Jambo Game

It's often difficult to find a good board game that can be played with just 2 people. Rio Grande Games has done a great job with Jambo, a board game that uses cards and "tokens" (for wares and gold) to depict a market competition between two merchants. Basically you and your opponent are two merchants competing to buy and sell wares, and the first person to reach 60 gold effectively triggers the ending of the game (but his or her opponent then has one last turn to try to catch up to win). The game play is not difficult to pick up but is still complex enough to be slightly strategic, particularly given the wide array of utility cards, people cards, and animal cards that you can play to help yourself and/or hinder your opponent. I wouldn't recommend this for extremely young children, but anyone 12+ should enjoy it.

Compared to other games we've tried, Jambo stands out because it has more replay value than games like Gloom or Guillotine (both games which are fairly dependent on luck, and have low replay value because the fun lies largely with the novelty of the cards and the game concept).

If you're interested in Jambo but want to consider a few other 2-player games, I'd also recommend "Lost Cities" (another card game by Rio Grande that offers a good mix of fun and strategy) or "Set" (this card game is a pure thinking game, sort of like Memory, no luck involved, so I'd recommend it if you're looking for an educational game that can be played with a flexible number of people).

I purchased this game as a gift for my boyfriend at Christmas. Although the instructions were initially a bit overwhelming, this game is extremely easy to learn and fun to play. The game is only for two players and takes maybe an hour to play.

It's basically a buying and selling game, wherein you have gold pieces and you purchase and sell goods with the goal of making the most money. Each turn you get five actions, and so the game moves pretty quickly and is never dull, because you can keep track of how many actions your opponent is using or be planning out your next turn in the downtime. What I like best about the game is the end, because it's "not over til it's over" in that the game ends when a player reaches a certain number of points, but the opponent gets one last turn to try to equal or beat that number for the win.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys Settlers of Catan or Puerto Rico or San Juan, and if you haven't played those games, I'd recommend them as well.

Jambo is an amazing game!!! I purchased this game so my newly wedded wife and I could have some fun at home and pass the time without spending much money. This was a perfect purchase for us. I can honestly say this is one of my favorite games of all time. Jambo is a game that involves strategy, but is not difficult to learn. Here are my main points:

1. The goal of the game is to be the first "merchant" to gain 60 gold selling "wares" which are basically goods that you sell. What make this game so much fun are all of the animal cards, people cards, and utility cards. You use these three types of cards for your strategy and they all have different attributes. Animal and people cards are diverse and attack and defend in many different ways. Utility cards are cards that are kept in play and have special abilities that you can use during multiple rounds.

2. Every game will last around 45 minutes which is a big plus because I didn't want a game that ended too fast but I also didn't want a game that took forever. I can honestly tell you that the 45 minutes is a pretty spot on estimate for every Jambo game that you play. As you and your partner become more experienced, it will take around 30 minutes to play.

3. One thing I will say is that if you don't like card games that involved reading some text, you will probably not enjoy this game. The cards that you play have text that explains what the card "does" once you play it. The first three games you are getting used to learning what each card means. For instance, the "crocodile" animal card takes one your opponents utility cards and discards it in the discard pile. It actually says that on the card. The "throne" utility card allows you to take one ware (good) from your ware stand and trade it for any one ware on your opponent's stand. It tells you that on the "throne" card. After three games you will have learned almost all of the cards by heart. It is worth the minimal amount of reading to be able to play this game! I assure you of that!

4.Next, in this game, there is some luck, but hardly any. It takes mostly strategy on your part to win the game. I would say 90% strategy and 10% luck because there are so many ways of getting to 60+ gold that there are really very few "bad" cards in the deck. Depending on how you look at it.

5.Anyone can win! My wife is a nurse and I am a teacher. We are both pretty good at strategy games. So far, I have won 3 games and she won 2, and every game was VERY close. A solid strategy will guide you to victory and every game feels new and fresh.

6.Also, I enjoyed how on every turn you get five actions: take a card, play a card from your hand, buy wares, sell wares, play a utility card. You get to take up to five actions on each turn which really helps you to form a strategy and its not the same, "I move....you move....I move...you move" type of game.

7.Other great features include: Easy Easy Easy to understand directions, great art design, wonderful price (I honestly would pay more than double for this game), durable cards, and the fact that once you have played this 100 times there are expansions for the game that make it fresh and new.

In conclusion, if you are looking for an incredibly fun, addicting, simple, but yet strategic game that sucks you in and never has a down moment, you will LOVE Jambo! I give it my highest praise and recommendation!