Game Night- Tigris & Euphrates

Tigris & Euphrates

Step back to the dawn of recorded time. Take command of a young dynasty in fertile Mesopotamia. Here, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, lies the cradle of civilization. Here, as the Bible tells, rose man’s first cities: Ur, Nineveh, and fair Babylon.

The game of Tigris & Euphrates lets you play a part in the epic saga of the rise of these great urban centers. Your dynasty struggles to develop and control the most vibrant culture in the rich land between the two rivers. Create the best balance between markets, temples, settlements, and farms, as you and your people try to forge your own new civilization and dominate the storied valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.

My thoughts:

I would consider this one of the newer classic board games. You have four different leaders: farming, trading, religion, and government, each a different color. The leaders are used to collect victory points in these same categories. Through the games, you keep your points hidden, but at the end your score is actually the number of points you have in your weakest category, so the game encourages balance in your civilization. A civilization purely based on farming is not going to win.

Conflict arises when civilizations connect on the board with only one leader of each type surviving such a conflict. Leaders can also be replaced within a civilization through internal conflicts. Conflicts are where I have trouble. I seem to lose 60-70% of the conflicts I’m involved in. We haven’t played that often, so I probably just need to work on my strategy more. It is definitely a strategy game, with very little luck involved.

The problem for our group with this game is that it’s only for 3 or 4 players. We usually have more if we have people over. Otherwise, it’s just the two of us, as Amber’s not quite old enough yet.  Awesome game, though, and definitely one to have in your (or a friend’s) collection.

Have you played any good games lately?