I'm not much of a collector. I don't usually keep things without purpose. To that end, I don't buy games to complete a particular series or to make sure I have all the expansions. However, some games are so enjoyable that whenever I see a new version I'm immediately interested in it. As a big Ubongo fan, I was first intrigued by Ubongo Extrem. Through some friends I was able to secure a copy and I was pretty impressed with it. When I first heard of Ubongo: Das Duell, I was also interested. I'd never been particularly fond of Ubongo as a 2-player game because it can start feeling oppressive if you constantly lose. I was able to get my hands on a copy when my fiancée went to Germany recently, so I've had some opportunities to play it. So does Das Duell deliver a quality 2-player Ubongo experience, or is it just another game cashing in on a successful license?


Rules

If you’re familiar with Ubongo, then you already know how to play Ubongo: Das Duell (UDD). Players are competing to solve puzzles the fastest. In UDD, the first player to win 5 challenges is the winner. To win a challenge, you simply need to solve your puzzle before your opponent does.

Ubongo is a really easy game to play and teach. If you'd like to read the full rules, there is an English translation available here on BGG.


Components

UDD delivers more of the same Ubongo goodness with a few tweaks. Since this is a 2-player game, there’s not as many components and therefore the box can be smaller. The box is similar in shape to a Kosmos 2-player box but it’s a bit deeper. It’s easily small enough to fit in a suitcase making it an ideal travel game. There’s also a plastic insert in the box which holds all the player pieces.

The puzzle boards are not cardboard like Ubongo and Ubongo Extrem. Instead they are a thick paper with a semi-gloss coating. They are the same dimensions as the box and are laid out every bit as clearly as the board in the original game. Each sheet is double sided with one side having 4-piece solutions and the other sided having 5-piece solutions. Unlike the original game which has 6 combinations of pieces for each puzzle, each side has 20 different combinations of pieces. That’s 720 total puzzles available which is a really large number, especially for 2 people.

The puzzle pieces are the same thick cardboard as the other games in the series, only each player gets a lot more of them. Each player gets 21 pieces with 3 each of 7 different colors. These pieces are crazy and are nowhere near as simple as the pieces in the original game.

In addition to the boards and the puzzle pieces, there is a small scoreboard as well as 2 plastic pawns which are the same shape as the original Ubongo pawns, but are done in translucent red and yellow.

There is also a 20-sided die used for determining which set of pieces players will use to solve their puzzles.


Game play

Is it really any different?
No, not really. The game play is almost identical. Players roll a 20-sided die to determine which pieces will be used instead of a 6-sided die with symbols on it. The major difference is in the scoring system. In the base game, players move around the scoreboard based on order of finish and take gems with the winner being the player with the most gems of one color. In Das Duell, it’s much simpler than that. The first player to win 5 puzzles is the winner. Since there are only 2-players involved, the gem scoring wouldn’t work very well so they scaled it back. I think this is a great idea as it lets players really focus on the puzzles, which is very important in this version of the game. More on this later.

The Catch-Up Variant
The one reason that I never really enjoyed Ubongo as a 2-player game was that it started to feel oppressive if you lost multiple puzzles in a row. It wasn’t a problem in multi-player games because at least you could finish in second or third. Those 2-player games have you being a winner or loser every time. If one player got on a hot streak, it could be almost impossible to catch up halfway through the game.

Das Duell provides an interesting variant to solve this problem. Once a player gets to 3 victories, he must then win 2 puzzles in a row to move ahead a space on the victory track. Once their opponent has gotten to three as well, the restriction is lifted and the game opens back up until someone jumps ahead to 4. I love this idea because it gives you some room to breathe and allows you to focus on the puzzles (more on this later). When you combine this variant with the scoring mechanism, you have a great way to keep the game competitive without watering down the game play.

Get out your aspirin
Ubongo is fairly easy on the 3-piece board. The 4-piece boards are a lot harder. Even more difficult is Ubongo Extrem with its crazy hexagonal pieces. I’ve never tried the 4-piece puzzles because the 3-pieces ones are more than hard enough. If you thought the first two were tough, just wait because UDD introduces a new level of complexity to the Ubongo series.

For starters, there are 3 pieces in each color which means it not as easy as simply grabbing a blue piece or a red piece. You need to figure out which piece you need. Additionally, these pieces have some weird shapes that are far from the normal tetrads that dominated the first game. Secondly, you have 20 options on the sheet so once the die is rolled you need to find the number and identify the pieces. Third, the simple side is 4-piece puzzles while the hard side is 5-piece puzzles!

From my few plays I feel confident in saying that the combination of odd shapes and multi-piece puzzles makes this easily the hardest Ubongo game yet. There have been many times that neither my fiancé nor I could complete the 4-piece puzzles. I’ve yet to try the 5-piece versions, but I can imagine just how difficult they must be. It’s safe to say that the 4-piece versions will keep you quite busy for a long time.

Variety
I’ve often wondered how Gregorz Rejchtman was able to come up with 6 solutions to every puzzle in the original game. That just boggled my mind! The when Extrem came out, I was even more confused how he managed to work that out. Das Duell however is even more complicated as each puzzle has 20 different sets of pieces that will work to solve it! How does he do this? I really don’t understand, but I am in absolute awe of his ability to create these wonderful puzzles.

As if the variety of puzzles wasn’t enough, he’s also really pushed the envelope on the pieces as well. As I mentioned above, these are a lot more complex than the shapes found in the base game. There are a lot more angles and semi-enclosed spaces to worry about. Gregorz Rejchtman truly is a puzzle genius.

Time is on my side
The one nice thing about UDD is that there is no sand timer. You’re not racing the clock, just the other player. The first person to complete their puzzle is the winner regardless of how long it takes. Sometimes its 30 seconds (although not very often!) and sometimes its 10 minutes. Whoever finishes first is the winner, plain and simple.

The box says 15-40 minute playtime and that’s probably accurate. If you use the variant, the game will take much longer due to the extra rounds that will need to be won.

Replayability
Many folks see games like this and worry about the replayability. Trust me, there’s no way you will possibly remember the solutions to these puzzles. There’s no way. When you combine the random die rolling with the difficulty of the puzzles, there’s just too much information to remember. You don’t have to worry about the puzzles getting stale because it’s just impossible to remember the solutions.


Theme
It’s Ubongo, so there’s no theme. It’s just an abstract puzzle game.


Compare it to…
Ubongo obviously. It’s part of that same family. Some of the pieces remind me of Blokus though too although that’s a completely different game.


Overall
So is UDD worth owning if you already have the original Ubongo? Absolutely, yes. This game is terrifically difficult and therefore will provide hours upon hours of puzzle solving fun. The puzzles are so much more difficult than the base game or even Extrem that it’s worth owning even if you just want to use it as a puzzle instead of a game. The sheer number of pieces and available puzzles provide a huge amount of replayability and challenge. If you like Ubongo, this is a harder version that is great for travel or just some 2-player gaming.

I rate this game a 7/10. I really like the entire Ubongo series although I’m not enough of a puzzler to rank them super high. This one is a terrific entry to the series though and it rates as highly as the other games in the series. I wish it had cardboard boards instead of the paper, but that’s a great way to save money so I don’t blame Kosmos.

If you like Ubongo, you need to find a copy of this. It’s a great way to add a new layer to a great game. If you’ve never played Ubongo but you like puzzles, I strongly recommend you look into this as well. Das Duell is a spectacular mix of brain burning puzzles as terrific visual presentation.