Bringing the Taj to Bracknell

image nicked off the net from somewhere

Last night Andrew, Paul and me (Sam) made the trip to Chris' house for a bit of extra-curricular gaming. Andrew and I warmed up in the car with a few word games so we arrived raring to break open Taj Mahal, as Chris had spent the afternoon swotting up and was keen to play.

But Chris had parenting duties to take care of first, so the three of us got a couple of games of Trans-Europa in while Chris' children stared through the kitchen door at us asking what on earth we were doing. As this is the same response we get from most adults we were well-drilled in justifying ourselves, but I'm not sure they were convinced.

Anyway, I - finally! - managed to win a game of Trans-Europa, taking the first game with some elán if I do say so myself:

Sam 1

Paul 12

Andrew 14

But then train-buff Paul called in his all his experience to bludgeon us - Andrew especially - into a pile of twisted iron and splintered sleepers:

Paul 4

Sam 11

Andrew 21

By now Chris had packed his children off into the dungeon of fluffiness and we were ready for the main event: Taj Mahal. I'd actually bought this game for Chris many moons ago, but only today did he pop open the cardboard bits. Deferred gratification allied to iron discipline, or indifferent waffiness? You decide.

As I hope we'll be playing this on a GNN night soon, here's a quick summary of the rules.

The game takes place over 12 rounds, each round represented by a region of India to be contested by the players. How? By playing colour-co-ordinated cards (there are four suits and each player is (usually) obliged to stick with the colour they first lay) and hopefully winning at least one of five categories - Elephants, Viziers, Monks, Generals, and Princesses - all of which are represented on the cards in various combinations. Win the Elephants and you get to pick up goods (more of which in a minute), win any other category and you get to place a Palace - placing a palace scores you a point, and making a chain of palaces through different regions during the course of the game will give you more points. Win more than one category - place more than one palace. Great. But remember you only get one point per region for palaces, so multiple palaces in the same region do not get you multiple points.

How do you win? By having the most of something at the point you withdraw from the bidding. Your used bidding cards go into the discard stack and you place a palace, scoring your point. You then replenish your hand by two cards from a display (or one if you're last to finish) and you're then done for that round. Watch the other players throw their cards down with abandon, possibly weakening their hand in the process!

Winning Viziers, Monks, Generals or Princesses will also mean you get a little character tile of the category in question. You only need to collect two identical tiles to trade them in (involuntarily) for a special card. The special cards can help you in different ways; extra elephants (always helpful) extra victory points (ditto) changing card-colour during card-play (normally forbidden) and an extra Grand Mogul.

Oh, the Grand Mogul. He's a category but unlike the others he doesn't give you a tile or win you a special card. What he does is allow you to place a palace in the region (and score for it as normal) but rather than being tied to available spaces you can place the palace on any space you like - even an occupied one. The benefit of the Grand Mogul is really the fact it can help you make chains of regions even after someone has tried to block you.

So the special cards are very helpful, and unlike normal cards you don't have to discard them after bidding. But you can - and will - get them pinched off you by someone else when they get the two tiles needed to qualify for it. So the special cards can move around a little bit between players.

Back to Elephants then. They look like the poorer brother of the Viziers etc but actually they tend to be the most hotly contested category of all. Partly because they appear on the cards more than any of the other characters, and partly because when you win the Elephants, if you remember, you pick up goods. These score a point each, but crucially, pick up matching goods from another region and you not only score for the goods you picked up, but the chains of goods you're making. Pick up a rice to add to the two rice you already had and that's 1pt for your new good, and 3pts for the chain you've made. In a game of relatively low scores, these can be pivotal.

So that's about it. A couple of things about bidding though - the general rule is you bid one card at a time (and have to follow your own choice of suit) and wait for the bid to come back to you before either adding to your bid or withdrawing. But there are several white cards which are jokers, and you're allowed to lay one of these in addition to your suited card. Having a couple of these in your hand can be very helpful, as you can be a bit bossy with them about what you want.

If you withdraw from the bidding without laying any cards at all, you pick up three cards instead of the standard two. (Last out and you only get one, remember).

Finally there are some little extra chits dotted about randomly that will give you an extra card, an extra good, or an extra couple of points when you lay a palace on them. And finally finally the cards in your hand count for something at the end of the game - 1pt per white card (special cards and jokers) and 1pt-per-card of the suit you have most of.

We really liked it. Andrew did think that it encouraged card-hoarding, but I'm not so sure. If you're not laying cards, you're not picking up points, so it's more about trying to maximise what you get from as few cards laid as possible. If you only have 2 or 3 cards in your hand you'll look weak; if you have quite a few you'll look strong, so there's a little element of bluff to the game as well.

Chris led the game for most of it only to be caught on the final straight as I stampeded into round 12 on the back of my yellow elephants:

Sam 44

Chris 42

Paul 36

Andrew 24

I hope if we play it tonight we can be a little more grown-up about the euphemistic possibilities the game offers. Paul stating that "I can't beat Andy's little man, so I withdraw" had the rest of us sniggering like schoolboys.

We still had time for one last round of Trans-Europa - with 4 players this time - and again Paul came to the fore, finishing just ahead of me as Chris and Andy were swatted off the board:

Paul 3

Sam 4

Andrew 13

Chris 17

So, like the song goes, Reiner's done it again. Thanks to Chris for hosting, I was almost hallucinatory on the drive home so not sure I can make it a regular thing, but it was good to have a change of scene - and a change of game too.