Designer: Bruno Cathala
Publisher: Days of Wonder
Year of Release: 2014
Reviewer: Cory "Strawhatgamer"
Five tribes is the latest release from Days of Wonder which makes a habit of releasing a single game every year. This game has been touted by DoW and designer Bruno Cathala as a “Worker displacement” game, a clever play on the popular worker placement game mechanic, and the first gamer’s game they have ever released. Does the game live up to the hype? Or does it fail to live up to the pedigree from which this game arises from?
Publisher: Days of Wonder
Year of Release: 2014
Reviewer: Cory "Strawhatgamer"
Five tribes is the latest release from Days of Wonder which makes a habit of releasing a single game every year. This game has been touted by DoW and designer Bruno Cathala as a “Worker displacement” game, a clever play on the popular worker placement game mechanic, and the first gamer’s game they have ever released. Does the game live up to the hype? Or does it fail to live up to the pedigree from which this game arises from?
Overview of the Gameplay
Five tribes is a game set in the land of a 1001 nights for 2 – 4 players who through clever and strategic play bid for turn order and manipulate the movement of the five tribes (Viziers, Elders, Merchants, Assassins, and Builders) around a modular 6 x 5 square tile board taking tribal actions and tile actions. A game round flows in the following manner; Bid for turn order, each player takes there turn, refresh. Doesn't sound to convoluted does it? Well, it isn’t. While I will not explain every action in detail, I will give more details to the structure of a round.
The turn order track is a single bid auction based off of the previous round’s turn order. Therefore, if you so desire to be first every turn then pay through the nose for first every turn, at the cost of end game points. Then once order is determined, players will carry out their turn. First players will pick a start tile of the 30 laid out on the table then they will take all the tribal meeples from the start tile and then displace them one at a time leaving them on adjacent tiles along a orthogonal path the player chooses finally ending at a tile with a lone meeple in hand. This meeple must match a meeple(s) currently in the destination tile. Then the player will take in hand all meeples of this color and carry out the tribal action of the color. After the tribal action, they will then perform the location action of the tile they finished on. That ends the turn. After all players have taken their turn, then the resource cards are refilled to 9 and the Djinn cards are refilled to 3. New Round Begin!
Madness Meter Score: 9/10
Five tribes is a game set in the land of a 1001 nights for 2 – 4 players who through clever and strategic play bid for turn order and manipulate the movement of the five tribes (Viziers, Elders, Merchants, Assassins, and Builders) around a modular 6 x 5 square tile board taking tribal actions and tile actions. A game round flows in the following manner; Bid for turn order, each player takes there turn, refresh. Doesn't sound to convoluted does it? Well, it isn’t. While I will not explain every action in detail, I will give more details to the structure of a round.
The turn order track is a single bid auction based off of the previous round’s turn order. Therefore, if you so desire to be first every turn then pay through the nose for first every turn, at the cost of end game points. Then once order is determined, players will carry out their turn. First players will pick a start tile of the 30 laid out on the table then they will take all the tribal meeples from the start tile and then displace them one at a time leaving them on adjacent tiles along a orthogonal path the player chooses finally ending at a tile with a lone meeple in hand. This meeple must match a meeple(s) currently in the destination tile. Then the player will take in hand all meeples of this color and carry out the tribal action of the color. After the tribal action, they will then perform the location action of the tile they finished on. That ends the turn. After all players have taken their turn, then the resource cards are refilled to 9 and the Djinn cards are refilled to 3. New Round Begin!
Madness Meter Score: 9/10
Components
The bits and pieces of this game are exactly what people have come to expect from a DoW game. Nice solid chunky wooden camel meeples, palm trees, palaces and scoring markers. The color design is bright and inviting on absolutely everything even the choice of player colors; Teal, Orange, Black and Pink. The resource cards are of a nice stock and while I know some will choose to sleeve the cards, I will not and they will probably hold up well. The cardboard tiles are nice and thick with no real chance of warping. The insert is practically laid out and holds everything nicely.
Madness Meter Score: 4.5/5
Scalability & Replayabilty
The game is really meant to be played with 3 or 4 players and you can tell after multiple game plays. The swing in board state between turns is greater the more players you have which makes the number of turns taken over the entire game fewer and therefore the decisions much more critical. The turn order track is so much more important in games with 4 then with fewer players. The points are fewer in bigger games as well. It may sound like I am preparing to hate on this game with only two players. Quite the opposite in fact, since Five Tribes uses extra scoring markers in a two player game allowing each player to take 2 actions per round. This allows for more turns and bigger scores and less downtime between turns. The only downside to the two player game is that gamers are stuck using the Teal and pink player colors.
Since the tiles make the 6 x 5 board, the game board will be different every time to play. Furthermore, the amount of Djinns there are to recruit when compared to the amount of Elders there are to recruit said Djinns means that rarely will all be seen in a single play though. This gives Five Tribes a great degree of replayability.
Madness Meter Score: 4.5/5
Final Thoughts
The gameplay of Five Tribes is very easy to teach and to learn but the decision making and the strategy is deceptively deep. The theme is prevalent enough through the use of the Djinn’s and components that it feels right. The mechanics are solid and fun, the game is scalable and replayable and well worth the purchase even at the higher sticker value that DoW puts on their games.
Final Madness Meter Score: 18/20
The bits and pieces of this game are exactly what people have come to expect from a DoW game. Nice solid chunky wooden camel meeples, palm trees, palaces and scoring markers. The color design is bright and inviting on absolutely everything even the choice of player colors; Teal, Orange, Black and Pink. The resource cards are of a nice stock and while I know some will choose to sleeve the cards, I will not and they will probably hold up well. The cardboard tiles are nice and thick with no real chance of warping. The insert is practically laid out and holds everything nicely.
Madness Meter Score: 4.5/5
Scalability & Replayabilty
The game is really meant to be played with 3 or 4 players and you can tell after multiple game plays. The swing in board state between turns is greater the more players you have which makes the number of turns taken over the entire game fewer and therefore the decisions much more critical. The turn order track is so much more important in games with 4 then with fewer players. The points are fewer in bigger games as well. It may sound like I am preparing to hate on this game with only two players. Quite the opposite in fact, since Five Tribes uses extra scoring markers in a two player game allowing each player to take 2 actions per round. This allows for more turns and bigger scores and less downtime between turns. The only downside to the two player game is that gamers are stuck using the Teal and pink player colors.
Since the tiles make the 6 x 5 board, the game board will be different every time to play. Furthermore, the amount of Djinns there are to recruit when compared to the amount of Elders there are to recruit said Djinns means that rarely will all be seen in a single play though. This gives Five Tribes a great degree of replayability.
Madness Meter Score: 4.5/5
Final Thoughts
The gameplay of Five Tribes is very easy to teach and to learn but the decision making and the strategy is deceptively deep. The theme is prevalent enough through the use of the Djinn’s and components that it feels right. The mechanics are solid and fun, the game is scalable and replayable and well worth the purchase even at the higher sticker value that DoW puts on their games.
Final Madness Meter Score: 18/20