An overview of the five Tribes board games

Enter the world of Arab Nights. The Sultan died. And now you have to fight for influence to take their place. Check out our full overview of the Five Tribes board games below.

Five tribes

For 2 to 4 players
The game lasts from 40 to 80 minutes
A gamer game that is fun for everyone

A brief overview of the five tribes

Five Tribes is a strategic placement worker game for two to four players based on the ancient classic mancala system. But don’t let simplicity fool you, there’s a lot of strategy in this game.

If you skillfully move Meeples across the 5 × 6 grid, your goal is to collect the most victory points to become the next sultan. To do this, you’ll need to demand tiles with your camels in front of the cameras, build palaces, and summon Djinn’s abilities before time runs out.

Variations and extensions

Five Tribes: Nakala Craftsmen

The Artisans of Naqala, which adds a sixth tribe to the game, is an obvious extension for those who have worn out the original Five Tribes from exaggerated play. A new tribe, artisans, can create special items that bring you extra winning points or give you special powers.

Five Tribes: Craftsmen of the Nakale Expansion

THIS IS AN EXPANSION TO THE FIVE TRIBES BOARD GAME: This is not a ...
A MAGICAL NEW TRIBE JOINS THE GAME: Represented by purple ...
STRATEGY BOARD GAME: Make use of these artisans by visiting the ...

Five tribes: Sultan's flies

This extension allows you to play Five Tribes with five players. But that’s not all, but it also introduces special tasks that players must complete to gain extra victory points, and new types of city tiles.

Five tribes: Sultan's flies

THIS IS AN EXPANSION TO THE FIVE TRIBES BOARD GAME: This is not a ...
FACE NEW CHALLENGES: The Sultanate of Naqala continues to ...
STRATEGY BOARD GAME: With Whims of the Sultan, a new expansion ...

Unpacking the five tribes

Rub the five tribes carefully and no ghost will emerge from the box, but ...

5 Turn Order in Djinn Summary Sheets
1 Dotted pad
38 Camels
6 Player turn markers
1 song for ordering offers
1 Turn Turn Order Track
90 Meeples wooden tribes (red, blue, yellow, white and green)
Meeples bag
12 palm trees
10 palaces
NEVER Tiles
22 Djinn kart
96 gold coins
54 Resource Cards

Five Tribes is a pretty simple game in terms of components. Mostly it's just cardboard tiles / tokens and Meeples. And both are well produced. Above all, I have always been a fan of wooden pieces over plastic. And fortunately, five groups of Meepls are made up of strong wooden things. This strength helps keep Meeples upright throughout the game, which would otherwise be quite uncertain on the many small cardboard tiles that make up the playing surface.

Design and artwork imprint the old Arabic theme through play. It looks gorgeous, with nice shots, nicely animated tiles and chips, and decent prints. The emphasis on design may be due to the fact that the theme is rather poorly related to the gameplay itself. But more on that later.

I especially like some of the extras that Five Tribes comes with to make the gameplay a bit smoother or just general storage. For one, each player is helpfully provided with a comprehensive technical sheet detailing the order of the turns and what each type of tribe and tile can do, which is a nice idea.

Also, the policy advises those who unpack the game for the first time to keep the frames of the drills and place them under the plastic insert so that the pieces do not spill out of their holes during storage. Clean.

How to play five tribes

Setup

If you play with 3 of the four players, it takes eight camels and a turn mark. In a two-player game, take 11 camels and two turn marks each, as you will make two turns on each route. They all also take 50 gold coins, even if you keep them up, so other players will never be sure how many you have.

Then build a player board called Sultanate by randomly placing the tiles in a 5 × 6 grid. Then place three random Meeple on each.

Finally, randomly place the plant marks on the Bid Order track and place nine random Resource cards and three Djinn cards.

The goal of the game

The ultimate goal of the game is to be the player with the most victory points when it ends. There are many ways to earn winning points, including collecting gold, owning viziers and elders (yellow and white Meeples) and Djinns, including controlling some tiles.

Turn around

Order offers

To begin, players choose - in the order of Bid Order - where they want to be on the Turn Order route. You have to pay gold to find yourself in higher spaces and secure an early turnaround.

Take action

The player at the top of the Turn Order track is first. Then follow all these steps in sequence before it is the turn of the next player:

Place the turn mark - place the turn mark at the first space on the Bid Order route (meaning you will have to bid first in the next lap).
Move Meeples and Control Tiles - This is when you take Meeples out of one tile and move to adjacent tiles by dropping one Meeple into each. When you get to the last Meeper, hold it in your hand and take all the Meeples of the same color from the back tile. If this leaves the tile empty, take control of it and place one of your camels on the tile to mark your ownership of it (in the end, for each tile you have, win points!).
Acts of Tribes - Meeples that you collect in your hand represent tribes. At this point, you need to resolve their actions. These are described below.
Tile actions - Now you need to perform an action for the type of tile where you ended the movement. Oasis tile, for example, allows you to grow palm trees on tiles that are worth winning points. Or you could build a palace on a village tile. Sacred Places will allow you to purchase valuable Djinn tickets.

The Meeple Movement

Follow these three rules when moving Meeples:

Your last Meeple should always match the color of the Meeple in the back tile.
You cannot move diagonally.
You cannot return to the previous tile immediately while moving.

Acts of tribes

In the Tribe Actions phase, you can collect Yellow Meeples Viziers, who can eventually be cashed in for victory points. White Elderly Meeples can too, but they can also be mistaken for Djinn Cards. On the other hand, you can swap Green Merchant Meeples for Resource Cards, while you can combine Blue Builder Meeples to get even more victory points.

Red Assassin Meeples suck - they can kill other Meeples! Remove Meeple from a nearby tile or kill white or yellow Meeples opponents. If you kill the last Meeple on the tile, then you can take control of that tile too!

Moving through the game

Players take turns trying to collect as many victory points as possible before reaching the score. They need to be extremely analytical as they want to win top tiles and do everything in their power to prevent opponents from scoring.

Djinn cards are a particularly powerful asset, as they are in themselves worth winning points and allow you to use special powers. You will also collect resource cards that can be important winners.

End of game and scoring

The game ends when one player consumes all of their camels or if there are no remaining legitimate Meeple moves. Then the scoring takes place.

Your first game of five tribes

If you decide to offer nothing for the song Turn Order, your natural affection is the assumption that if you offer nothing first, then you continue the ones that offer nothing behind you. However, this does not hold that players will not be deterred from taking a comfortable place on the Turn Order without spending money. Instead, there will be those in front of you who will then offer nothing. For example, if you are the second of two players to offer nothing, then proceed along the track of the order.

Also, don’t get me wrong if you think you can finish your turn on a blank tile. If it is empty, then there is no Meeple that matches the color of the Meeples you are moving. So that would be an invalid move.

Finally, keep in mind that once the ownership of a tile is acquired, it cannot be transferred. So even if you finish your record with just one Meeple, if it already belongs to someone else, you can’t put your camel on that tile.

Advantages disadvantages

Advantages:

Super strategy game in the style of mancala
Great for all ages
Brilliant as two players

Weaknesses:

Loose topic

For a game that relies on such simple mechanics - the basics of Meeple’s movement barely deviate from the classic mankala - Five Tribes will surprise you with how much thought it can put into it. By reviewing the board, you will find that you can make thousands of potential moves at every turn. Sometimes it is necessary to sharpen the eye to notice the best.

Strategy lovers in particular will have a lot to keep busy. I love how intricate you can plan your moves for multiple turns in advance to become killer. Blue Builder Meeples, for example, can really make money in the end if played effectively.

Then you need to keep a close eye on your opponent at the same time and if at all possible, you can thwart their plans by simply setting up Meeple. (Or at least stay on your feet so you don’t accidentally leave the aisle so you can cash them in).

And that’s what I think makes the Five Tribes so impressive. If you’re new to mancala games or a younger player, the simplicity of the basic mechanics means you won’t have a problem with fast-paced gameplay and competitiveness (especially since it provides a clear list of ground rules for each player). But on the other hand, seasoned game veterans can still have endless fun in devising the best strategy for collecting points.

What’s more, it’s great to play, play and play again. You can earn points in many ways, which means you can try several different strategies. And with the tiles placed randomly for each game, she mixes things up nicely to keep it fresh.

Another huge bonus of Five Tribes is that it works just as well with two players as with three or four. There are some differences in the gameplay - for example, two rounds in each round - but if anything, it opens up new possibilities and improves the overall experience.

But I’m a little torn about the topic. I think it looks great and it’s a style I really enjoy. But mechanics like the Meeple placement only loosely connect with it, if at all. Five different tribes in particular - after which the game is named, of course - do not play a real role. Yes, they are obviously represented by Meeples. But their movement across the board hardly reflects the theme. Not to mention, will you really have a tribe of only viziers or elders? I don't buy it straight.

But that doesn't take away from the gameplay!

TL; DR

Five Tribes is a fantastic game in the style of mancala / worker installation. With simple rules, anyone can pick them up quickly, making it ideal for a group of mixed skills. However, there are also countless strategies with which we can achieve those sought-after victory points.

So don’t be fooled. This is easy to learn. But it is very difficult to win!

Conclusion: a verdict?

Five tribes give me so many boxes. It is an immense smarter strategy game. With thousands of potential moves and various ways to collect victory points, it will make strategy lovers salivate from the very thought.

But at the same time, new players will only need a few minutes to accelerate. For me, this is the perfect backup game, ready to use in any scenario. Whether you’re going to have to cheer up a niece or nephew or get competitive juices running with your gamblers, this will do the trick.

Bonus points, however, stem from his skill as a two-player strategy game. When I live in an apartment for two, I have a really soft spot for games that are played with both two and groups. Five tribes are blowing this out of the water, as in many respects it is even better with two.

Five tribes