Jaipur 2nd Edition Review

Jaipur is a fabulous set-collection and hand-management game, which is much vaunted in many ‘Best for 2 players’ line ups- and with good reason. It's quick to learn and play, has some good tactical depth and is beautifully designed and produced. Jaipur 2nd Edition features gorgeous new artwork with the same satisfying gameplay of the first.

Rules Of Trade

Setup involves dealing each player five cards and dealing 3 camels (more on them later) and 2 other good cards to the common face-up market. Any camels in your hand are immediately placed down in front of you to form your herd, which is going to come in handy. In turn, you can take cards from the market or sell cards from your hand.

Drawing from the market gives you choices: add a single goods card from the market to your hand, add all camels from the market to your herd, or take more than one goods card from the market and replace with an equal number of your existing goods/camels in any combination. Your hand can never exceed 7 cards, though there is no limit to the number of camels in your herd.

Selling To Win

Selling involves discarding a set of cards of the same good type from your hand. You take an equal number of tokens from the top of the relevant goods' token stack – all bar one of these stacks of 5 – 9 tokens are ordered in decreasing value. The goods themselves also cover a range of values – gems are most valuable, while hides are least valuable. The three precious goods also carry the restriction that you must sell them at least two at a time. If you sell 3, 4 or 5 of the same kind in a transaction, you draw the appropriate bonus token and these have a hidden value, which also sits within a range.

The game ends when 3 of the 6 stacks of goods tokens are depleted, or the draw pile is depleted. Players score the total of all their goods and bonus tokens. There is a final 5-point bonus for the player with the most camels in their herd. In Jaipur 2nd Edition, just as in the original, the best of 3 wins overall.

Working The Market

Brisk, thinky and satisfying. There are a number of tactical considerations to weigh up. Do I get an early sale for a smaller set of goods or hold on for a bigger set? Do I take that growing number of camels rather than a solitary goods card, but in so doing refresh the market for my opponent? Or do I go for high value goods which might be more contested, or scoop up the lower value goods, where I might be able to gather the full 5 quite quickly? How do I manage with a paltry 7 cards in my hand – how many different sets am I really trying to collect? These make for an interesting puzzle but one that doesn’t lead to too much analysis paralysis and so play cracks along at a lively and enjoyable pace.

Final Thoughts

This simple but satisfying blend makes Jaipur 2nd Edition a highly accessible choice – I have played it with a wide range of family and friends. It comes in a compact format with a highly attractive design and great production values. It comes out at home, at the pub and on holiday – a game for all seasons. I strongly recommend adding it to your collection.

Editors note: This post was originally published on August 21st, 2020. Updated on February 1st, 2023 to improve the information available.