presentation

Billabong

Jump race with a referee

Kangaroos are engaging in a jump race around the Billabong, which is a small lake or a water hole, supervised by the referee kangaroo.

Five kangaroos per player are placed anywhere on the board but the Billabong; then all kangaroos must cross the start/finish line, do one full turn around the Billabong and cross the start/finish line a second time.

Jumping itself is rather simple; you let one of your kangaroos do a tired hop by one case in any direction – but not across the Billabong – or let it jump rather like a kangaroo. For such a jump you jump in a straight line over an opponent’s or your own kangaroo, always as many cases beyond the kangaroo as you are away from it before the jump – for instance, on the fifth case behind a kangaroo if your distance to it was four cases before you jumped. The crafty advantage in a jump – you can repeat it any number of times, provided the jump ends on an empty case. You can direction in such a chain jump after each individual jump.

As there are quite a few kangaroos on the board, you can lose your way in the vastness of Australia; to prevent this, you have the assistance of the black referee kangaroo: At the start of a chain jump you put it on the starting case of your kangaroo and thus can start your jump again if you have lost direction.

Does sound straightforward, but the amazing fun to play Billabong reveals itself in the first few moves, supported by pretty components and witty graphics, offering quite some challenge for quick observation and decisions, because planning is a limited option, as positions of kangaroos and with them jump options change continually.

Players: 2-4

Age: 9+

Time: 30+

Designer: Eric Solomon

Artist: Klemens Franz - atelier198, Andreas Resch

Price: ca. 25 Euro

Publisher: franjos Spieleverlag 2018

Web: www.franjos.de

Genre: Race, position

Users: For families

Version: multi

Rules: cn de en fr it nl

In-game text: no

Comments:

New edition, 25 years anniversary

Challenging and thrilling fun

Enchanting design

Simple rules

Compares to:

Race games using opponent’s pieces to advance

Other editions:

Open´n Play (kr), earlier ones at SimplyFun (en, 2013), Amigo (de, 1992), franjos (de, 2002)

Chance (pink): 0

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0