Card Game Review - Jaipur

Title:  Jaipur

# of Players:  2
Age Range:  12+
Play Time:  30 min

Jaipur is a simple card game set in Rajasthan, India.  Each player assumes the role of an esteemed trader who is tasked with making the largest profit at the end of a long day at the market place.  Players must buy and sell six different goods at the most opportune times in order to maximize their profits and gain the admiration of the Maharaja's court.

Jaipur includes a deck of cards representing six goods.  These are jewels, gold, silver, silk, spice, and leather.  A seventh type of card, the camel, is not worth any points, but it used to increase your buying power and is traded for other more valuable goods.  During a player's turn, they can either buy goods (draw them from the "marketplace", 5 face-up cards on the table) or sell goods (discard sets of matching cards to gain points in the form of cardboard tokens).

This game plays out like a strategic and colorful game of Rummy.  Players attempt to make sets of matching cards while determining their opponent's strategy and trying to counter it.  The beauty of Jaipur, however, comes down to the many decisions a player can make during the game.  Do you buy goods in order to make larger sets of cards, or do you sell the cards in your hand?  Do you acquire more camels to increase the number of goods you can buy in subsequent turns?

Goods are worth the most points earlier in the game, so you may want to rush to make a quick sale and snag the most valuable goods.  However, you get bonus points if you sell many of the same goods - which takes time.

Left:  The person with the most camels at the end of the game gets bonus points!

Right:  Trading in multiple goods at a time will net you sweet bonus points!

Jaipur walks a fine line between light fun and tension-filled decisions.  It is simple at heart, but contains limitless possibilities.  If you want a fun, easy to learn game, with a great theme, check out Jaipur!



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