Ambagibus
Are you good with solving puzzles and escaping mazes? How about something new for a change then?
How about you build a maze? Through Ambagibus!
It certainly raised our teams’ eyebrows when we got to know of a game where you get to build a maze through a series of underground tunnels. But upon trying out this print-and-play game, we had a great time creating our customized labyrinth and even had a competition on who gets to build more mazes! Let’s get started then.
Ambagibus is a one-player game designed by P.D. Magnus and published on fecundity.com. It might be one of the oldest PnP games we have tried to date, as it was created in 2009! After playing multiple roll-and-write, card-based, and dice-oriented PnP games, Ambagibus was a breath of fresh air for our team. We felt like it was a very easy-going game, perfect for a casual gathering of friends, or to play alone on a breezy afternoon. It is repeatable, can be played in multiple modules, and leans heavily towards the possibility of customization if you happen to be a creative soul!
All you need to play Ambagibus
The whole game consists of 40 small tiles that are available for free print on two A4 pages. And that’s it! All you have to do is print two A4 pages, and we highly recommend you laminate the pages to ensure longevity. Even if you want to play the game once, it gets quite tricky playing it with offset A4 pages. We have a fascinating blog on when to laminate game components, feel free to check it out!
So, you print the two-page print for Ambagibus, color-print, and laminate it with a handy laminator, and cut the 40 tiles using a pair of scissors, or using a cutter. And you are ready! It’s time to learn about the game. One of the challenging aspects of the game was finding a gameplay video, but since we could not find any, we will go through how to play the game in this article. Something we usually don’t do, but anything for the PnP enthusiasts!
How to play Ambagibus
Once you have cut out the 40 tiles of the game, take a moment to examine them. You are looking at 36 tiles that look like tunnels enclosed by layers of bricks, 2 ‘The Bomb’ tiles, and 2 ‘Cave in’ tiles. The 36 tiles are what you will be using to make closed-system maze/s, with no escape route! You will notice two features of these tiles- the way they are numbered, and also the varied number of openings the tiles have; from having one to up to four openings on each tile.
As for the rest of the 4 cards- the two Bomb tiles can be used to blow up any tile of your choosing to make your life easy, while the Cave In tiles can be used to seal off an open end of your maze. So in other words, these 4 tiles are there to help you out! Keep in mind that once you discover these tiles in the game, you have to use them. Unless they appear the very first time you’ve drawn!
You start the game by shuffling and putting all the 40 tiles upside-down in a pile and then start revealing one card at a time to connect it with other tiles to form a maze with no way out. When you draw a new tile, two things need to be considered for its placement in your maze:
– The numbers on the existing tiles on the maze: you have to put the newly picked tile next to the tile in your maze that has the lowest number on it on an exposed or open end. So, you cannot skip an open-end ‘I’ and put the picked tile next to an open-end ‘II’, “III” or “IV”. Unless the second instant occurs!
– Say you picked up a tile, and you have an open-ended “I” and an open-ended “II” available. The first rule dictates you got to put it next to the open-ended “I”, only if it fits in the puzzle. If this newly placed maze tile blocks the tunnel of any other previously-placed tile or fails to continue the path of the maze, then you have the authority of placing the tile next to a sequentially highly-marked open-end tile; in this case, you place it on the tile with open-end “II”.
And if the picked tile completely fails to be placed anywhere on your maze? Then you put the picked tile at the bottom of the pile, and reveal a fresh one.
Two types of gameplay in Ambagibus
Easy mode: You play the game till you have successfully built a maze. Hooray! It’s easy, chances are you will win almost every time you try it out in this mode.
Advanced mode: You play the game to build as many mazes as possible. The goal is to complete one maze, and then use the remaining tiles to build mode mazes. It gets tough when you are close to running out of tiles, and you have to be highly skilled to build multiple closed-system mazes! We had more fun trying out the advanced mode of Ambagibus.
Smallest game ever!
Is it the smallest PnP game we have played to date? Definitely! Just look at it sitting in the palm of my hand. It looks adorable, the design is eye-catching, and it will hardly take any space to store. Just make sure to not lose the 40 tiles, so use a pouch bag or small envelope to contain them.
Ambagibus might be easy to store, but bear in mind that it needs a flat surface to play. The maze can grow out of control, so make sure to have plenty of space to play the game. Some of our cozy team members tried out the game on top of a sofa and bed and told us to convey the message that playing the game on an uneven surface is a big red flag. Just like you’d choose a flat, even surface for jigsaw puzzles, do the same for Ambagibus!
How we played Ambagibus
For those who have read our game reviews before, you know how much we love customizing things; be it the gameplay, or components! In the case of Ambagibus, we prepared two sets of the game and played a 1v1 contest among two of our friends. Both were assigned to make as many mazes as possible using their tiles and were given exactly 5 minutes to do so- we used a sand clock to measure the minutes, making the entire setup much more dramatic! After five intense minutes of maze-building, we counted the number of successful mazes they made. For each successful maze, they got 20 points. Then we went through the mazes that were incomplete and counted the number of open ends there were. For each incomplete end, we deducted one point. The player with the most points won the game, and got claimed to be a Maze-Master- and bow of honor from the loser while hailing ‘You are a-maze-ing!”
Where to get it from
Interested in building your customized maze? Then it’s time to play Ambagibus, which you can download for free! A big shout out to the game designer P.D. Magnus for creating such an entertaining game, and we cannot wait to explore more of your print-and-play games.
On an unrelated note, I LOVED the name! It’s fun saying it out loud like a magic spell.
A-M-B-A-G-I-B-U-S!
Overview | Ambagibus
Publisher: P.D. Magnus
Number of players: 1
Difficulty level: Easy
Rounds of gameplay needed to learn: 1 round
Game duration: 10 to 15 minutes
Price: Free
Download from: fecundity.com
Theme: Build a maze | Puzzle
Number of pages and color: 2 (color print)
Assembling difficulty level: Easy (Print, laminate, and cut)
Lamination: Recommended for longevity
Additional elements required: Sand clock or timer (optional)
Time to learn: Within 10 minutes
Travel-friendly: 10/10
Shelving friendly: 10/10
Rating from PnP Time: 8/10
Tasliman is a board game developer based in Bangladesh, with the dream of exploring the world of games and introducing it to anyone new to it. He is the founder of Kraftz, a brand that develops board games commercially, as well as with reputed entities like BRAC and The Gates Foundation.
