Front Page

Content

Authors

Game Index

Forums

Site Tools

Submissions

About

Five Tribes

Five Tribes

Game Information

Game Name
MSRP $
59.99
Days of Wonder

The Old Sultan Just Died and Control of Naqala is Up For Grabs!

Crossing into the Land of 1001 Nights, your caravan arrives at the fabled Sultanate of Naqala.

The oracles foretold of strangers who would maneuver the Five Tribes to gain influence over the legendary city-state.

Will you fulfill the prophecy? Invoke the old Djinns, move the Tribes into position at the right time and the Sultanate may become yours!

Designed by Bruno Cathala,the game builds on a long tradition of German games with wooden Maples in a unique twist on the Worker Placement game genre. It's when, how and where you dis-place the Five Tribes of Assassins, Elders, Builders, Merchants & Viziers that will determine your victory or failure!


User reviews

2 reviews

5 stars
 
(0)
4 stars
 
(1)
3 stars
 
(1)
2 stars
 
(0)
1 star
 
(0)
Rating 
 
3.3
Already have an account? or Create an account
Slave Heaven Lies Below the Hellmouth
Rating 
 
3.5
tl;dr — Light & fast = FUN; serious & slow = OH GOD KILL ME NOW

After 1 play: (2p) Works well as a chill activity with a glass of wine & some downtempo ambient. It's pretty, has neat little puzzles to solve, and everything you do nets you some kind of return, so there's a feeling of constant forward progress (as opposed to irritating impotence). I like the dark undertones of Rasputin-like manipulation of entire peoples, murder, and slave sacrifice in order to treat with demons. But that's just me.

I think it would be absolute hell with hardcore gamers, especially at max player count. Each turn can be laboriously optimized for maximum payoff with minimum setup for the next player; but this process, at least in the early game, involves brute-forcing all possible moves to climb the various branches of the game tree, a fractally-fuzzed boredom bush. This might be okay if you're playing against quantum computers (spoiler alert: you will lose), but it would be excruciating with savannah-born meat-brains (chuck a spear, check; grind n-ply game states in a timely fashion, not so much). A chess clock would be a must... or you could just hold everyone to casual play and save the thinky for heavier games where such deep contemplation is part of the intended experience.

Probably most enjoyable with your honey, family play, or two couples as a social activity.

Thoughts on the 2p rules:

It's a bummer that the process of turn-order bidding for two is merely implied in the rules—maybe more obviously for some, but still. It would have been nice to have a small, concrete example of what must otherwise be intuited.

No one wrote:

The two players will bid for four turn order slots; it is therefore possible, through clever and/or aggressive bidding, to get two (or more!) turns in a row.*

*If you go 3,4 in one turn and then 1,2 in the next that's four turns in row!

After 4 plays: (3x 4p) It's a solid 7. Works as intended—a pleasant little puzzler with lots to do, Nerf®-edged back-and-forth, and gorgeous to boot.

Stuff we got wrong:

• Resource cards are hidden.
Good luck finding that in the rulebook...

• Djinn & the market only refresh between rounds.
What you see during turn order bidding is all you'll get until next time...

• Viziers score 1 VP each, then +10 per person with fewer than you.
So if the final vizier count is 5, 4, 3, 1 the scores will be 35, 24, 13, and 1. This will crazy-change the game...

Shaitan take these infidel rules!
Comments (0) | Was this review helpful to you? 1 0
Rating 
 
3.0
Comments (0) | Was this review helpful to you? 0 0
Log in to comment