So you have these little creatures that look like a cross between a lobster and a frog; bulging eyes, plump little bodies, webbed feet and pointed antennae. They’re called Gubs and acquisition of them is the point of the Gamewright card game called, appropriately enough, Gubs. It’s a 70-card deck and 13 of them are Gub cards. The object of the game is to be the player with the most of these Gub cards in a personal display of them when the game ends; a phenomenon determined by the random positioning of three letter cards in the deck – a “G,” a “U,” and a “B.” You place these lettered cards into the deck at the start (roughly near the top, near the middle and near the bottom). When the last of them is drawn during game play, the game is over.
Game play consists of drawing a card (or not; your choice, although you can’t skip the draw more than once), playing as many cards as you choose, and discarding, if necessary. You’re only allowed to hold up to eight cards. If you have more than that at the end of your turn, you have to discard down to eight.
Each player (two to six of them) starts the game with a single Gub in front of them. This means that in a six-player game, for example, there will only be seven Gubs left in the deck to fight over. Each player is dealt three cards at the start and play commences. You draw a card, and then play as many as you wish. If you’ve got a Gub in your hand, or a couple of them, you might want to put it (or them) down in front of you for all to see.
You might, on the other hand, opt to play any of the other 54 cards, a few of which you’ll be holding in your hand. It’s the makeup of these other 54 cards that makes this game fun and challenging, albeit a little random in terms of the development of any clear path to victory. They come in six different varieties, these other 54 cards – Barricades, Events, Hazards, Traps, Tools, Interrupts, and one Wild Card (Cricket Song), which can be used as a substitute for any Hazard, Tool, or Interrupt (not as a Gub, Barricade or Trap).
Barricades - Mushrooms (7), Toad Riders (4) and Velvet Moths (2) - protect Gubs that you’ve already played to your display; played atop an already played Gub, it protects that Gub from Hazards, which are played by opponents to either steal or destroy your Gubs. Traps – Rings (3) and Sud Spouts (4) - are placed on top of free Gubs (unprotected by Barricades) and remain in play until destroyed. Gubs under Traps do not count for points. Tools – Haki Flute (2), Retreat (1) and Scout (1) – are used to either free Gubs from Rings and draw them to your display (Haki Flute), take all cards in your display back into your hand (Retreat; which can, in effect, free a trapped Gub and make it available for subsequent play out of your hand), or to either look at someone else’s hand or rearrange the top three cards in the draw deck (Scout).
Interrupts – Age-Old Cure (2), Blindfold (1), Feather (2), and Flop Boat (1) - are cards that cancel the effect of played Hazards or Events. Events are cards marked with a lighting bolt, which go immediately into effect against all players and are then discarded.
What it comes down to is that on your turn, you’ll either do something to benefit yourself, or something to frustrate the aims of your opponent (sometimes it will do both), all in pursuit of getting as many point-bearing or free Gubs (not under Traps) out in front of you as you can before that last letter card turns up.
There are truly some devastating Event cards in this deck, like the Flash Flood, which, when drawn, forces all free Gubs in play to be shuffled back into the deck (with the exception of The Esteemed Elder; a kind of super Gub, which can only be affected by the Lightning Event Card, or the Cricket Song Wild Card, acting as a Lightning Card). Or the Traveling Merchant, which forces everyone to pass all but one card in their hand to the player on their right (if you’ve only got one card, you don’t have to pass it). Imagine, if you will, that you’ve started collecting a few cards (keeping the eight-card limit in mind). You’ve got a few Gubs in your hand, because you’ve decided you don’t want them out on display right away, thus avoiding having them scooped up by opponents playing Hazard Cards. You’ve held on to your Age-Old Cure card, which cancels the effect of the Gargok Plague, which would normally force you to shuffle all the cards in your hand back into the deck. You’ve got all this and the Traveling Merchant is drawn. You now have to take all that careful planning, and caution with the Gubs in your possession and pass the result (holding on to only one card) to one of your opponents.
A game of Gubs will inevitably result in loud and painful groans, as players attack opponents, or are forced to execute Events that change the whole complexion of the game and the fortunes of any perceived leader. It’s like that movie tag-line that came out when they released Jaws 2; “just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. . .” With Gubs, that becomes “just when you thought you were in control of this game,” an Event card is drawn that devastates your entire plan.
This element of random chaos would normally be devastating and unpopular in a game that purported to have some element of discernible strategy to it. With Gubs, it becomes just part of the charm.
Through the first few plays of this game, a question arose regarding the re-shuffling of the draw deck, which occurs when either the Flash Flood, Gargok Plague, or Rumor of Wasps event card is drawn and executed. Keeping in mind that the three letter cards have been positioned at the start so that the game ends somewhere near the bottom of the draw deck, what happens when that deck is shuffled by one of those event cards? The final card could end up at the top of the heap and finish play abruptly. We wondered idly whether, during a re-shuffling, the remaining letter cards should be initially removed before shuffling the deck and then placed back into the deck in their original, relative positions (top, middle or bottom). This would maintain the spirit of the original idea behind the positioning of the three letter cards. Re-shuffling the deck without doing this tosses another bit of potential chaos into the game, but in the end, we decided that it, like all of the other randomly chaotic events, just added to the aforementioned charm of the exercise. It is, after all described as a “game of wit and luck.”
It’s a terrific game, and in spite of its inherent “take that” quality (manifested in attacks against opponents), it’s great for families. It’s gaining a lot of attention out on Boardgame Geek, and though it’s earning a rather grumpy 6.44 average on the old 1-to-10 scale, it’s been rated by about 140 people (to date; which is a lot, considering its recent release) and is already out of stock in some locations. Pick this up. You won’t regret it.
Gubs is designed by Alex and Cole Medeiros and published by Gamewright Games and Cole Medeiros Games. It can be played by two to six players, aged 10 & up. A single game (once through the deck) will normally take about 20 minutes. Retails for under $10, depending on where you purchase it and whether shipping is added.
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