and people cards (helping you or hurting your opponent), small market stands (increasing your storage ability from 6 wares to 9 or 12), and ware cards (how players purchase or sell their wares). Choose carefully which actions to take, which wares to buy and when to sell. But more carefully choose when you achieve the game ending 60 gold chips, because your opponent gets one last chance to win.

In short, you and your opponent will enjoy this award winning game (Games Magazine Best 2-Player Game 2006). ? Marc (The Boardroom Staff Reviewer)

Source: The Board Room

[John]

For fans of this game, there's a new expansion coming up: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/3008508#3008508

The expansion includes:
5 new persons, 2 new animals, 1 new utility,
15 new ware cards
one new module - the carpets
one new hut

To be released in Essen 2009! Can't wait!

[Brel]

Awesome!  Thanks for the heads up Yamasaki!    I'll definitely be getting this one to complete my JAMBO game.

[Brel]

Video Review by Tim Kerby

[John]

I love this game And I finally got the 2nd expansion (thanks to mangsky and Fortress)! First impressions:

1. They should have hired a translator or editor that knows the game. Reading the information at the back of the box, it says "Can be added with the first THREE expansions". I think what they meant was "Can be added with the three MODULES of the first expansion". Tsk tsk.

2. I'm glad they put the rules for the expansion on a paper sheet instead of printing it on 5 separate cards with Jambo card backs as in the case of the first expansion.

3. Combining the cards of the base set (110 not counting the start markets) with the 2 expansions (95 cards combined, exluding the huts, relics and carpets) will net you a 205 card deck -- that's a very tall card supply to draw from! You'll never get to reshuffle during gameplay anymore. I doubt that you can ever run through the whole deck now in a single game.

4. I love the carpets! They act as additional 3 market slots with an interesting twist -- you can flip the carpets (for the cost of one action) and get the goods on the opponent's side of the carpet! Why would you want then to use carpets? As long as you have more goods on your side of the carpet than the opponent, you'll get one gold at the end of the turn

5. Not too keen on the Hippo card and Hourglass utility. Hippos make the opponent's huts unuseable -- but what if you're not using the huts module? Also, both Hippo and Hourglass require tokens to be put on cards to mark them somehow -- tokens that are not included in the game! Don't like my games that require additional components out of the box.

Can't wait to play this one!

[ChineezPnoy]

Gosh.
I haven't played this ages.
 
Ey Brel, u still got ur copy ba?