Bahamas is a game of fighting for the most valuable cash while on a crashing plane…
Oh, and a Parachute you’ll need one of those.
The holdup was perfect… A sound plan! Millions in a bag, fleeing by plane, yes, really, a sound one. Everyone begins to relax, but suddenly the engine sputters! Then the plane begins to fall… Yes, the holdup was perfect and they had anticipated everything — everything but enough parachutes to go around…
Bahamas Game Play
Everyone gets a random character sheet.
There are a number of Parachutes, Fake Parachutes and an FBI Badge in a deck which is shuffled and each player gets 1.
On the table are also a number of dice equal to the player count.
There is another deck of action cards that has a Crash card shuffled into the bottom 4 cards.
Then, everyone draws an action card and two cards from ANOTHER deck that contains cards with different cash values.
On a player’s turn, they roll all of the dice then choose one to put on their character sheet, and resolve it. Then they give the rest of the dice to a player that hasn’t taken one. This repeats until all dice have been taken.
This will leave one player without a die, that player will gather all the dice and start a new round.
Dice Actions
There are 5 actions on the dice, all very straightforward:
Card – Draw an Action card
Card with Gun – Steal an action card from another player
Money Bag – Draw a cash card
Money Bag with Gun – Steal a Cash card from another player
Plane – Activate your character power
I had Doug who could bully action and cash cards from other players.
Card Actions
There are 12 card actions
FBI Agent – If you have all 3 FBI Agent cards, you win immediately
Thief – Steal an Action or Cash card from the player on your left or right
Robbery – When another player chooses a die, steal it and activate it, then that player chooses another die
Extinguisher – Cancel a player action card
High Kick – Change the side of a die an opponent just drafted to your choice
Search – make a player show you their action cards
Storm – Each player draws an action from an adjacent player simultaneously
Diamonds – Worth $250,000 at the end of the game
Lifeboat – This allows you to survive the crash at the end of the game
Parachute – This allows you to survive the crash at the end of the game
Crash – When drawn, the game ends
Fake parachute – Nothing!
If a player has all 3 different FBI Agent cards at the end of their turn, they reveal and win immediately.
If the Crash card is drawn, the game stops immediately and players without a parachute or with fake parachutes lose.
Players with a parachute or a lifeboat count their money and the richest player or players win the game.
Theme
I love the idea that you’re a bunch of bad people trying to stick it to each other while falling on a crashing plane. The different character powers play to their personality from a bully to a sneaky person.
Setup
One of those fiddley ones where you need to sort 4 different things out depending on the player count.
Components & Artwork
The cards are that nice thick cards that always feel nice. Those that are a bit plasticky and probably stuck together a bit when new. The dice are very nice and custom printed. They’re heavy too.
The art is fun and cartoony, I like it.
Ease of Teaching
This is very straightforward. The dice actions and character powers are face-up and there are only 12 cards in hand that are hidden. The cards are also very straightforward and each explains what they do. Revealing SOME info about cards in hand won’t ruin the game either.
Bahamas Summary
So, TURN ONE of my game I had all 3 FBI cards and just needed to get to the end of my turn to win… A player stole a card from me! I still tried to win and failed but I admit I was in a massive sulk for the rest of this game. 🙂
I do like this rando game like this. Monster My Neighbour comes to mind and I’m sure there are more that I’ve played but I can’t think of them right now. If you know what you’re getting they’re fun as long as they’re short! You don’t want them to drag on.
This one pushes that limit playing up to 45 minutes. That’s quite a long time to have little control over what you’re able to take, keep or do at any point.
But Bahamas is a decent fun, take-that-ish dice drafting card game that you’ll have fun playing.
Jesta ThaRogue