Tabletop games
Five Tribes
Days of WonderBruno Cathala2014
- players
- 2–4
- minutes
- 60
- years
- 13+
In the box
Terrain tiles forming the sultanate · Wooden meeples of the five tribes · Djinn cards · Goods cards · Wooden palm trees, palaces and camels · Coins
Official rules (PDF, publisher's site)
Box details
- Designer
- Bruno Cathala
- Artwork
- Clément Masson
- Publisher
- Days of Wonder
- Mechanics
- SowingAuctionSet CollectionArea MajorityModular Board
- Expansions
- Five Tribes: The Artisans of Naqala · 2015
- Five Tribes: The Thieves of Naqala · 2016
- Five Tribes: Whims of the Sultan · 2017
Where to buy it
Near you and online
In a shop
Within 50 km.
Online
Affiliate link: Marquoir may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
The basics
Each player tries to gather the most gold coins by moving the tribes of the Sultanate of Naqala. After a bid for turn order, pick up all the meeples on a tile and drop them one by one on neighbouring tiles; on the last one, pick up those matching the last meeple's colour to take their tribe's action, and a tile left empty receives one of your camels. The game ends at the end of the turn in which a player places their last camel, or when no move is possible; the most coins wins.
The rules, step by step
Setup
30 tiles, 5 × 6, 3 meeples per tile, 50 coins each
- Form a board of 30 tiles, five rows of six.
- Place three meeples drawn at random on each tile.
- Reveal the Resource and Djinn cards; each player receives 50 gold coins and their camels.
How to play
Bid for turn order, Drop the meeples, Tribe and tile action
- Each turn begins with a bid in gold coins for turn order.
- On your turn, pick up all the meeples on a tile and drop them one by one on neighbouring tiles, without doubling back.
- The last meeple dropped must match a colour already on the destination tile: pick up all the meeples of that colour there and take their tribe's action.
- Yellow Viziers and white Elders: you keep them. Green Merchants: take Resources. Blue Builders: coins according to the blue tiles around. Red Assassins: kill a meeple.
- If the tile is left empty, place a camel on it: it is yours. Then you may take the tile's action (Market, Oasis palm tree, Village palace, Sacred Place).
Scoring
Gold coins, Palm tree 3, palace 5, Sets 1 to 60 coins
- Gold coins, plus 1 per Vizier and 10 per opponent who has strictly fewer Viziers.
- 2 per Elder, the value of your Djinns, 3 per palm tree and 5 per palace on your tiles, and the value of your tiles.
- Resources: each set of different cards scores 1, 3, 7, 13, 21, 30, 40, 50 or 60 coins depending on its size.
End of the game
Last camel placed, Or no move possible, Most coins
- The game ends at the end of the turn in which a player places their last camel, or when no move is possible any more.
- The most coins wins.
Going further
Frequently asked questions · In the same family
Frequently asked questions
Can you pass over a tile again?
Yes, but never by going straight back to the tile you have just left. Moves are orthogonal, not diagonal.