Bomb5 by Tranjis Games: meet the new filler that blew up at KLEFF game night

24 September 2026

On September 16, 2026, Tranjis Games stopped by our weekly game night to present their latest release: Bomb5 (BoardGameGeek page). Throughout the evening, #TeamKLEFF was running demos of the game in a dedicated area so that kleffers could get a first-hand look at this tile-placement filler before anyone else in Barcelona got the chance to play it.

If you don't know Tranjis Games yet, they are one of the most beloved Spanish publishers in the industry. It all started in 2014, when three friends set out to create a card game as contagious as laughter: that's how Virus! was born, which over time has become the best-selling Spanish card game in history, with over three million copies distributed across more than twenty countries. A year later, in 2015, that idea grew into a publishing house, and ever since, Tranjis Games has been expanding its catalog while staying true to its core identity: accessible games designed for all ages and skill levels, aimed at bringing people together around a table just as much as making them laugh.

Bomb5 arrives with that exact same spirit. Designed by Fabrice Puleo, who also created Linx and Qomet, with illustrations by Sylvain Leroy. The original edition was published by French publisher Matagot, while the Spanish version—though the game components are language-independent, the rulebook is fully translated—comes courtesy of Tranjis Games, with translation and proofreading by Sergio Pérez, layout by Paola Prieto, and editorial direction by Alexis Cavallé. The result is a filler designed for 10 to 20 minute plays, for 2 to 5 players aged 7 and up.

Bomb5 and promotional balloon

How to play Bomb5

Bomb5 is a tile-placement game where the number 5 is everything: adding up to exactly five triggers a chain reaction, and accumulating five face-up Cups in your color is the only way to win. The rules are simple to explain, but they open the door to tactical decisions and unexpected twists on every turn.

Game objective

If at the end of your turn you have at least 5 of your Cups face up, you immediately win the game!

Setup

Each player chooses one of the 5 available colors and places their 7 Cups of that color in a stack in front of them.
Shuffle the Number tiles; each player draws 3 tiles into their hand without showing them. The rest form a face-down draw pile.
Shuffle the Bomb tiles as well and form another face-down draw pile with them.
Draw from both piles—4 Number tiles and 1 Bomb tile—and place them in the center of the table (the Numbers face up, the Bomb face down) to create the initial play area.
The youngest player goes first, and turns proceed clockwise.

For your first few games, the rulebook itself recommends leaving out the Advanced Bombs until the group gets comfortable with the basic rules.

How the game plays

Each turn is resolved in three steps.

Step 1 — Place a Number tile. Place one of your Number tiles face up, orthogonally adjacent to any tile already present (Number, Bomb, or Cup). If your tile ends up adjacent to other Number tiles in the same row or column, add their values up until you reach a Bomb, a Cup, or an empty space. That total value can never exceed 5, and the tile must always be placed touching another tile: it cannot be placed in an isolated space.

If the resulting sum is less than 5, the turn skips directly to Step 3. If the sum is exactly 5, it triggers the chain reaction in Step 2.

Step 2 — Chain reaction. What happens depends on what is at both ends of the row or column that summed to 5:

Only one end is open: place a Cup of your color face up at that end and flip over the tile occupying the other end. If it turns out to be a Bomb and lands on its Explosion side face up, its effect triggers automatically.
Both ends are open: place your Cup at whichever end you choose, and at the other end, draw a Bomb tile from the pile and place it Explosion side face up, triggering its effect automatically as well.
Neither end is open: flip the tiles at both ends in whichever order you prefer, whether they are Cups or Bombs; any Bomb left face up on its Explosion side triggers its effect as well.
If a single tile allows you to sum to 5 in both a row and a column at the same time, resolve both sequences one after the other, in whichever order you prefer.

Step 3 — Draw a Number tile. End your turn by drawing a new Number tile from the pile and adding it to your hand.

Bomb5 tiles

Bomb effects

Whenever a Bomb tile is placed or flipped to show its Explosion side, its effect triggers immediately and is mandatory. There are two types:

Flip a specific Cup: choose any Cup tile in the play area—yours or an opponent's—and flip it.
Flip an entire row or column: the arrows on the tile show the direction; all Cups present in that row and/or column are flipped all at once, and whoever places or flips the Bomb decides the orientation of the arrows.

Bombs can leave both your own and your opponents' Cups face up, so knowing how to read the board to place them—or set them off—at just the right moment is where the game is really decided. The three Advanced Bomb tiles add an extra twist: instead of their own effect, they force you to flip another Bomb tile already in the play area, which in turn can trigger its explosion.

How to win

As soon as you end your turn with at least 5 Cups of your color face up on the table, you immediately win the game. If at any point you make a 5 but have no Cups left in your stack, you must place a Bomb tile instead. And if the Number tile draw pile runs out, play continues with whatever is left in hand; when someone runs out of tiles, whoever has the most face-up Cups at that moment wins (sharing the victory in case of a tie).

Atmosphere during the Bomb5 launch event at KLEFF

Our thoughts

Bomb5 delivers exactly what it promises: it's a light filler with rules that are super easy to explain in a couple of minutes, hooking you right from the first game. The tiles are thick and nice to handle, the numbers are clear at a glance, and the graphic design of the bombs and cups keeps the board readable even when everything is filled with flipped tiles everywhere.

What really makes it shine at the table is the direct player interaction. There are no solo turns here: every time someone scores a 5, they decide who benefits or hurts from that chain reaction, and the Bombs constantly force you to keep an eye on everyone else's board. It's common for the first few rounds to go quietly while the group tests where to place each number, and then tension suddenly spikes as face-up Cups start stacking up: that moment when a single tile triggers a double 5 (in a row and a column simultaneously) is usually the one everyone talks about after the game.

Thanks to its length, simplicity, and that fun back-and-forth between players, Bomb5 fits perfectly as an opener or closer for a game night, working just as well with mixed groups of seasoned gamers and complete newcomers. Precisely because of its fast-paced games and direct confrontation, we think it has great potential for a competitive format: at KLEFF, we are considering organizing a Bomb5 tournament soon, so stay tuned to our upcoming announcements if you're left wanting more explosions!

Thanks again to the entire Tranjis Games team for dropping by our game night and letting us premiere Bomb5 with #TeamKLEFF. See you at the next table!