10 Days in Africa is one in a series of geographical games by Alan Moon & Aaron Weissblum
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 20-30 minutes
Difficulty: 2 (of 10)
This review shares a lot of text in common with my review of 10 Days in the USA, since they both use the same core game system, but on different maps.
The Components
As with many Out of the Box games, 10 Days in Africa contains a number of components in a very densely packed box. They include:
- 1 map
- 66 tiles
- 4 sets of tile holders
- 1 rulebook
Map: The map is a simple geopolitical map of Africa, with the countries each labeled and painted in one of five colors (orange, yellow, red, blue, and green).This isn't actually a game board, but rather a reference map for playing the game, needed to show the relationships between the African countries.
Behind the map is a shaded back set of African symbols, which look very nice; another set of sepia-colored symbols encircle the board. Together they create a very cohesive feel for the game board (something that I thought was missing from brother-game, 10 Days in the USA). There are also a set of rules running in the four corners of the board which pretty much explain the whole game: a nice touch.
Finally, the board helpfully notes which countries have duplicate tiles with a *, though it unfortunately misses one (the Central African Republic).
The map is 4-panel and printed on solid cardboard, with the slightly glossy, full-color map on the front and a nice texture on the back.
Tiles: These tiles are thick cardboard, printed full color front and back. 45 of them show countries (including those aforementioned duplicates), each featuring the country's name and a colored depiction of the country's shape (matching the shape & color on the map). There's also a variety of information on each, including the country capitol, population, and size. The other 16 tiles show transportation: 6 automobiles, and 10 planes (two per base color).
Although these cards nicely portray their information, they're also quite plain.
Tile Holders: There are eight tile holders in all, two per player, one labeled days 1-5, the other 6-10. Each one is plain wood and has brown lettering inlaid into the wood. They're sturdy, high quality, and nicely match the overall African feel of the set.
Rulebook: A 4-page book, printed on high-gloss cardstock. The rules inclue ample illustrations and examples and are easy to follow.
Overall, the components in 10 Days in Africa are all very high quality, and very well themed for the African continent. However, they're also quite plain as well, which is a pity. On sum I've decided to give the game a "4" out of "5" for Style: quite nice (and slightly better than the USA game, which wasn't quite as cohesive component-wise).
The Gameplay
The object of 10 Days in Africa is to arrange a group of 10 tiles depicting countries and modes of transportation in order, from day 1-10 on your rack.
Forming a Trip: In order to win 10 Days in Africa, you have to create a 10-day trip, which is to say you have to put together a coherent set of 10 tiles. Here's the general rules for a legal trip:
- It must start with a country and end with a country.
- If a country is next to a country on your rack, they must be adjacent to each other on the map.
- A car may be substituted for any country; it's essentially a wild card.
- An airplane may be placed in between two countries, if they and the plane are all the same color (e.g., Angola is yellow and the Central African Republic is yellow, so you could play Angola-yellow plane-Central African Republic).
They give an example of a 10-day trip in the rules, which goes like this: orange Ivory Coast; car substituting for Burkina Faso or Mali; red Niger; red plane; red Zambia; blue Tanzania; orange Mozambique; orange plane; orange Algeria; green Morocco. If you take a look at your favorite Atlas, you'll see that all the adjacent countries are indeed adjacent.
Special Rules for Africa: This game is part of a series of "10 Day" games, and thus far each of the games has had a few variant rules. This has one: duplicate countries.
As already mentioned, there are duplicates of 6 African countries. They're all running down the center of Africa, and thus they overall make it easier to complete trips. You can even use both tiles from the same country on your trip if you want, but they can't be next to each other. Presumably you could drive from a country back to itself via a car, though that seems a bit flaky.
Setup: A draw pile of tiles is initially placed to the side of the map. Each player grabs a pair of racks, then fills it with tiles, in any order, one at a time. Each new tile must be placed in an empty slot; there's no moving things around. Once each player has placed their first 10 tiles, the top three cards from the draw pile are then placed face up to create three discard piles. Play then begins.
Order of Play: Each turn a player takes two actions during their turn:
- Draw a Tile
- Place the Tile
Draw a Tile: The player draws a tile either from the draw pile or from one of the three discard piles.
Place a Tile: The player then either discards the tile he drew or else places it on his rack. In order to place it on his rack he must replace a tile already there, discarding the previous tile.
A discard may be played to any of the three discard piles.
Note that there is no opportunity to rearrange tiles once you've put them on the rack (except for discarding, and then picking up in a future round, a very dangerous activity). You only get to replace old tiles with new ones, and thus you need to have made a good set of initial placements, then slowly improve them.
Winning the Game: When a player completes a full 10-day trip, he then pushes over his racks, proudly displaying his trip to his competitors, and wins the game.
Relationships to Other Games
Rack-O (1956) is the oldest game that I'm aware of in this particular genre. There, you try and organize 10 cards in an ascending order in your rack, with very similar gameplay. I'm not aware of other games that use racks, until Moon & Weissblum's games.
You could probably also call these games close relatives to Rummy games, since 10 Days' trips aren't too distant from Rummy sequences.
Moon & Weissblum originally published this game as Europa Tour, which was based on a European map, and only published in Germany; they quickly followed up with 10 Days in the USA and 10 Days in Africa, both published in the US by Out of the Box. More 10 Day games appear to be planned, if the Internet rumor mill is any good.
The Game Design
10 Days in Africa is a very simple game.
On the good side of the game design, I find the play fast, simple, and enjoyable. There's some real opportunity for strategy, particularly in the setup round where adroit placement can give you a good lead, and later on, when careful selection of good countries with lots of adjacencies can help you out a lot. The strategy level is actually quite good for a game of this length and weight.
10 Days in Africa is probably a little easier to play than its USA kin, because of those duplicate tiles. If you center your trip around those central countries, it's easier to count on drawing one.
On the bad side there's a high random factor in the game, and the discard piles just aren't as useful as they appear (since there's little chance that you'll ever get back a discarded tile if you're playing against serious players, who should always "cover" whatever the last player played).
On the whole, I've quite enjoyed every game of 10 Days in Africa I've played, about 3 or 4 so far (plus another half-dozen USA games) and I think the balance of randomness, strategy, and length is top-notch, so I've given it an above average "4" out of "5" for Style.
Conclusion
10 Days in Africa is a good filler game that balances a decent amount of strategy with a light, fast-paced gameplay. I like it slightly better than the USA release, because the components are more cohesive, the gameplay is slightly simpler, and it's neat learning about the geography of somewhere that I have just almost no familiarity with. Like its USA kin, this game will probably be good for teachers if they happen to be teaching African geography (any yet it's not just an educational game).
Review Summary