Asmodée Days of Wonder Five Tribes the Djinns of Naqala Board Game

Five Tribes is a hard game to classify. On one hand it’s a light hearted points grab. On the other, it can feel like a surprisingly heavy Eurogame at times. Days of Wonder, as per usual, have produced an extremely good looking game with high quality components.The rules are very simple but the possibilities are endless. You play the game on a grid of 6x5 grid of tiles. At the start of the game, on each tile, there are 4 random coloured meeples (Little wooden people). On your go you simply pick up all the meeples on one tile and place them one at a time in a chain of adjoining tiles. You must place your last meeple on a tile containing another meeple of the same colour. You then take all the meeples of that colour. Do their special ability or in some cases keep them, do the tile’s special ability and if you empty the tile, you now own it.Easy!The reason this game is good is because it has a very simple core rule set but, because each tile and each coloured meeple and tile have different abilities the possibilities on each turn are vast. Some help you bump other meeples off, some help you buy genies or go shopping at the market and so on. All these different effects allow you to gain something on every turn therefore, no turn feels pointless. This is very good game design! Also, no one knows who’s winning until the end because victory points totals are hidden. So, you don’t lose interest in the game as you’re always in with a chance of winning, or at least it feels like it.You can play and win this game with or without good strategy. You can aim for domination in one area, genies or the market, planning ahead and building up your points slowly with purpose or simply go for a quick points grab each turn and hope for the best. It’s because of this I think anyone can play, enjoy and win this game! Every game is different because the layout of the 30 tiles and arrangement of the 120 meeples is totally random, again great design. Turn order? A structured auction. With your victory points! This means that every turn you have to make a decision. Give away your victory points for a good move and risk it disappearing if someone bids higher or give nothing away and just see what turns up once everyone else has had their go.Some “serious” gamers might be put off by the fact that the board in front of you essentially changes every turn as people pick up meeples and distribute them right across that move you’ve been planning. This does mean that you can’t really do much forward planning across a number of turns. You often need to rethink your turn each time and this can lead to analysis paralysis. (Where someone takes forever to take their turn because they’re looking at every available possible move and are seemingly unable to choose their move)All in all a fantastic game that has quickly become a stable of our gaming nights.I think it is also worth noting that, this game caused quite a bit of controversy on its original release. This was because slaves were included in the market and many felt uncomfortable using them as a commodity. Due to public pressure, the new editions of the game have changed the controversial cards to Fakirs/helpers. So, if their inclusion was something that was stopping you from getting the game then, they’re no longer there. I fully understand why this upset some people. Personally, I didn’t have a problem with their inclusion. Slavery is abhorrent and the world is a better place now it is all but abolished. I viewed their inclusion as thematic. In that part of the world at that time slavery was normal and that shouldn’t be deigned. In fact, to remove all traces of it from media, to my mind, is a disservice to those who suffered. I actually think they missed a great opportunity to raise awareness of an important issue. If I were the designer/producer I would have included some information about the history of slavery around the world and some organisations/charities that are fighting what remains of it today.

This is one of the best Bruno Cathala games out there (and, let's face it, he is a very good designer). A very deep strategic game with a reasonably simple rule-set. The game scales really well in all player counts. Anyone with an interest in modern board games should play five tribes at least once. Oh and the component quality and the game insert are off the charts (once again, well done days of wonder). Just be prepared, 4-player games can go on for up to 3 hours.

This is an excellent game for 3 or more players but you can also play with two. The rules take a little bit of getting used to but once you've sussed it you're sure to be going back for more. I am getting quite competitive with this one.The game dynamics are varied and anything can happen - you don't know who has won until the end of the game when everyone counts their money.You have to decide whether to spend any of your money on choosing to go first, what squares to land on, and what impact your move will have on other players. It's really entertaining and each game is different and the meeples are placed on different squares, and the squares are in different places. Different cards for different skills come up and it's a case of doing a mixture of things to maximise your money on each turn.I love this game!

Needs an hour to explain, very good for 4 people with excellent replayability.

Excellent game, very easy to get in to but the more you play the more varied strategies you begin to notice. The 2 player variant is excellent as it allows you to set up big point scoring moves. If you are a fan of catan looking for something to with a bit more weight then this is for you. If you like strategy games then this is for you. Been very happy playing this in both 2 player and 4 player and fully expect to have many more games. The game pieces are excellent quality and a significant amount of score sheets are included.

A superb blend of strategy without getting bogged down. It's different every time and the same strategy doesn't always win.It took us a while to work through the instructions, but once you've got it, the game is easy to play.And everyone loves a Meeple (or 90!)

A great game for game's night played two or three times to make sure we got the rules correct, but not too difficult to learn. From the same people as Small World - which we like too!

Takes a bit of time to learn the rules but once understood, the multiple methods of playing, (and winning), will keep you coming back for more