Five Tribes: Rapid Review
Information:
Mechanics: Variable Setup, Mancala, Set Collection, Auction, Bidding
Player Age: 13+ Player Count: 2 - 4 PlayersTime to Play: 40 - 80 Minutes
Game Designer: Bruno Cathala
Player Age: 13+
Game Designer: Bruno Cathala
Rundown:
Five Tribes is a mancala style game where players are picking up meeples from one tile, dropping a meeple on each tile passed, then landing on the last tile where the last meeple must match a meeple on that location. All the meeples of that tribe will be picked up and discarded or placed in front of the player (depending on the tribe). The meeple action will resolve and the player will also activate the action of the tile. This will go on until each player has had a turn and then players will bid for the turn order of the next round. There will be multiple rounds until all possible moves have been played or one player places all their camels. Camels are placed by clearing all the meeples on any tile at the end of movement.
The Tribes Actions:
There are, as the name suggests, five tribes in the game; the yellow viziers, white elders, green merchants, blue builders and red assassins.
Yellow Viziers:
The yellow viziers are easy. Simply collect as many yellow meeples as desired and they will score you one point at the end of the game. Whoever has the most at the end of the game will score an extra 10 points.
White Elders:
The white elders also sit in front of the player as they are worth two points at the end of the game but can also be used to buy djinn at the sacred place tile, or can be used to activate a player’s djinn during the game.
The green merchants are instantly discarded and allows the player to take resource cards from the lineup equal to the number of green merchants discarded.
Blue builders are used to gain coins (points) equal to the number of blue tiles surrounding and including the tile you ended the turn on. This count is multiplied by the number of blue builders discarded. The number of blue builders can be increased by spending fakir resources.
Red assassins are instantly discarded and will assassinate one meeple in front of another player or on another tile a certain distance away. Their range is determined by the number of red assassins discarded (fakir can be spent to increase this range).
If you assassinate the last meeple on an unclaimed tile you can place your camel there, claiming that tile.
The Tiles Actions:
Each tile type will have points on the top right and will be coloured either red or blue. The market tiles come in two types; either a small market which allows you to spend three coins to gain one resource from the first three cards, or a large market which allows you to spend six coins to gain two resources from the first six. Keep in mind the resource row consists of nine cards at the start of every round.
The Oasis and Village are compulsory actions. If you end your turn on this tile you have to place the palm tree on the Oasis tile and the palace on the Village tile. During end game scoring these are worth three points per palm tree and five points per palace.
The last tile type is the Sacred Places. Players can spend two elders they possess or one elder and one fakir to gain one of the three djinns available. At the start of every round, these djinn are the best way to personalise your strategy as you gain game changing effects.
Alteration:
The alteration comes from the modular setup. Each game will have a different variation of tiles and spread of meeples. This game is all about finding the beneficial moves in the board state. The available opportunities are different every game and will change frequently as the game continues, therefore diminishing the number of moves available to players until there are none left. The board puzzle is further amplified by the two expansions that add a new tribe, walls to block movement, tiles that players can't pass through and new scoring possibilities.
The other large alteration is the djinn cards. If you land your last meeple on a sacred place you can buy a djinn. These have points attached to them and will either have ongoing abilities or abilities that can be activated by spending an elder/fakir. These djinns amplify certain playstyles like the assassin, collecting viziers or collecting merchandise. The djinns can also create new play styles that help create new strategies for players to pursue.
Procedure (Mechanism):
The procedure (better referred to as mechanism) in Five Tribes is the criminally underused tool of mancala. This is a procedure of picking up all the pieces on one tile or space and dropping each piece, one at a time on each tile/space you pass until you drop the last token onto the last tile/space. With these types of games, players will either activate an action based on the starting location of picking up the pieces or based on the end location. In the case of Five Tribes, it is based on the last meeple you place, their type, and the ability on that tile. This is one of my favourite mechanisms but sadly I can list the number of games I have played with it on one hand. Five tribes is one of these games that enforces the belief that there should be more uses of this mechanism in future games as it has used the procedure to great effect. By using the meeples as a shared resource there are continuously shifting opportunities for players, while also working as a timer towards the end of the game.
Interaction:
Five Tribes is a very interactive game. Firstly, each round has players spending coins to bid for turn order. When bidding it is important to clarify that each coin you spend is worth one point so you have to make sure you can gain more points than you bid.
The other large interaction comes from the board state itself. At the start, options are abundant but as the game ramps up the options become less and less. Each turn before yours can change the board state drastically resulting in your planned moves being nullified as new options become available. For this reason, players must constantly be thinking of alternate tactics and contingency plans.
Determination:
- Plenty of replayability.
- Each tribe path is easy to target as a playstyle and each one is viable.
- Multiple djinns changing the rules to the players who buy them.
- Unique use of Manacala play style using a shared board state.
- Can be very competitive when the board state becomes scarce.
Five Tribes is a game like no other in my collection. Mancala games are already a niche minority genre, but Five Tribes goes even further into it by having a shared board state. This constantly makes players look at the board tactically, trying to set up future turns, find the most optimal move, and bid for turn order if there is currently a move worth a high bid. With multiple tribes, each with different advantages, different tiles to aim for and multiple djinns to set up your playstyle, there is a lot to love about this game. This is easily a classic from Days of Wonder and earns a Go-To Golden Seal.
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