Last November at BGG Con, we were perusing the vendor area when we met Phalgun and Shwetha, a charming husband and wife team and owners of Mozaic Games. They were demonstrating many of their games, so naturally, Cindy and I stopped to check them out. Two games, Chai Garam and Vallamkali, especially caught my eye and we bought Chai Garam immediately after watching the demonstration. Vallamkali had a deluxe version that wasn't immediately available, so I waited until it was available and promptly ordered it from their website several weeks later. Even had I wanted the standard version, I would've been out of luck, as they were sold out. Good for them! We actually bought another of their games, Indus, as a Christmas gift.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Mozaic Games in any way. I received no compensation of any sort for this blog, and I paid full price for the games.
Vallamkali is a game about the snake boat races typically held in Kerala, India. The larger racing boats can hold as many as 128 crew. Wow! I've heard of the Chinese Dragon boat races, but apparently, these boats are quite a bit smaller, holding about 22 crew. As Phalgun described these races, I knew I wanted to find out more.
As a reminder to my faithful readers, and for my new readers, clicking any link (in blue) will open a new window. You won't lose your place here. Also, clicking on any photo will display a large format version of what you see here.
Following are three photos I found via Google search that will show just how large these boats are. I do not own the copyright to these photos and will gladly credit them if informed who they belong to. I will also remove them upon request of the owner should they desire.
Snake boat races
A search on YouTube yielded many good videos of this event, and this short video will give you a good idea of what an actual race looks like. Yes, I spent a LOT of time watching actual race videos and found it most fascinating.
Now that you have a good background of the game's theme let's look at the game itself. This game was designed by Phalgun, and right off the bat, I found it very thematic. Those who have played board games with me know I value theme over mechanics any time. I would rather play a game with a good theme and weak mechanics than an abstract game with great mechanics. That's just me, though. The only minor drawback, and I stress minor here, is that the minimum player count is three. Many times, it's just Cindy and me playing games, so games with a higher minimum player count don't see as much play time as we'd like. This one, though, is worth the wait due to the excitement generated during play. The upside to this is up to six people can play. I found that higher player counts significantly add to the excitement. there is very little downtime since much of the action takes place simultaneously.
Box top
Box bottom
Vallamkali includes bidding, betting and deck building in its mechanics. You play the part of a boat racing team, and have a "crew" of 16 oarsmen. Each crew has the same set of rowing skills, represented by the number one or two.
Which crew will you pick?
Here's the "blue crew," ready to go
During the bidding phase, you can bid to hire "professional" oarsmen with skills of two, three, or four. These professionals will be integrated into your deck or "crew." This is where the deck-building mechanic kicks in.
The "varsity"
Each player will start with 15,000 rupees to spend on bidding for the professional oarsmen or betting. Phalgun explained to us that most of the money comes from successful betting and not necessarily winning the race. The player with the most money at the end of the game wins—just like in real life, right? Well, maybe not. So, bid wisely and save your rupees for bets. And yes, you can bet on yourself to win.
Show me the money!
Bidding is done as a "blind" bid. Start by shuffling the professional oarsmen deck and placing it face down on the table. One at a time, the top card is revealed, and each player will secretly choose his or her bid by choosing the proper amount of rupee tokens. Players do not have to place a bid if they don't want to. Everyone will choose how much to bid and hide their rupee tokens in a closed fist. Once everyone is ready, all reveal their bid at the same time. Again, an empty hand as a "no bid" is perfectly acceptable. The highest bidder gets that oarsman. If there's a tie, the tied bidders incrementally increase their bid until only one bidder remains.
For each professional oarsman hired, one "regular" oarsman from the player's deck must be discarded from the game to maintain a 16-card deck.
I like deck-building games, especially the classic Dominion and the fast-paced Star Realms. This formed my strategy in bidding on some of the professional oarsmen as you'll see shortly. When we played this at BGG Con with Phalgun, I only bought two professional oarsmen and saved the rest of my rupees for betting.
Once all the oarsmen have been hired, it's time to race. Players will shuffle their deck and draw four cards. From those four, the player will pick three to play. The total value of the three cards is how far their boat will move.
Let's race!
This is the standard edition game, set up for six players. Please click on the photo to see a larger version of it. Notice the lines perpendicular to the boats on the left? These lines indicate where a boat ends on their turn, based on the cards played. The finish line is 45 spaces from the start line. I'll talk about the three event cards displayed at the bottom of the track shortly.
An interesting game mechanic is "rhythm." Thematically, it makes sense, as a boat with everyone rowing in rhythm will move much faster. How does a player achieve rhythm? Good question! If able, he or she will play three cards of the same value but with different names. Not only will the boat advance by the sum of the three cards, but it will also advance a bonus of three more spaces due to being in rhythm.
We've got rhythm!
Notice in the above photos that each set of three cards has the same value but have different names. The top photo shows a boat that will move six spaces: three for the sum of the cards and three for being in rhythm. How far will the boat in the bottom photo move? Notice this one has a professional oarsman in the group. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Yes, you in the back, jumping up and down....what was your guess?
Nine? Are you sure? Yes, you've got it! Six spaces for the sum of the cards plus three for being in rhythm.
Rhythm? What's that?
In the top photo, two of the oarsmen have the same name. Six spaces on this turn for them. In the bottom photo, even though there's no rhythm, the strong professional oarsman has the strength to help power their boat seven spaces this turn, even without rhythm! Wow!
After each "round," the three played cards are placed in the respective player's discard pile, and four new cards are drawn. Play continues until the leading boat crosses a "milestone" mark on the course. Remember me mentioning the event cards earlier? These event cards line up at.....you guessed it....the milestone markers. Two actions then happen: a betting phase and an event phase.
At this first milestone, players can now place bets, totaling 5,000 rupees max, in any combination they choose. They are betting on who will place first, second, or third. You'll get to see a scorecard from our actual game later. Once all bets are placed, the event card is revealed. There are six different types of events, two of which have multiple varieties. These event cards are a catch-up mechanism for the trailing players.
Event cards
The following milestones have bet limits of 3,000 and 1,000 rupees. It is important to pay attention to where the boats are, as the further along the race is, the less you can bet. "Oh, dang, I should've bet more at the first milestone!" Yes, that was me the first time we played. The first couple of rounds we played placed me in the middle of the pack. Just before the first milestone, though, I had some incredibly lucky card draws, achieving rhythm three times in a row. I swear I shuffled my deck thoroughly but still managed to come up with the right combination of cards. I guess all those games of Star Realms really helped shape my strategy here.
I had to laugh as everybody, including me, started betting a LOT of rupees on my boat. I better not let them down. Phalgun's over-the-top enthusiasm had us all shouting and cheering as the game progressed. A small crowd gathered to watch us as we raced along the course.
The end game is triggered once three boats pass the finish line. Bets and prize money for first, second, and third place are totaled. The winner is crowned and hoisted aloft on everyone's shoulders. Well, I might be exaggerating a bit about the hoisting part, but it sounds cool, at least to me.
So, how did that boisterous game turn out? Who won? I'm glad you asked! Take a look at the actual scorecard from that game. Phalgun kindly let me keep it.
Winner winner (tandoori) chicken dinner!
Yay, I won! Click on the photo to see the score. I crossed the finish line first and bet the most on myself to win. I'm glad I didn't let the others down who also bet on me.
I mentioned the deluxe version of the game earlier. The difference between the standard and deluxe versions is that the race course is a neoprene playmat instead of cardboard, and the boats are acrylic instead of cardboard.
Neoprene playmat
Acrylic boats
I'll happily play either version of this fun game, anytime, anywhere. I truly hope to get a chance to play it with Phalgun again, too. His nonstop commentary throughout the game would rival that of Jeff Probst during a Survivor challenge. And that's a good thing.
Chai Garam
As a native-born South Texan, I was raised on iced tea. My mom, though, kept a very close watch on the amount of sugar we consumed. Consequently, most of the time we drank unsweet tea. Much like the chili with or without beans debate (my thoughts on it), people have firmly held opinions on the value of sweet versus unsweet tea. I've had both, and while I will drink sweet tea if that's the only type available, I do prefer unsweet tea. One of my sisters, and I won't call her out here, is just the opposite. At least in the past, she'd put soooo much sugar in her glass that not all of it would dissolve. There would be a thick layer of sugar at the bottom of the glass. To each their own. I make no judgment one way or the other.
Chai Garam means, literally, "hot tea." It is a game for two to four players, but there is a solo mode as well. In this game, you play the owner of a "tapri," or tea stall located in a "mela," or fair. Wikipedia has a good article about melas here. Just out of curiosity, I also did an image search on Google for "chai tapri" and spent the next several minutes looking at all of the fascinating photos. You can find my search results here if you are so inclined. My appreciation for the artwork in this game grew due to looking at these images. Based on what I observed, the artwork and game components truly captured the essence of the tapri.
During the game, the mela will be filled with customers ordering specific types of teas. They will order either green, black or milk tea. There are two leaf types each of green (Kashmiri or Nilgiri) and black tea (Darjeeling or Assam). Customers will order a specific tea leaf (green or black) and some will just ask for "green" or "black" and let you choose which specific leaf to serve. Some will want specific additives like cinnamon and others will just want some sort of additive and aren't picky what you give them.
Cindy and I had a wonderful conversation with Phalgun and Shwetha about Chai Garam as they demonstrated their game. I was immediately attracted to the bright acrylic tea cups and cubes used in the game. These acrylic pieces captured the light and added a nice touch to the game board.
Shwetha & Phalgun
The rulebook lists Sidhant Chand as the game designer, but Phalgun said he had a large part in the game design as well. When asked why his name wasn't listed as part of the design team, he said that he wanted Sidhant to have most of the credit. Phalgun graciously agreed to sign the back of our rulebook and even seemed a bit surprised that we would want such a thing.
Signed rulebook
Click on the photo and check out the lower left corner. Pretty cool, huh? Of all the benefits of attending a game con, having the chance to speak with the actual game designer is one of the top benefits. Cindy and I have sat through several guided playthroughs of games, and having the designer comment on why he or she made a specific decision regarding gameplay would make things so much clearer. "Thematically, I decided to do....." Ahhh, OK, that makes much more sense to me now.
The "mela"
This is the game board before it is set up for actual play. To the top right is the "Flavor Track," used for tracking the score. Scoring markers are teapots in the color of your choice (red, yellow, green, or blue). Below the scoring ladder are four spots to collect "tea tags" used to obtain tea leaf specialization. This will aid you later in the game by earning stars to advance along the Flavor Track. The nine large rectangles are where the customers will line up to place their tea orders. The front of the line is the leftmost column, so there are three lines of customers to serve.
Various decks of cards are used to represent different parts of the game. There is no real deck-building mechanic in this game, even with multiple cards that you'll eventually want to obtain. This is more of an engine-building, hand-management, and set-collection game.
Game cards
Ready for play (4 players)
On your turn, you may do one of two main actions:
Pick three ingredients or snacks from the market (only one snack at a time, though).
OR
Serve chai to customers (up to three)
Obviously, on the first turn of the game, you'll have no chai to serve, as you haven't made any yet. The very first turn of the game will be spent selecting ingredient and/or snack cards. The hand limit is 9 cards, but you may discard from your hand to obtain new cards from the market.
Snack cards?
Yes, snack cards! These are placed face down in the market and you are allowed to pick ONE on your turn in addition to two other ingredient cards. Snack cards give you bonuses or allow you to modify your serve.
Snack cards
After completing one of the main actions, there are other optional actions such as preparing chai, buying saucepans, upgrading your tapri and claiming a goal that you may do. It's in your best interest to always perform some of these actions like making chai and upgrading your tapri if possible. You are, afterall, in the business of making and selling chai. You can't sell chai that you haven't yet made.
Besides earning rupees and stars (to advance on the Flavor Track) by serving customers, each player will work towards completing public goals as well as a private goal. Earning these goals will award more stars to advance along the Flavor Track as well. The winner is the one at the highest level on the Flavor Track at the end of the game. The rupees you earn by serving customers allow you to upgrade your tapri.
Let's take a look at your tapri. You'll start out with a medium saucepan, a water card and depending on turn order, either one, two or three additional basic ingredient cards for 2nd, 3rd, or 4th player respectively. Each player will also have a "Chai Aunty" and a "Chai Uncle" to help you out.
Chai Aunty & Chai Uncle
Your tapri has three burners to prepare the chai. The medium saucepan has a capacity of three cups. As you serve customers and earn rupees, you can buy a small saucepan (2 cups), a large saucepan (4 cups) or additional medium saucepans. Customers will order either one or two cups of chai, so having the flexibility to prepare multiple cups allows you to serve up to three customers at a time. The biggest caveat is that once you start preparing chai in a given saucepan, you can't change it to another leaf or chai type.
Ingredients (water, milk, sugar and tea leaves) and additives are free, but additives and tea leaves are limited by the available market. As you obtain basic ingredients and additives, others in the market will become available.
Basic tea recipes:
Green and black chai are made with a water card and the respective type of tea leaf. The base price for these is 1 rupee.
Milk tea is always made with black tea, and one water, milk and sugar card each. The base price is two rupees.
Some customers want additives in their chai such as cloves, ginger, lemon, etc. Customers can be specific like black tea, any leaf, with cinnamon. Others will ask for milk tea, darjeeling leaf, any 1 additive. Note that milk tea can never have lemon as an additive as it will curdle the milk.
If a customer asks for green tea with lemon, and you have available green tea with lemon and cloves, the extra additive is considered to be "on the house" and will not increase your earnings.
Recall the photo of the mela set up and ready to play for a four-player game. Let's take a look at it again, with two particular customers identified by a yellow circle in the bottom left of the mela. They are the bottom two customers in the leftmost column.
Please click on the photo to see it in a larger format. You'll see their particular orders and what you need to serve them. Remember that the other players are also trying to serve customers, so you should work efficiently to serve them first.
Black chai with Assam leaf
This is a basic black chai that will earn one rupee as the base price. Note that since this is made in a medium saucepan, three cups are available. By rule, you must make the capacity of the saucepan. You cannot make a "short" recipe of only one or two cups in the medium saucepan. You must make all three cups.
Milk tea with ginger
Serving a customer can be a "simple serve," where only the type of chai (green, black or milk) is served and other specifics like leaf type or additives are missing. Only the base price is earned. A specific serve will have all the required ingredients such as specific leaf type and the specified additives. Specific serves earn the full amount on the customer card. Specific serves are far more profitable and one should try to complete as many specific serves as possible. Since some customers will order two cups, you must be able to serve both cups to consider the order fulfilled. You cannot collect any stars or rupees until the order is complete.
Suppose you were able to serve the two circled customers before anyone else had the opportunity. This is where the contrast between a simple and specific serve are striking:
Both of the chai recipes I prepared in the examples above would qualify as a specific serve for these customers. The black tea any leaf will earn 4 rupees. The milk tea would earn 10 rupees for a specifc serve, but only 2 for a simple serve if I served it with Assam instead of Darjeeling leaves. You now have 14 rupees to spend for either saucepans or tapri upgrades. Those customers will be removed from the queue and placed in your area. The customers behind them would now move up to their place and two new customers will be placed at the end of the queue. Note that you still have one cup of black tea left in your saucepan. You must either serve this to another customer or dump the saucepan to make it available again. Dumping a saucepan is generally not a good idea, as you'll incur one negative token for each cup dumped.
These two customers happened to be at the front of the line when you served them. First come, first served, right? During the serve action, you may serve either the front three customers in the column, or an entire row. Skipping the front column to serve a customer in the center or right column, or serving the back two customers in a row will earn a negative token for each customer in front. These negative tokens will eventually add up and cause the customer to become disgruntled and leave or should you serve this customer, you'll inherit these negative tokens. Once you've collected six negative tokens, you'll lose one star rating on the Flavor Track. D'oh!
Here's another example of serving three customers. How many rupees do you think you earned based on what was made and what was ordered? Click on the photo below and take a good look. Go ahead, I'll wait.
How many rupees?
Did you guess 16 rupees? Take another look. Still 16?
BZZZZT! Sorry, no points for you.
The total earnings for these three customers are 12 rupees. The milk tea is a simple serve, earning 4 rupees since the required additive is missing. The green chai earned 8 rupees as a specific serve.
Upgrading your tapri is expensive, costing 10 rupees for each upgrade. There are 9 spots available to upgrade, but you are limited to a maximum of 4 upgrades. Each upgrade done will take effect on your next turn.
Upgraded tapri
The yellow player has made three upgrades to his/her tapri so far: Unlimited sugar, unlimited milk, and the ability to draw four instead of three ingredients. The unlimited milk and unlimited sugar means that the player does not have to spend one of their picks for these cards for their entire tapri, thus allowing greater flexibility.
Play progresses with customers getting served until one of two things happen: either a player reaches the top of the Flavor Track or the Evening Customer is served or leaves disgruntled. The current round is finished, allowing all to have an equal number of turns.
The Evening Customer is a specific card that is randomly placed about 2/3 down the deck.
Evening Customer
The player highest on the Flavor Track is the winner. Ties are broken in this order:
Player with the least number of negative tokens
Player with the least number of upgrades
If still tied, the players share the victory.
There is much more in this game, including event cards, celebrity customers and specific rules affecting game play. As Rodney Smith of Watch It Played would say: "I'll leave that for you to discover on your own."
As I mentioned previously, I've always been an iced tea drinker. I'll drink hot tea, on occasion, in the cooler months but not that often. After being introduced to this game, though, I was motivated to try a spiced black chai. Based on the customer cards, I tried my own version of a milk tea. Remember the recipe in the game for milk tea? One card each of water, milk and sugar and a black tea leaf. I found a specific customer card and did my best to make a "real" order for myself. What do you think? Did it qualify for a specific serve? I think it does.
The order
Nailed it!
So there you have it, two fun selections from Mozaic Games. Special thanks to Phalgun for his patience in answering all my questions while I was "fact-checking" my blog.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Have any of y'all ever watched the snake boat races in person? Are you a fan of "real" chai? I'd love to read your thoughts. Just leave a comment below and I'll read and answer every one.
Coming up, my thoughts on "drinking games."
Until next time....
carpe cerevisi
