Roux Dat: Recent Plays of Cabanga!, SET, and Ratzia

It’s bitter cold down here in south Louisiana. But the sub 60s temperatures cannot stop us from gaming. We have cardboard to play and cards to toss at each other! We can’t let a little ice stop us from playing.

I was excited to rejoin my old Scouting buddies, former leaders of our troop, for our every-so-often game night. We used to do this more regularly — heck, when our kids were still in school together, the whole Board Game Gumbo schtick started when we got together for New Year’s Eve around big pot of gumbo and played board games — and we endeavored to do it more in 2026.

With this group, we like to play relatively lighter games. In the past, puzzle games like Azul and Ingenious have been mainstays, as well as quick playing card games. So, I knew just what to bring.

First, we played Cabanga!, a new-to-us game from Amigo Games. I’ve been playing this a ton since getting it a year ago. It’s a card shedding game, with a twist that we play to the center rows of four different colors. When we play a card to the left or right of the row, if any other player has cards with values in that color in between the two face up cards, they yell Cabanga! and throw their cards at the player who played (getting penalty cards from the draw pile as a result).

Since the game is a race to get rid of your cards first, getting penalty cards hurts. Sometimes I wonder if we are playing the game or if the game is playing us, as there always seems to be an optimal play in my hand. That being said, I’ve introduced this game to gamers from 8 to 80, and now to my scout dad buddies, and it’s been a hit everywhere.

Next, my buddy brought out a game I had heard of before but never played, SET. The dads love this kind of game. There is a whole tableau of cards in the center, each with one of four different colors, shades, and shapes, and our goal is to make sets. So long as a set of three cards that we point out doesn’t have two of its cards sharing the same characteristic (three is fine, or one of each different characteristic), then we can pick up that set and it becomes points for us.

Yeah, it’s all about recognizing spatial patterns faster than other players. I am absolutely terrible at games like this. I’d rather play that Wolfgang Warsch game, Illusion, cause at least I have a fighting chance. But, the group had a good time watching the younger players and experienced players rack up big points.

Finally, we played the card game version of one of my favorite bidding games, Ratzia. This is the new edition from 25th Century Games, and wow do I like this version. Yes, Ra is the classic version of this game, an absolute banger from Knizia, but for a group of friends that don’t play a lot of hobby games, Ra can be a little intimidating in terms of the scoring and Nile mechanics.

Ratzia is so much smoother to play. Players are the head of a Rat mafia family, trying to both expand the legitimate side of the enterprise (by grabbing businesses to launder money through) and also recruit gangsters and steal trinkets. But watch out! The police cards generate the auctions just at the wrong times, and the Courthouse could send your buildings back to the discard.

What a blast! It came down to the final few turns before the winner was decided, and as the players felt more comfortable with the rules in the second and third rounds, we had lots of stand up moments as players jockeyed for the cards. This version is definitely a keeper.

Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo

** Some of the games mentioned have been provided by the publishers in the form of review copies or donations to Southern Board Game Fest. **