“Move assassins, elders & builders through Naqala to claim oases & control djinns”
Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/157354/five-tribes-the-djinns-of-naqala
Playing Time: 40-80 Minutes
Weight: Medium
Genre: Chaos Mancala
Designer: Bruno Cathala
Players: 2-4 Players
Five Tribes is basically a giant freeform Mancala. A 5×5 grid of locations are laid out, each with 3 workers (chosen randomly from 5 different colors). On a player’s turn, they will pick up all the workers on a location, and distribute them one at a time on a path to a different adjacent location, in such a way that the last worker placed is placed with another worker(s) of the same color, at which time their meeples are removed and the action associated with their color is activated.
On top of this, if picking up the workers results in an empty location, players can claim it and score the victory points. The end result is a highly interactive, thinky puzzle. It is not a great fit if you have players at the table prone to Analysis Paralysis – there are a ton of options and the changing nature of the board makes it hard to plan ahead – but if you have fast players who like thinky brainburners, this game is going to hit squarely in their strike zone.
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