London Cabbie Game (1972)

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1581/london-cabbie-game

Game Box

Saturday afternoon, weather not great, perfect time for a family board game! Billed as "The Family Game in which players drive cabs around Central London", how could we resist!

On the box it has the following (taking up a third of the available space!)

A game for the whole family. And up to 6 players. You're a cab driver, driving your cab around an illustrated map of the centre of London. London as it really is. You'll have to be pretty smart at steering clear of the traffic jams. And keeping an eye out for the one-way streets. But if you pick up a measly tipper you'll just have to grin and bear it. Playing this game is almost like driving a cab for real, in fact. (There are no dice.) When a London cabbie, John france of Stoke Newington, was shown the game, he said "It's like the real thing alright. It's the last thing I'd like to play after a hard day's driving around town!"

Well they don't market and sell games like that any more!! This game is another one from the games vault and dates from 1972 game from Intellect Games (what happened to them?!). We got this game, I think, from a car boot sale at probably no more than $5.

So how does a game that is nearly 40 years old fare in the 21st century?

Game Components

First the component facts.

The box is a big solid box and in common with games from this time is designed to be the footprint of the folded board with the components contained in a large void under the board. The board itself is solid and well made, and boy is it big! The board folded out, ready for play, measures 58cm x 86cm!! You need a big table to play this game on.

The rest of the components are paper, card and plastic. There is paper money bills, plastic coins, good quality plastic coated cards as well as 12 really cute wee london taxi cabs (2 each of six colours). There are also 2 road block "traffic jams" signs.

All Ready to Go!

After a quick read of the rules, we were off. The main objective of the game is to accumulate money from picking up passengers from various points around London and then dropping them off at a place or landmark. Each player choses a starting place at the side of the board and starts with one cab (a second is available later in the game).

Then five random collection points are generated through "passenger" cards and each player races to collect the "fare" before another player. Once "picked up" the passenger then reveals his destination (by card again) and when you "drop" them off you get payment. This payment is made up of a fixed fare (on display on the board surface) as well as a random tip (generated by another card turn).

Trouble Ahead at Trafalgar Square

On each round of turns another random card generates a "traffic jam" blocking mechanic at up to two junctions on the board. Thus you can be blocked from moving through a junction you need to travel to get to your destination or indeed be blocked from moving at all if the jam is at a junction that you are presently at. (Joanne particularly enjoyed this aspect of the game as it caught her three times in a row at one junction!!!)

Rachael on the move!

So everyone has 20 moves per turn, each move equaling one square on the board. You can pick up and drop off as many times as you like per turn but you must move 20 squares. The only exception is if you are blocked. As you cannot pass another cab this ensures that early on you cannot deliberately block another player.

Once you have two cabs it is a different story! You also have to pick your route carefully as there are quite a few one way roads that can really annoy you, believe me! And as you can only turn around at a junction this means that you can travel quite a few extra squares than you need to if you get it wrong!

So you travel 20 squares per turn moving around the board collecting fares and tips. That's basically it. The game we played took around 90 minutes and would have been quicker if

Michael the Cabbie drops off at Victoria and claims victory!

1. The players were more familiar with the places on the board. It sometimes took us a minute or two just to find where the pick ups were!
2. The players thought a little more ahead, working out where their next fare was likely to come from BEFORE dropping off the existing fare!
3. One of the players wasn't cooking dinner at the same time!

Anyway the agreed victory condition was met in the end, and it was quite a close finish from three players, by Michael. (He then scored the game 9/10!!, I wonder what it would have been if he had not won???)

Overall not a bad family game.

The Good Points

• Easy to understand mechanics of movement
• No dice!!! Yeah!
• Big colourful board with good quality components
• Playable by up to 6 players.
• You set the victory conditions, either time based or money value.
• Different currency (GB Pounds) always good for discussion.
• Reasonably close competion throughout, no-one really had a big lead.

The Not So Good Points

• Not a great deal of strategy involved, a little more later in the game.
• Not so much player interaction, most of the turns you were only concentrating on your move.
• You need an understanding of London geography to better appreciate this game.
• There were some disagreement over u-turns being allowed or not.
• Tighter control of passengers and cabs when in two cab mode.

Andrew happy with the photo, not so much with the game!

So votes from the Family

John 6.5/10
Joanne 7/10
Michael 9/10
Rachael 7/10
Andrew 5/10

Overall average 6.9