Designers: Patricia Limberger and Felix Leder Publisher: Queen Games Players: 2-4 Ages: 8+ Duration: 45 minutes Play with a preview copy (in German) provided by the publisher
Dabba Walla is one of Queen Games’ upcoming games that brings Mumbai’s amazing lunch delivery service to the gaming table. This whole system has been intriguing to me ever since I saw a documentary about it. Unfortunately, I can’t find the documentary online (I think it was made by PBS). However, here is a short video that explains it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDD32skx-zM
According to the publisher:
Every morning in Mumbai, over 5,000 workers dressed in white report to work to deliver over 200,000 ‘dabbas’ (multi-layered lunch boxes) to offices across the Indian metropolis. These ‘dabba-wallahs’ have been an iconic part of the cityscape since 1890. The meals are cooked in homes and collected by the dabba-wallahs at their doorsteps. Some dabbas are delivered to great distances, but a network of relay stations ensures that the delivery is on time with an astounding 99.999% reliability. Join the dabba-wallahs on their daily journey around Mumbai…
The game consists of two phases that mirror what happens in the real world.
To set up this phase, the board is placed on the table and players decide which of the four types of vehicles they will use. Each type of vehicle has a different grid of free space (hence the different feel of the game depending on the vehicle). To the right of the vehicle there is a track to keep track of the stack level. Each player also starts the game with six travel tickets. A deck of Daba cards is constructed (based on the number of players). The six cards are placed face up next to the board as a display, and each player starts the game with a hand of two cards.
You take turns moving your dabbawallah around Mumbai and collecting dabba cards. The board has six squares, essentially a circle. You move at least one square and take the card on the square where you stopped moving. If you want to move more than one square, you need to place a ticket on the card you want to skip. Every time you pick up a card, you also take all the tickets on it. Then you play one of the three cards in your hand to take the drawn dabba tile (a polyomino with 1-4 squares) and place it in your cart. As the rounds progress, you stack the tiles higher and higher. Every time you place the first tile on a new level, make sure you also raise the level marker on the side of the board to indicate this. The dabbas come in four colors and you place them on a flat surface, filling in the holes with empty dabbas if necessary. You can stack them on top of each other without having to completely fill the lower level. All that matters is that the tile on top is fully supported by the tile below it. If you connect two half-chai symbols on tiles of the same level, you will draw a random chai tile as a bonus action. Keep all played dabba cards in your personal discard pile. Immediately refill any vacant card spots with new cards. This phase ends when you can no longer refill your display. At this point, all players will have played exactly 13 turns. Players end this phase by placing tiles on the two cards remaining in their hand. These cards may be placed in any order.
Next, the game board is flipped over. The chip tracks circle the outside of the board. Each player receives one chip for each ticket remaining at this point. Scoring markers are placed in the starting position on each of the four colored tracks in the center of the board. Finally, the five cards not selected in the first phase are stacked together and become the discard area.
Now that everyone has 15 tiles in their cart, it’s time to deliver lunch. Pick up all the cards you’ve played (from your discard pile) and complete a number of delivery rounds equal to the highest level of dabbas someone has stacked. In each round, each player plays and reveals one dabba card from their hand, and optionally plays a chai tile as well. Add up the value of each colored dabba, then everyone scores their current level of dabbas based on these values and removes the tiles from their cart. (Note: If all players do not have a dabba in the current level to score, they still play a card but score zero.) They must also take a penalty of 2 chips for each empty dabba tile they find in that level. In each round, each player plays a card. Tiles are scored from highest level to lowest level, even if there are no tiles of that level on the card. Once all the dabbas have been dealt, players score 2 chips for the remaining chai tiles, and the player who has collected the most chips wins. There are no ties.
Like most Queen games, Dabba Walla also includes expansion modules that allow for additional scoring methods and the ability to change the value of the dabba served. What’s even more interesting to me is that the rules also include links to Indian recipes created by the publisher’s CEO, Rajive Gupta.
My thoughts on the game
I was really looking forward to trying this game because I’m very intrigued by the actual lunch delivery system. This isn’t the first game on this subject – I remember playing Tiffin from Rio Grande around 10 years ago. The whole system is so awesome that I’m a bit surprised I haven’t played any other games based on it.
The gameplay is very intuitive and very easy to teach. Our group got the hang of it within minutes. I think even non-gamers will find it easy enough to play that they’ll quickly get up to speed with the pace of picking up and delivering lunchboxes. You may need to play the entire game to understand the nuances of scoring, but with some good examples in the teaching guide, this should be fairly straightforward.
In the first phase, you’ll have to solve a logic puzzle to determine which tiles are the best to add to your vehicle, keeping in mind your ticket supply (and bonus for unused tickets at the end of the round) and the penalty for an empty dabbawalla if you need to stack them high. But overall, a turn is pretty straightforward: move at least one space, pay a ticket if you move more than one, take a tile that matches your card, and place that tile on your player board.
The second phase is a bit more complicated, but only a little bit. It requires a fair bit of strategy to know when to play your cards. If your stack isn’t that high, you won’t get any points for yourself, but you can still affect the scores of other players. You also need to manage your own cards so that you can maximize your score at the lower levels.
Reading the rules, I thought the base game was going to be a really light game, but I was honestly surprised at how deep it was. There are actually a few things to keep track of. First, you need to manage your hand well. That means you need to make sure you pick cards that will give you the score of the color you want. Each card has 4 “points”, whether it’s a tile square or a scoring bump. So a 4-square tile gives you 0 for scoring, and a 1-square tile always comes with a +2, +1 scoring combo. This makes sense, because it balances your ability to build on the board with gaining scoring power. Second, you need to make sure you pay attention to what your opponent is building. If they’re building a lot of the same color on the same level, they might have an ally when it comes to scoring on that level. Finally, memory is key, because you need to remember what you’ve built on what level when planning to use your scoring cards at the end…
Also, building to a higher level than everyone else is not necessarily a good plan. If you’re the only one scoring a level, you’ll definitely only get 0 points from your opponents and -1 point for the Chai Cup. Chances are, you won’t get much in a level where you’re the only one scoring.
The storage box is really nice. When you first open the box, you have to make a sorting box. The lid of this box doubles as the game board. It’s perfect for sorting the various pieces needed for the game. The rules also proudly proclaim that the game is sustainably produced in Europe, with less than 1% plastic used (I assume this is due to the plastic shrink wrap used around the new game and cards, but the card wrap is listed as 100% compostable). I will admit, however, that the eco-conscious parts do increase the packing time of the game. Some pieces (such as the chai tiles) need to be stacked precisely and neatly in a small box so the lid will fit. Turning this into a plastic bag would shave a few minutes off the time it takes to pack up the game.
The expansions are great, and each one adds a different feel to the game. I really like the scoring cards because they give the player another thing to focus on. It definitely changes how you choose your tiles. The different vehicle types each have their own patterns, making it a totally different game. My experience with adding to the scoring track hasn’t been great, but of course, it depends on the person. It’s good to be able to add them as you want, or just ignore them.
All in all, Dabba Walla is indeed a real food delivery game. It looks very attractive and the rules are very easy to understand. However, sometimes those simple rules lead to a more complicated game than expected. For me, this game is suitable for casual gamers and for my regular gaming group. Of course, I will likely add expansion modules for my gaming group, but the game gives you the option to shape the game to suit your audience. I have enjoyed the game with and without the expansions, but this flexibility will allow me to play this game at the table more often. Especially since I am already very interested in this subject.
Now, off to make chana masala for dinner!
Reviews from opinionated gamers
I love it! I love it. Dale Y Neutral. It doesn’t suit me…
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