Five Tribes
Crossing into the Land of 1001 Nights, your caravan arrives at the fabled Sultanate of Naqala. The old sultan just died and control of Naqala is up for grabs! 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 and move the Tribes into position at the right time, and the Sultanate may become yours!
Designed by Bruno Cathala, Five Tribes builds on a long tradition of German-style games that feature wooden meeples. Here, in a unique twist on the now-standard "worker placement" genre, the game begins with the meeples already in place – and players must cleverly maneuver them over the villages, markets, oases, and sacred places tiles that make up Naqala. How, when, and where you dis-place these Five Tribes of Assassins, Elders, Builders, Merchants, and Viziers determine your victory or failure.
As befitting a Days of Wonder game, the rules are straightforward and easy to learn. But devising a winning strategy will take a more calculated approach than our standard fare. You need to carefully consider what moves can score you well and put your opponents at a disadvantage. You need to weigh many different pathways to victory, including the summoning of powerful Djinns that may help your cause as you attempt to control this legendary Sultanate.
Number of players: 2 - 4
Game duration: 42 mn
Complexity: 3 / 5
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Play Five Tribes and 948 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Game Objective
The player with the most Victory Points is declared The Great Sultan and wins.
Game Turn
- Bid for Turn Order
The Player whose turn marker is in the first position bids for turn order, paying coins to the bank.
If a player bids 0, pay nothing and push any other player already on 0 "down the aisle"
2. Player's Action
Select one tile, take all the meeples off that tile and distribute them one at a time on adjacent tiles
- No backtracking
- No diagonals
- The final tile must contain another meeple of the same colour you're dropping there
Once finished moving, take the final meeple and all meeples of the same colour off the tile. If the tile is empty, gain control of the tile by placing your camel that tile.
After checking for control, take the action of the meeple, then the action of the tile.
and taking your action, you may optionally sell sets of different goods
set of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Worth 1 3 7 13 21 30 40 50 60
The Meeples
Yellow - Vizier
- Keep for the whole game
- Score 1 VP / Vizier + 10 VPs /each opponent with fewer Viziers
White - Elder
- Keep for the whole game
- Gain/use Djinns or Score (when scored, put into bag)
- Score 2VPs/ Elder in front of you at game end
Green - Merchant
- Return after using
- Draw equal number of resource cards
Blue - Builder
- Return after using
- Receive Gold = [# of builders + Fakir cards] x # of blue tiles surrounding the final tile (including that tile)
Red - Assassin
- Return after using
- Kill 1 yellow Vizier or White Elder owns by another player -OR- Kill 1 meeple at most [# of Assassins + Fakir cards] tiles away
*if assassinated meeple leave the tile empty, gain control of tile
The Tiles
Sacred Places
- Pay either 2 white elders or 1 elder + 1 Fakir
- Gain 1 visible Djinn (may use it right away)
Structures off game end victory points for whomever controls the tile
- Oasis - Must add a palm tree to the tile (3VP)
- Village - Must add a palace to the tile (5VP)
Markets
- Small Market - pay 3 coins to get 1 good among the first 3 cards in the row
- Large Market - pay 6 coins to get 2 goods among the first 6 cards in the row
Game End
Game ends when a player drops their last camel or, there are no more legal moves
Scoring
VP from Coins
- 1vp /coin
VP from Meeples
- 2vp /White Elders
- 1vp /Yellow Viziers
- Gain 10vp /Opponent with strictly fewer Yellow Viziers
VP from Tile Control
- Tile VP with your Camels
- 3vp /Palm Tree
- 5vp /Palace
VP from Cards
- Djinns
- Goods
