Cabanga!
Designed by: Michael Modler
Cabanga! is a card game where you’re trying to get rid of all your cards, because cards have points on them and points are bad. At the start of the game four colour cards are laid in a column and 8 grey number cards dealt randomly either side of them.
Players are dealt a hand of numbered cards that match the four colours, and on your turn you play one of your cards on top of these numbers – matching the colour, but otherwise you’re free to play any number you like. The catch is that when there is a gap between the two number cards of a colour, anyone can call out ‘Cabanga’ and discard cards that would fill the gap. For instance, I play a red 14 and the other red number is 10. In your hand you hold the red 11 and 12 so you call out Cabanga! and discard them. For every Cabanga card, I have to add another to my hand from the deck.
The only other rule to be aware of is if you play the colour of the player before you, must also draw a card from the deck.
As soon as someone plays their last card – assuming it isn’t Cabanga-ed – the round ends and players ‘score’ points for their cards (all cards are worth between one and three points) and the player in last place – with most points – starts the next round. If a round ends and one or more players has reached 18 points, the game is over and the player with the least points is the winner!
Sam says
Like 6Nimmt – another game of numbered card-shedding where points are bad – this hits the spot for silly and lucky, but not so silly that it feels stupid and not so lucky that it feels pointless. You do have some agency here, and can even go for deliberate early Cabangas in order to build a hand of cards to hit opponents with. There’s a little more going on than initially seems, but not so much that it spoils the shouting out of Cabanga! at regular intervals.
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Take That!
It is quite a take-that-y sort of game, but on a micro and untargeted level. A series of custard pies rather than hand grenades.
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Fidget Factor!
Very low
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Brain Burn!
Pretty low. The immediate goal is to play a card that leaves the smallest possible gap (or none at all) but you need to balance that with what cards are left in your hand.
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Again Again!
The game doesn’t have a huge amount of variability but it’s a lot of fun to play now and then regardless. There is something about calling out Cabanga! that scratches an itch you didn’t know you had.
