Episode 266: Dabba Walla

A game of Dabba Walla is divided into two phases: The pick up phase where players move their Dabba Walla through the busy streets of Mumbai to collect cards. These cards serve two purposes, 1) tell you which tile to play in the pick up phase and 2) the bottom depicts the tip values when playing the card in the delivery phase. AFter you’ve selected a card, you then play one card from your hand to pick up the dabba tile shown and load irt onto your vehicle. There are different vehicles and you choose one at the start of the game. This could be a bicycle trailer, handcart, crate or wheelbarrow which are either a 9 grid space or a 6 grid space. And everyone has the same vehicle .As you place the dabba tiles on your vehicle you are also attempting to match chai symbols, if you place two dabba tiles together on the same level so that they form a fully visible, whole chai symbol, you immediately gain a random Chai Tile. Chai tiles will either be played in the Pick up Phase or in the Delivery Phase and provide some form of benefit. Players will be stacking the load higher and higher until all the dabbas have been loaded after 13 rounds. Then onto the 2nd phase which is the Delivery Phase: Everyone plays one card per level face down at the same time. Cards are then revealed and the tip track is adjusted based on the values of the cards. For each dabba on each tile, you receive as many tips as the scoring marker indicates for that color. Level by level the dabbas are scored and whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins Dabba Walla. Now let’s head back to the studio to find out which delivered the most dabbas!