Tigris and Euphrates

Overview

The Fertile Crescent stretches from the waters of the Nile all the way to the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates river where early civilization blossomed. The Mesopotamians would begin building farms. Armed with this food supply, they would be able to diversify by engaging in other activities. They would construct temples to the gods, markets to trade, and settlements so that the people may live. Leaders would arise out of these structures to assert control over the land and direct their people on to greater glory!

But others are trying to do the same. When they come into contact with one another, conflicts may arise. This occurrence can lead to small-scale conflicts such as revolts. Or they may lead to all-out wars, where the cost to the losing side becomes that much more pronounced as the victor pillages the loser for everything they’re worth.

Build your kingdom wisely! Shield them from enemy assault! Diversify your holdings! But above all, make sure that your people can stand tall against enemy attack so that you will succeed in building a civilization that can prosper and ultimately stand the test of time!

Core Mechanics: Tile laying.

Victory Condition: Whoever has the highest score is the winner, but the way in which you calculate your score isn’t as simple as adding up how many points you’ve earned. Throughout the game, you will be collecting points from various sources like farms, settlements, temples, and markets. However, you will count out the point tokens of the category in which you have the least and that will be your score. So if you have 5 points from farms, 18 from settlements, 12 from temples, and 8 from markets, your point total will be 5 points since you have the fewest points in the farms category.

Ease of learning: Tigris and Euphrates’s tile-laying mechanic is very easy to grasp as is the concept of placing leaders down on the board. What is harder to keep straight, and makes up the heart and soul of the game, is what happens when leaders invade other territories to cause a revolt or join 2 or more Kingdoms together to initiate a war. All of the confusion between revolts and wars and the associated actions on how to resolve them can be a pain in the ass to teach newbies. But once they understand the concept and the scoring mechanism, the game flows pretty easily and is fairly engaging throughout.

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