Average Joe reviews are aimed at the average gamer. You know who you are!

Those of us who:
1) Know what ‘Eurogame’ and ‘Ameritrash’ means.
2) Know that enjoying the game is more important than winning.
3) Don’t own more than 50 games.
4) Don’t consider their FLGS a second home (maybe a 3rd or 4th though).
5) Like to read a review without being overloaded with information.


Goal of Game:
Based in India, you will go to each of the 12 provinces attempting to impress the king by auctioning for prizes. The prizes will help you not only win favor with the king, but win the game!

Components:
Good. The cards are standard stock. There are dozens of plastic temples in 5 non-standard colors (who said you need to use yellow, red, blue and green) , many cardboard markers and some standard player markers. Also a well-designed medium-sized board. All items appear to be well-made to withstand long term usage.

The Rules:
Very good. Well written and easy to understand. Includes the rule summary column to the right of the detailed rules for easy reference… something I really like to see in rulebooks and is becoming standard in many Rio Grande games. You should be able to play the game with one read-through, and maybe an occasional check to make sure you are playing correctly.

The Game:
Very good. This is a trick-taking card game mixed into a board game style. By ‘trick-taking’, I mean you lay cards down… trying to have more matching symbols (there are 6 different symbols) than the other players, thus winning the ‘trick’. The play is easy to understand with just a few rounds of play, but the strategies will take a game or two to begin figuring out… which is always a good thing! There are many different ways to gather points, which allows for many different ways to move towards a victory. Taking tricks successfully will be rewarded with gifts that you can use to influence the cities in the province. Cities that you have influence with will allow you to put your castles in the right places in each province. Points are given immediately for your castle placement, and as a result of good strategy… may end up giving you more points in the future rounds.

Downtime:
Next to none. Game moves very quickly since everyone will be laying a card down trying to take the trick and being awarded prizes for smart playing. Slight down time when adding up points each round, but this goes quick and usually people are watching intently to see how they did.

Analysis Paralysis
Minimal. There is a brief moment when placing your castle that some people might need time to figure out where would be best… but this shouldn’t be TOO time consuming for most everyone. Of course, when it comes to trick-taking… you must think when is the best time to continue playing cards or withdrawing. This can be a tricky thing to figure out timing-wise, but it shouldn’t result in too much of a delay of game.

Game Length:
Decent. Game will last about 90 minutes, maybe a little quicker with experience. But things really do move along quickly, and you will find the end of the game just around the corner.

Finish:
So-so. This is another game that you will usually know who is going to win by the 9th round (out of 12 rounds). It is hard to catch up to someone that really starts pulling ahead. There is some jockeying for lead the first half of the game… but after that, the winner starts to become obvious.

Replay-ability:
Very good. The game plays different every time. With many different paths to victory, you will find yourself trying different routes – and quite often it won’t be by choice. Your best laid plans can easily be thwarted, forcing you to go a different route… which again, I think is a good aspect of a game!

Pros:
Easy to learn and teach
Enjoyable to play, different each time
Unique strategies and game mechanics

Cons:
Takes a bit of time preparing the game to play
Can get frustrating when behind too far on the scoring track
There is no yellow (my player marker color of choice!)

Overall:
Quite good. Excellent in-between game… not quite a quickie game, but not quite a long involved heavy-thinker either. It moves along quickly and keeps everyone interested up until the end. Resulting in discussion of what players could have done different, already strategizing for next time. As for being a gateway game, I think it is close… but not quite perfect. It won’t seem like a euro-game to non-gamers, which is sometimes a good thing. And to non-gamers, will seem confusing for the first rounds – but if you can get them past that round, you will be set.

I give Taj Mahal a 7/10