Game 120: Ten Days in Africa

In the game 10 Days in Africa, the goal is to be the first person to create a viable ten-day journey through multiple countries on the African continent.  There is some strategy involved, but there's also quite a bit of luck - as in luck of the draw with cards.  As a family we're typically more into games of deep strategy or games of trivia or party games (which could be either goofy or strategic).  This game seems more "staid" or "middle of the road;"  I'm not sure how to term it.  It's quite pleasant to play, and it works especially well if you are with friends that you want to carry on a conversation with while playing.  It's pretty low key.  It sure helps you learn your African geography, though, and that's a plus!

To begin the game, each player places cards at random on the 10 day slots on the wooden strip in front of them.  Cards are of 3 types: country, plane, jeep.  

After placing these 10 random cards, players take turns drawing a card (off the face-down stack or off one of three face up discard piles) and replacing a card in their line-up.  A players wins immediately upon completing a workable journey.

Part of the strategy comes in with regard to deciding which pile to discard on - in other words, blocking other players by covering a card they might want.  It is hard to tell, because each of our journeys in progress are hidden from the other players.  In terms of the actual travel, connecting between countries, you can travel by foot, plane, or jeep.  You can only go on foot between two countries that share a border.  A jeep card will allow you to drive from where you are to a country that is separated from your location by one other country.  Planes can carry you between countries that share a color, but only if the plane also shares that color.

Something really startling happened when we played this time.  After placing his random cards in his tray, David just laid his tray down and said, "I win!"  In the years that we've had this game, we've played it between a dozen times and a score of times, but we'd never seen anything close to this!

Sure enough  .  .  .  he talked us through it, pointing out every element of his journey, and it worked.

So, the rest of us decided to keep playing and go for second and third.  You can see my original itinerary in the picture here, starting with a flight out of Somalia (green plane from green country) but not being able to land in Gabon (a pink country).  As shown on a picture above, and again below, one of my next moves was to draw Togo (a green country) and put it in place of Gabon.

I'm pretty sure I came in fourth place.  It was a while ago that we played, and I don't remember now who got second and third.  That surprise instant win on David's part kept us pretty tickled throughout the rest of the game as the rest of us tried to make our way.