Jaipur Board Game
Jaipur is a fast-paced card game, a blend of tactics, risk and luck. On your turn, you can either take or sell cards. If you take cards, you have to choose between taking all the camels, taking one card from the market, or swapping 2-5 cards between the market and your cards. Jaipur is a fast-paced card game for two players with a blend of tactics, risk and luck. You are one of the most powerful traders in Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan. You and your opponent. Tips to win Jaipur Sometimes there are fewer tokens available than cards during a sale. In that case, you still receive the bonus token for the number of cards sold. The use of the camels is a balancing act: if you don't have any then you have a problem if you want to take a lot of cards and your hand is empty.
Card trading games can be a bit hit and miss, with the main culprit for a lack of accessibility being overly complex rules, lengthy games or a lack of inspiring theme or artwork. Jaipur does away with all of this, leaving us with a fun, strategic trading game that doesn’t need to take an age to play and can be learnt in just a few minutes. Which is nice.
The main idea behind Jaipur is to collect and sell various products such as gold, tea and leather at the highest price possible. Selling goods sooner than the other player means you earn the higher value rewards, but save your stock a bit until you can sell multiple at once and you’ll get a bonus for a bulk sale. On each turn you’ve got the option to take a single item from the market, so collecting can be slow – do you get in early for the slightly more expensive sale, or save up for the bonus? That’s one of the many dilemmas you’ll face when playing Jaipur, another of which revolves around your camels.
Yeah I know. Camels. They might sound like they’d be a fairly pointless part of the game, but the reality is very different. They’re easy to forget, but one of the things you can do on your turn is to trade cards, letting you swap out multiple cards from your hand with the same number from the open market that lies on the table between the players. Often that’ll mean getting rid of a couple of leather items and some silver in exchange for three gold cards, or whatever. But you can also swap out camels from your collection, meaning you keep all of your current cards and pick up several more as well. With the right set of cards on the table, that can make a massive difference to your scoring potential. But how to get the camels? Well, as with all other cards you can pick them up, but unlike the normal goods where you can only take a single card and end your turn, camels come in a herd. If there are three camels face up on the table and you want another camel, you have to take all of them. That in itself isn’t a problem; there’s no limit to how many you can hold and you even get a bonus if you end the game with more camels, but it opens up another big issue.
See, when the cards are taken they get replenished off the deck. If you take 4 camels, that’s 4 new cards that need to be turned over and added to the market. If you’re lucky they’ll be tea, leather or some other low scoring item. But if you end up with gold and diamonds on the table, you’ve opened the door for the other player to do a big swap and grab all the decent goodies at once. Do you really need four more camels? Well, maybe you do, but it’s a risk you sometimes need to take.
So besides a few scoring rules, there isn’t much more to the game. Each turn is super quick thanks to only having one action to take, and as your options are to take a single card, swap multiple cards, grab all the camels or make a sale there’s not much to hold people up, especially once you’ve played a couple of games. It’s so easy to learn, but the strategy and luck behind each game means you’ve got a lot of gaming here before you get bored of it. Younger kids might struggle with the forward thinking, so that’s something to consider, but on the whole this is a very enjoyable trading game, stripping away the layers of complexity to leave an accessible, fun and fast game.
Jaipur 2nd Edition
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| Designer(s) | Sébastien Pauchon |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Asmodee GameWorks |
| Players | 2 |
| Setup time | 5 minutes |
| Playing time | 30 minutes |
| Random chance | medium |
| Age range | 12 and up |
Jaipur is a card game for two players. It was created by Sébastien Pauchon in 2009 and published by Asmodee. Players assume the roles of powerful merchants in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. The aim is to receive two 'seals of excellence' and be invited to the court of the Maharaja. The game focuses on buying, exchanging, and selling at better prices, all while keeping an eye on both your camel herds.
Reception[edit]
Jaipur Board Game Review
Overall, the board game has received favorable reviews, many acknowledging its simplicity, yet sufficient depth. Shut Up & Sit Down have suggested that 'great game for seasoned vets but also something you could easily introduce to people who don’t play a lot'[1] whereas iSlayTheDragon said 'Jaipur is a blast to play'. Board Game Land has suggested that the game was 'one of the top card games for couples'.[2]Jaipur has continued to be a popular game with recommendations into 2020[3][4] as well as being part of the Mind Sports Olympiad 2020 competition.[5]
Honors[edit]
- 2010 Fairplay À la carte Winner (Germany)[6]
- 2010 Golden Geek Best 2-Player Board Game Nominee (USA)[7]
- 2010 Golden Geek Best Card Game Nominee (USA)[8]
- 2010 International Gamers Award - General Strategy: Two-players (Global)[9]
- 2010 Lys Grand Public Finalist (France)[10]
- 2010 Spiel des Jahres Recommended (Germany)[11]
- 2011 Games Magazine Best New Family Card Game Winner (USA)
- 2014 Juego del Año Winner (Spain)[12]
References[edit]
- ^'Review: Jaipur - Shut Up & Sit Down'. Shut Up & Sit Down. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^'Best Board Games for Couples in 2019'. Board Games Land. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/people/had-enough-netflix-why-not-grab-board-game-if-youre-bored-lockdown-3035604
- ^PCGamer recommended board game list
- ^MSO website 2020 medals
- ^'Der Kartenspielpreis a la carte: Die Spiele in der Übersicht'. www.superfred.de. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^'2010 Golden Geek Best 2-Player Board Game Nominee Board Game Honor BoardGameGeek'. boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^'2010 Golden Geek Best Card Game Nominee Board Game Honor BoardGameGeek'. boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^'2010 Nominees - International Gamers Awards'. www.internationalgamersawards.net. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^'Lys Grand Public'. Productions Ludopolis (in French). 21 April 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^'Jaipur'. Spiel des Jahres (in German). Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^PremioJdA.es: 'Premio JdA 2014: Jaipur'. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
External links[edit]
Jaipur Game Review
- Jaipur at BoardGameGeek.