Dabba Walla

• Designers: Patricia Limberger and Felix Leder
• Publisher: Queen Games
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 45 minutes
• Played with preview copy (in German) provided by publisher

Dabba Walla is one of the upcoming releases from Queen Games; putting the amazing lunch delivery service of Mumbai on to your game table.  The whole system has always been fascinating to me ever since I watched a documentary about it.   Sadly, I can’t find that one online (I believe it was done by PBS) – but here is a short video that explains it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDD32skx-zM

Per the publisher:

Every morning in Mumbai, over five thousand workers dressed in white swarm out to deliver more than 200,000 “dabbas” (multistoried lunch boxes) to the offices of the Indian metropolis. These “Dabba Walla” have been an iconic fixture in the cityscape since 1890. The food is freshly prepared at home by families, then collected from their front doors by the Dabba Walla. Even though some of the dabbas travel very far, they are delivered punctually via a network of intermediate stations with an amazing reliability of 99.999%! Now it’s time to join the Dabba Walla on their daily journey through Mumbai…

The game consists of two phases which mirror what happens in real life:

• Pick-up phase

To set up this phase, place the board on the table, and then players should agree on which of the four vehicles they will use in this game – each type has a different grid of empty spaces on it (and therefore, each vehicle will lead to a different feel to the game).   There is a track on the right of the vehicle to track your stacking level.   Each player also starts with 6 movement tickets.  A deck of dabba cards is constructed (based on player count); 6 cards are placed face up next to the board as the display, and each player starts with a hand of 2 cards.  

Take turns moving your Dabba Walla through Mumbai to collect dabba cards. There are 6 spaces on the board, essentially in a circular loop.  You must move at least one space and you take the card at the space you stop moving.  If you want to move more than one space, you must place a ticket on the card(s) that you bypass.  Each time you pick up a card, you also get any tickets which are on it.  Then you play one of the three cards in your hand to take the depicted dabba tile — a polyomino of 1-4 squares — and place it in your cart, stacking tiles higher and higher as the rounds progress.  Each time you place the first tile on a new level, be sure to show this by raising your level marker on the side of your board as well.  Dabbas come in four colors, and you must place them on flat surfaces, filling holes with empty dabbas if needed. You do not need to have completely filled a lower level to stack upwards; it only matters that the higher tile is completely supported by tiles underneath it.  If you connect two half-chai symbols on tiles on the same level, you draw a random chai tile with a bonus action. Keep all played dabba cards in a personal discard pile.  Immediately refill the now empty card spot with a new card.  This phase will end when the display can no longer be replenished – at this time every player will have had exactly 13 turns.  The players end this phase by placing the tiles on the two cards left in their hand; these can be placed in any order.

• Delivery phase: 

Now, flip the game boards over to the other side.  The tip track surrounds the outside of the board; each player scores one tip per ticket they have left at this time.  A scoring marker is placed at the start of each of the four colored tracks in the center of the board.  Finally, the five unchosen cards from the first phase are stacked together to start the discard pile.

Now that everyone has placed fifteen tiles in their cart, it’s time to deliver lunches! Pick up all the cards you played (from your personal discard pile), then complete a number of delivery rounds equal to the highest level that someone has stacked their dabbas. Each round, each player plays and reveals one dabba card from their hand, optionally playing chai tiles as well. Sum the value of each color of dabba, then everyone scores their dabbas on the current level based on these values, removing the tiles from their carts. (Note: If not all players have dabbas on the current level being scored, they still play a card, but they score nothing.)  You also must take a 2 tip penalty for each empty dabba tile found on that level.  Every player plays a card in each round, even if they do not have any tiles at that level on the card as the tiles are scored from the highest level and moving down to the lowest. Once all the dabbas have been delivered, players score 2 tips for their remaining chai tiles, then whoever has collected the most tips wins.  There is no tie breaker.

As with most Queen games, Dabba Walla also contains expansion modules to provide additional ways to score or change the value of dabbas being delivered.  More exciting to me is that the rules also contain a link to Indian recipes created by Rajive Gupta, the CEO of the publisher!

My thoughts on the game

Well, as I’m super intrigued by the real life lunch delivery system, I was definitely looking forward to trying this one out.  It’s not the first game to have this theme – I remember playing Tiffin from Rio Grande maybe ten years ago.  The whole system is so amazing that I’m a bit surprised that I haven’t played other games based on it.

Gameplay is very intuitive, and the game is super simple to teach.  Our group had the hang of it within minutes, and I think that it is accessible enough for non-gamers to also be able to quickly get into the swing of lunchbox pickup and delivery.  The nuances of the scoring may take a full game to appreciate; but a couple of good examples in the rules teach should make this pretty smooth as well.

In the first phase, you have to work out the logic puzzle of figuring out which tile is the best one to add to your vehicle – keeping in mind your ticket supply (and bonus for unused tickets at the end of the round) as well as the penalty taken for empty dabba wallas should you need them to stack higher.  But overall, the turn is dead simple.  Move at least one space, pay tickets if you move more than one space, take the card and matching tile and place said tile on your player board.

The second phase is a bit more complicated, but again only slightly so.  There is a fair amount of strategy in figuring out when to play your cards.  If you aren’t stacked as high, you won’t score any points yourself, but you can still influence the scoring of the other players – and you’ll have to manage your own cards to make sure that you can maximize your scoring on the lower levels.

From reading the rules, I thought the base game was going to be a really light game – but honestly, I was surprised at the depth here. There are actually a number of things to track.  First, you need to really manage your hand – in the sense of making sure that you pick up cards that will score the colors you need.  Each card has 4 “points” – whether they are tile squares or scoring bumps.  Thus, a 4-square tile gives you a 0 for scoring, while a 1-square tile always comes with a +2,+1 scoring combo.  This makes sense as it balances out the ability to build on your board versus getting scoring power.  Second, you should definitely keep an eye on what your opponents are building.  If you are building a lot of the same color on the same level, you might have an ally when it comes to the scoring of that level!      Finally, memory is key because you need to remember what you have built at what levels as you plan out your scoring card usage at the end…

Also, being built higher than everyone else isn’t necessarily a great plan.  If you are the only person scoring a level, I guarantee you that you’ll get nothing but zeroes from your opponent, and possibly -1 chai cups.  You’ll likely not score much on the levels where you’re the only person scoring.  

The storage boxes are really nice.  When you first open the box, you have to make sorting boxes – and the lids of these also serve as the board for the game!  It’s a great way to sort the multiple varied pieces that you need in the game.  The rules also proudly proclaim that the game is sustainably produced in Europe and that less than 1% plastic is used (which I think is derived from the plastic shrinkwrapping found around the new game and the deck of cards – though the card wrap is noted to be 100% compostable).   I will admit though that the environmentally focused bits do increase the cleanup time of the game.  Some of the bits (I’m looking at you Chai tiles) have to be placed precisely and neatly stacked in their little bin in order for the lid to fit on.  If you convert to plastic bags for this, it would take a few minutes less to clean the game up.  

The expansion modules are neat, and each adds a different feel to the game.  I really like the scoring cards as they give players yet another thing to focus on, and this definitely will alter how you approach the tile selection.   The different vehicle types each have their own pattern which leads to a very different game.    My experience with the additions to the scoring track have not been as good, but of course, YMMV.  It’s nice that they are available to be added in as desired or simply ignored.

As it turns out, Dabba Walla is the real meal delivery deal for sure.  It is very attractive to the eye, and the rules are super easy to absorb.   But those easy rules lead to a game that can be more complex than expected.  For me, this makes the game ideal for both casual gamers as well as suitable for my regular game group.  Sure, we’re more likely to add in the expansion modules for the game group; but the game provides options to shape the game to the audience.  I have enjoyed the game with and without the expansions, and this flexibility will surely help it find the table more often – especially as I’m already very much interested in the theme.

Now, off to make some chana masala for dinner!

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! 
• I like it.  Dale Y
• Neutral.
• Not for me…