It’s camels, rubies and a couple of cards, how fun can it really be?

Well, pretty darn fun indeed! When I originally saw the box for Jaipur and heard about the gameplay, I was totally underwhelmed. This is a game that has sat on the BGG Top 100 list for quite some time, but did it really deserve the reputation that it had?

The answer, once you get those cards out, is that it is a reputation that is well deserved. This is a game that could get your grandma to stop playing mahjong, or to get your kids involved in modern gaming. Because despite having limited pieces, this game has a ton of strategy to hold it all together.

Gameplay

The goal of the game is to be the King’s personal trader and to do this, 2 players must battle it out to determine who is the wiliest and who can amass the most point across a best of three round.

Players each receive a hand of cards, with 5 more placed in the middle, which are accessible for players to trade or take. The game goes back and forth between players who make a choice:

• Sell some cards in their hand;
• Trade some cards in their hand for others in the middle;
• Take camels (which are great to trade back later)

But despite just a few actions, the strategy is rather deep, as if you sell early you will get higher points tokens, but do you hold back, because if you have 3+ of an item to sell you will receive a bonus points token and then at the end of the round the holder of the most camels will also get a bonus 5 points. There is plenty of ways to strategise in this simple card game and the games will rarely go for more than 30mins, so it’s very likely should you pick it up, it will be one of the games with the highest plays.

Just go out an play it if you get a chance!

Play online at Boardgamearena