REVIEW OF Jamaica
Sometimes a game comes along that just is a joy to play and "discover", having heard nothing about it previously. Jamaica (GameWorks, 2007, Bruno Cathala, Sebastian Pauchon, and Malcolm Braff) is one of these games – showing up unannounced at my house, but ending up being played time and time again. In a manner reminiscent of Days of Wonder's Pirate's Cove, Jamaica is a fantastic family pirate game, in which players are racing around the island of Jamaica. Fighting each other along the way must be balanced with speed and collecting food and treasure.
Please don't miss the fact that Jamaica is a light game, with dice rolling and simple combat. It's simple and enjoyable enough for children to pick up and play, yet adults will find that strategy is not lacking – with interesting choices as they play. Terrific components round out the experience, and the speed of game play keeps everything moving so that the whole experience is only an hour or so. I don't know if pirate's actually raced; but if they did, I imagine that it would feel like this game!
The board shows the island of Jamaica, which is surrounded by a water raceway – each space is a port, a pirate lair, or "deep sea". In a few areas, players have two different pathways to choose between, but every path leads to the same place. Each player takes a board that contains the five holds of their ship and places three food tokens in one and three doubloons in another. Players then place a ship of their color on the Port Royal space and take a matching set of eleven action cards. Piles of doubloons, food tokens, and gunpowder tokens are placed near the board, and a treasure token is placed on each pirate lair space. Nine treasure cards are placed in the middle of the table, as well as two six-sided dice, and a combat die (six sided: "2", "4", "6", "8", "10", "*"). Players draw three cards, with the rest in a face down deck in front of them. One player is given the compass to show that they are the Captain, and the first round starts.
Each round, the Captain rolls the two-sided dice and places them in the middle of the board – one on a "morning" spot and the other on the "evening" spot. Each player looks at their three cards and chooses one, placing it face down in front of them. Starting with the Captain, players then reveal their cards and take the two actions on their card. The first action uses the morning number, and the second action uses the evening number. The actions are:Take doubloons equal to the number.
Take gunpowder tokens equal to the number.
Take food tokens equal to the number.
Move forward that many spaces.
Move backwards that many spaces.
When a player takes tokens, they must place them in an empty hold space, even if they already have tokens of that type. If a player has no empty holds, they must clear a hold of a different type (if possible) and fill it with the new stuff.
When moving, the player must go the exact number of spaces and then must look at the space they end up in. In deep sea, they must discard food tokens equal to the number shown on the space (two to four).
At a port, they must discard doubloons equal to the number shown (three, five, or seven).
At a pirate's lair, if there is a treasure token, they remove it and draw the top treasure card. If there is no treasure token, nothing happens.
If there is another pirate ship in the space, the player must fight!
If the player cannot pay the food or doubloons required by the space they land on, they must pay as much as they can and then move their ship backwards until they get to a space that they can afford.
When one player attacks another player, they first discard any amount of gunpowder tokens that they want then add that number to one roll of the attack die. The defender does the same, after the attacker has rolled. If either player rolls the star, they win immediately; otherwise, the player who has the higher total wins. The winning player can either steal one hold's worth of items from the loser, one treasure card, or give one cursed treasure card to the opponent. In case of tie, nothing happens. Treasure cards are worth an amount of points, while some are "cursed treasures", which are worth negative points. A few others give the player a special ability, like an extra hold on their ship or the ability to re-roll the die in combat.
After all players have all followed their cards, the card is discarded; and they draw another. The next player in clockwise order becomes the Captain, and a new round begins. Play continues until one player's ship reaches Port Royal again, at which point the current round is finished. Players tally their final score by the space their ship is on (from fifteen points at Port Royal to negative five points if they are too far back), added to the amount of gold doubloons they have, plus the positive treasures they have found, minus the cursed treasures they own. The player with the most points is the winner!
Some comments on the game...
1.) Components: The box looks like a treasure chest, which is a good analogy of what is inside. A well designed plastic insert holds the plastic ships and the piles of double-sided tokens easily. Each token has a different colored background and shape, and the coins look really good. The dice are wooden (maybe too light?), but the highlight of the game is the gorgeous board and even better-looking cards. Each card is a full piece of art with clear symbols to let you know what they do. The art is cartoonish but very well designed, and you can even line up all eleven cards in a beautiful panorama (if you have space and are bored). The game is a visual delight and should appeal to kids and adults alike.
2.) Rules: I have mixed feelings about the rules. On the positive side, they are VERY clear, if only because there are tons of illustrations, full color pictures, and examples. There were no questions; everything is very well handled and formatted. On the other hand, it's printed on two sides of a poster sheet of paper, which means you have an unwieldy time when attempting to read them for anything. Cool looking rules aren't always enough; I want to be able to handle them easily also. Explaining the game is a cinch, and even young children can play – even if they pick a random card each time.
3.) Strategy: Picking a random card isn't going to win you the game, but it does allow kids to be involved and make decent choices, even if simply guessing. The captain has the best options, since he can consult his cards before placing dice (unless he rolls doubles – tough luck!). It's not a lot to think about for the others, since they have only three cards. Still, everyone has the same cards during the race, so it pretty much evens out (except die rolling). Players also have to decide whether they will stock up or just start moving, risking not having enough resources. Players can also take a longer leg of the race, attempting to pick up treasure, or go on the quicker routes – trying to get better points on the end space. But with all of this, it's still a very light game, and people seeking deep strategy will likely be unsatisfied.
4.) Combat: Combat is quick and easy, and one never knows what will happen; since even if one player uses a ton of gunpowder, they still might lose due to the other player rolling the star. But this isn't immensely frustrating, because losing one load from your ship isn't that big of a deal. So instead of being stressful, combat is silly and entertaining with a lot of smack talk thrown around.
5.) Fun Factor: The game is a race, so players are having fun zooming around the track. Throw in simple combat and the fun of collecting gold and treasures, and the game becomes very entertaining. The bright pieces and ease of entry will attract folks into the game, and they'll like it because of the speed and interesting choices.
6.) Time and Players: The game takes an hour or less to play – half an hour if players play quickly. Interestingly enough, even though the game takes a bit longer with more players, it is at its most fun with six, and I don't think I would want to play it again with two players, even though the rules add a "ghost ship" to keep things interesting. With more ships, there is more combat, and the race feels tighter and more interesting.
You may not have heard of Jamaica, but I encourage everyone to give it a try. It's a terrific game - one of the best of the year - and is a fantastic family game that kids will be able to play along with their parents. But even with a group of adults, this is a solid game that is mostly a race but with the addition of simple fighting and some resource collecting. Certainly there's a good amount of luck in cards drawn and dice rolled, but the game is fun enough that it will stay in my collection and travel to most events I run. I can teach the game and walk away, satisfied in the knowledge that everyone playing is going to have fun.
Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.thedicetower.com
Please don't miss the fact that Jamaica is a light game, with dice rolling and simple combat. It's simple and enjoyable enough for children to pick up and play, yet adults will find that strategy is not lacking – with interesting choices as they play. Terrific components round out the experience, and the speed of game play keeps everything moving so that the whole experience is only an hour or so. I don't know if pirate's actually raced; but if they did, I imagine that it would feel like this game!
The board shows the island of Jamaica, which is surrounded by a water raceway – each space is a port, a pirate lair, or "deep sea". In a few areas, players have two different pathways to choose between, but every path leads to the same place. Each player takes a board that contains the five holds of their ship and places three food tokens in one and three doubloons in another. Players then place a ship of their color on the Port Royal space and take a matching set of eleven action cards. Piles of doubloons, food tokens, and gunpowder tokens are placed near the board, and a treasure token is placed on each pirate lair space. Nine treasure cards are placed in the middle of the table, as well as two six-sided dice, and a combat die (six sided: "2", "4", "6", "8", "10", "*"). Players draw three cards, with the rest in a face down deck in front of them. One player is given the compass to show that they are the Captain, and the first round starts.
Each round, the Captain rolls the two-sided dice and places them in the middle of the board – one on a "morning" spot and the other on the "evening" spot. Each player looks at their three cards and chooses one, placing it face down in front of them. Starting with the Captain, players then reveal their cards and take the two actions on their card. The first action uses the morning number, and the second action uses the evening number. The actions are:
When a player takes tokens, they must place them in an empty hold space, even if they already have tokens of that type. If a player has no empty holds, they must clear a hold of a different type (if possible) and fill it with the new stuff.
When moving, the player must go the exact number of spaces and then must look at the space they end up in.
If the player cannot pay the food or doubloons required by the space they land on, they must pay as much as they can and then move their ship backwards until they get to a space that they can afford.
When one player attacks another player, they first discard any amount of gunpowder tokens that they want then add that number to one roll of the attack die. The defender does the same, after the attacker has rolled. If either player rolls the star, they win immediately; otherwise, the player who has the higher total wins. The winning player can either steal one hold's worth of items from the loser, one treasure card, or give one cursed treasure card to the opponent. In case of tie, nothing happens. Treasure cards are worth an amount of points, while some are "cursed treasures", which are worth negative points. A few others give the player a special ability, like an extra hold on their ship or the ability to re-roll the die in combat.
After all players have all followed their cards, the card is discarded; and they draw another. The next player in clockwise order becomes the Captain, and a new round begins. Play continues until one player's ship reaches Port Royal again, at which point the current round is finished. Players tally their final score by the space their ship is on (from fifteen points at Port Royal to negative five points if they are too far back), added to the amount of gold doubloons they have, plus the positive treasures they have found, minus the cursed treasures they own. The player with the most points is the winner!
Some comments on the game...
1.) Components: The box looks like a treasure chest, which is a good analogy of what is inside. A well designed plastic insert holds the plastic ships and the piles of double-sided tokens easily. Each token has a different colored background and shape, and the coins look really good. The dice are wooden (maybe too light?), but the highlight of the game is the gorgeous board and even better-looking cards. Each card is a full piece of art with clear symbols to let you know what they do. The art is cartoonish but very well designed, and you can even line up all eleven cards in a beautiful panorama (if you have space and are bored). The game is a visual delight and should appeal to kids and adults alike.
2.) Rules: I have mixed feelings about the rules. On the positive side, they are VERY clear, if only because there are tons of illustrations, full color pictures, and examples. There were no questions; everything is very well handled and formatted. On the other hand, it's printed on two sides of a poster sheet of paper, which means you have an unwieldy time when attempting to read them for anything. Cool looking rules aren't always enough; I want to be able to handle them easily also. Explaining the game is a cinch, and even young children can play – even if they pick a random card each time.
3.) Strategy: Picking a random card isn't going to win you the game, but it does allow kids to be involved and make decent choices, even if simply guessing. The captain has the best options, since he can consult his cards before placing dice (unless he rolls doubles – tough luck!). It's not a lot to think about for the others, since they have only three cards. Still, everyone has the same cards during the race, so it pretty much evens out (except die rolling). Players also have to decide whether they will stock up or just start moving, risking not having enough resources. Players can also take a longer leg of the race, attempting to pick up treasure, or go on the quicker routes – trying to get better points on the end space. But with all of this, it's still a very light game, and people seeking deep strategy will likely be unsatisfied.
4.) Combat: Combat is quick and easy, and one never knows what will happen; since even if one player uses a ton of gunpowder, they still might lose due to the other player rolling the star. But this isn't immensely frustrating, because losing one load from your ship isn't that big of a deal. So instead of being stressful, combat is silly and entertaining with a lot of smack talk thrown around.
5.) Fun Factor: The game is a race, so players are having fun zooming around the track. Throw in simple combat and the fun of collecting gold and treasures, and the game becomes very entertaining. The bright pieces and ease of entry will attract folks into the game, and they'll like it because of the speed and interesting choices.
6.) Time and Players: The game takes an hour or less to play – half an hour if players play quickly. Interestingly enough, even though the game takes a bit longer with more players, it is at its most fun with six, and I don't think I would want to play it again with two players, even though the rules add a "ghost ship" to keep things interesting. With more ships, there is more combat, and the race feels tighter and more interesting.
You may not have heard of Jamaica, but I encourage everyone to give it a try. It's a terrific game - one of the best of the year - and is a fantastic family game that kids will be able to play along with their parents. But even with a group of adults, this is a solid game that is mostly a race but with the addition of simple fighting and some resource collecting. Certainly there's a good amount of luck in cards drawn and dice rolled, but the game is fun enough that it will stay in my collection and travel to most events I run. I can teach the game and walk away, satisfied in the knowledge that everyone playing is going to have fun.
Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.thedicetower.com
