Jumble Jam: Review

Jumble Jam: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Pick Up and Deliver, Set Collection, Area Control

Player Age: 12+

Player Count: 2 - 5 Players

Time to Play: 30 - 50 Minutes

Publisher: Txarli Factory
Disclaimer: A preview copy for the game was provided by the publisher. The components and rules can change in the final version.

Objective:

In 'Jumble Jam' you are cooking with your grandma and want to make the very best recipes. The game will end if any player completes four exact orders or if all of the order cards are scored. When this happens the player with the most points has proven that they should be grandma's kitchen protégée.

Card Anatomy:

There are three card types; pastry cards, kitty cat cards, and order cards.

Pastry Cards:

Pastry cards are used to complete orders. Each pastry card has an image of differing numbers of pastries and a type. If the pastry type is a jar of jam, it counts as wild pastry.

Kitty Cat Cards:

These cards can be played in the ‘Getting Orders Ready’ phase. Use a mischievous kitty to steal a random pastry card from another player.

Order Cards:

These order cards will show the minimum amount of pastry needed in order to complete the order. There will be two values on these cards. The larger value is awarded if the exact amount of pastries are used to complete the order. The smaller value is given if the items used exceeds the number of pastries needed.

Setup:

- Shuffle kitty cat cards into the pastry deck equal to the number of players
- Shuffle the order deck
- Give each player four jam jars of the same colour
- The grid will be set up in the new batch phase

How to Play:

In this game, you have four phases to prove to grandma that you are the best chef in the kitchen. These phases are; new batch, grandma, get to work and getting orders ready.

New Batch:

This is the setup phase for the round to come. Draw pastry cards to create a work grid (see below) based on the player count. If there are cards from previous rounds these will be moved to the top-most bottom row, maintaining their column (think of Tetris how they all move down after a level).

Grid based on Player Count:
2 Players: 3 Columns 3 Rows
3 Players: 3 Columns 4 Rows
4 Players: 3 Columns 5 Rows
5 Players: 4 Columns 4 Rows

After the work grid is established, orders are drawn for the round based on the player count plus one. If there are orders left over from the previous rounds, keep these and only draw up to the required amount.

Grandma:

Time to establish what grandma is seeking this round. The grandma dice will now be rolled at the beginning of a round. If a pastry type is rolled, any order containing this pastry completed this round will gain an extra victory point token. If the silhouette is rolled, then grandma is paying attention this round and only exact orders can be completed, so no extra ingredients.

Get to Work:

This phase is where players gain the ingredients needed to complete the orders. Starting with the first player, place one jam jar in between two pastry cards. There are three conditions of this placement; no placing a jam jar where there already is one, no placing on a corner of a card (the cards have to be orthogonally adjacent to each other, not diagonal) and the jam jar has to be next to two cards so no placement is allowed on one side of an edge card.

Once this is completed and every player has placed four jam jar player tokens, each card with a connecting jam jar token will have their owner determined. This is done by checking which player has the most jam jar tokens connected to the pastry card (see image below). If there is a tie, no player will receive the card. Ties can be your path to victory by blocking other chefs in the kitchen.

Getting Orders Ready:

It is time to start cooking and complete the orders. Starting with the last player, each player can complete one order using pastry cards they have collected. To complete an order, at the very least all the pastries on the card must be included.  When using a pastry card all ingredients on the card will have to be used, no leftovers. This will continue until all players pass, if it comes to your turn again and you have already completed an order this turn you can still complete another.

If you use the exact pastries needed you will gain the order card vertically (more points). However, if you use more ingredients than necessary, you have made a mess and will score the order card horizontally (less points). The role of last player and first player will now pass to the left of those players currently in the role (these are denoted by cards).

Continue playing rounds in this way until one player has four exact orders or all orders are completed. Then determine grandmas favourite chef by the player with the most victory points.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- Engaging placement of the jam jar in the work phase
- Easy to learn, great family weight game

Cons:
- Would like to see more unique cards with different abilities like the kitty kat or jam.

'Jumble Jam' is easy to learn and greatly enjoyable. When gaining pastries the players must plan effectively in order to gain what they require while still need to blocking opponents. There is a lot of strategies to outmanoeuvre opponents, so if you are not a fan of being blocked then this game may not be for you, but the game is so quick and light that it is hard to take the blocking personally. I would recommend finding this game on Kickstarter if you are looking for a fun family weight game with careful placement.

Click...feed the addiction:

Jumble Jam on Kickstarter
Jumble Jam on BGG
Txarli Factory
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