25 years already since Tigris & Euphrates was released, and the game has not aged a bit- which is absolutely remarkable when you see the explosion of games we have had during all these years.
Players build civilizations by placing tiles. Players have four different leaders: agriculture, trade, religion and government. Leaders are used to collect victory points in these same categories. However, your score at the end of the game is the number of points in your lowest category, which encourages players to not be too specialized. External conflicts occur when civilizations connect on the board, and only one leader of each type survives such a conflict. Leaders can also be replaced within a civilization by internal conflicts.
Tigris & Euphrates is therefore a game of territory development (kingdoms) and war.
The flow of the game is very simple: on their turn, a player may take 2 of the 4 available actions (the same action can be performed twice):
1. Place a tile (there are 4 different colors)
2. Place or move a leader (one leader per color)
3. Place a catastrophe (2 times maximum per game)
4. Exchange tiles (you always have 6 in your hand at the beginning of your turn and can do this if you are not satisfied with your tiles. Rarely used because it uses an action, which is quite risky since you have no guarantee that the new tiles will be better.)
Each time a tile of a given color is placed on a realm where a leader of that color is present, the player who holds the leader in question scores 1 point of the color (so logically and most of the time we will place the tiles where we have leaders).
So far so good. But as you cleverly guessed, all players play all colors. In other words, everyone has a leader of each of the 4 colors. And what happens when 2 leaders of the same color end up on the same kingdom? Well, they hit each other.
And here comes one of the specificities of the game which has not aged a bit: there are 2 different types of conflicts, which give completely different results. Depending on whether you enter a conflict because you "parachute" a leader of color x onto a kingdom where there is already another leader of the same color, or whether you enter a conflict because two different kingdoms (but ruled by a leader of the same color) come into contact following the placement of a tile, the way you settle the conflict (and the victory points you get from it) will be quite different.
It is enough to make you think twice!
In addition, you can build a monument (if you form a square with 4 tiles of the same color), which will give extra points at the end of the round for the leaders with the colors of the monument (bicolor). Plus the fact that you can use the 2 catastrophe tiles to break an existing tile (and mess up someone else's kingdom for example). And that you can get treasures during the game, i.e. victory cubes placed at the beginning of the game, which are jokers (=the color of your choice) at the time of the final count. And, last but not least, the winner will not be the one who has accumulated the most victory cubes, but the one who has the most cubes in the least good color (as a reminder, there are 4 colors), which will forbid de facto strategies like: "ok I develop everything in green, I am the king of green, I beat everyone and I explode everything". Instead, it will force a balanced and varied strategy.
But there is more to it than that. The game really makes you feel the rise and fall of kingdoms and rulers. The way kingdoms expand and are then devastated, the way rulers can succeed and then fall to their rival dynasties, it all has an epic feel. The game feels abstract, but that is partly because it makes little effort to hide its mechanics. It does not try to connect everything to a thematic point. It is only when you examine why things are done the way they are that you see those little touches that make the game richer.
Tigris & Euphrates departs from a ton of established dogma in European games. There are no victory points as such. It is not really an efficiency game, since a hot start will often be rendered null and void by the end. The board can be very dynamic and change in a single move. And the tile draw is relentlessly inconsistent, depriving players of the colors they need at the worst possible time. It is strange that these qualities have not been much emulated in the years since its release.
Again, this is not an easy game to solve. It doesn't reveal its mysteries quickly, and that pays off with the game experience.
You can try the game now by clicking on the link below (we offer a few variations, and both normal and advanced boards), from 2 to 4 players:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?ga ... seuphrates
We would like to thank Dr. Reiner Knizia and his team for their kind permission to port the game to Board Game Arena and Z-Man Games for letting us use their art.
All the adaptation work was developed by thenmal, and if the whole thing is rather sober, it should highlight the mechanical qualities of the game whatever device you use. Thanks to him for this great adaptation!
That's it for today, the summer calendar continues to deliver its daily releases,
don't forget to click on each square, each day, between two dives in the water (we know it's not summer everywhere, but it's hard to realise when you have your feet in the water)!*
**
Take care and play well!**
TIGRIS & EUPHRATES: izvirna mojstrovina Reinerja Knizia, ki jo morate igrati.
Že 25 let od izida Tigris & Euphrates in igra se ni niti malo postarala – kar je naravnost izjemno, ko vidite eksplozijo iger, ki smo jih imeli v vseh teh letih.
Igralci gradijo civilizacije tako, da postavljajo ploščice.
Igralci imajo štiri različne voditelje: kmetijstvo, trgovino, vero in vlado.
Vodilni se uporabljajo za zbiranje zmagovalnih točk v istih kategorijah.
Vendar pa je vaš rezultat na koncu igre število točk v vaši najnižji kategoriji, kar spodbuja igralce, da niso preveč specializirani.
Zunanji konflikti nastanejo, ko se civilizacije povežejo na plošči in samo en vodja vsake vrste preživi tak konflikt.
Voditelje lahko znotraj civilizacije zamenjajo tudi notranji konflikti.
Tigris & Euphrates je torej igra razvoja ozemlja (kraljestev) in vojne.
Potek igre je zelo preprost: na vrsti lahko igralec izvede 2 od 4 razpoložljivih dejanj (isto dejanje lahko izvede dvakrat):
1.
Postavite ploščico (na voljo so 4 različne barve)
2.
Postavite ali premaknite vodjo (en voditelj na barvo)
3.
Postavite katastrofo (največ 2-krat na igro)
4.
Zamenjajte ploščice (vedno imate 6 v roki na začetku svoje vrstice in to lahko storite, če s svojimi ploščicami niste zadovoljni.
Redko se uporablja, ker uporablja dejanje, kar je precej tvegano, saj nimate nobenega zagotovila, da bodo nove ploščice boljše.)
Vsakič, ko je ploščica dane barve postavljena na področje, kjer je prisoten vodja te barve, igralec, ki ima zadevnega vodjo, doseže 1 točko te barve (zato je logično in večino časa bomo ploščice postavili tja, kjer imamo voditelje).
Zaenkrat gre dobro.
Toda kot ste spretno uganili, vsi igralci igrajo vse barve.
Z drugimi besedami, vsak ima vodjo vsake od 4 barv.
In kaj se zgodi, ko dva voditelja iste barve končata v istem kraljestvu?
Pa sta se udarila.
In tu nastopi ena od posebnosti igre, ki se ni niti malo postarala: obstajata 2 različni vrsti konfliktov, ki dajeta popolnoma različne rezultate.
Odvisno od tega, ali vstopiš v spopad, ker vodjo barve x "s padalom spustiš" v kraljestvo, kjer je že drug vodja iste barve, ali pa vstopiš v spopad, ker sta dve različni kraljestvi (vendar jima vlada vodja iste barva) pridejo v stik po postavitvi ploščice, bo način reševanja spora (in zmagovalnih točk, ki jih pridobite s tem) precej drugačen.
Dovolj je, da dvakrat premislite!
Poleg tega lahko zgradite spomenik (če oblikujete kvadrat s 4 ploščicami iste barve), ki bo dal dodatne točke na koncu kroga za vodilne z barvami spomenika (bicolor).
Plus dejstvo, da lahko uporabite 2 ploščici katastrofe, da razbijete obstoječo ploščico (in na primer zamočite kraljestvo nekoga drugega).
In da lahko med igro dobite zaklade, tj
zmagovalne kocke, postavljene na začetku igre, ki so jokerji (=barva po vaši izbiri) v času končnega štetja.
In nenazadnje, zmagovalec ne bo tisti, ki bo zbral največ zmagovalnih kock, ampak tisti, ki bo imel največ kock v najmanj dobri barvi (spomnimo, barve so 4), kar bo prepovedalo de facto strategije, kot so: "ok, vse razvijam v zelenem, jaz sem kralj zelenega, premagam vse in vse razstrelim".
Namesto tega bo izsilil uravnoteženo in raznoliko strategijo.
Ampak to je več kot to.
V igri resnično občutite vzpon in padec kraljestev in vladarjev.
Način, kako se kraljestva širijo in so nato opustošena, način, kako lahko vladarji uspejo in nato padejo pod svoje rivalske dinastije, vse to ima epski občutek.
Igra se zdi abstraktna, vendar je to deloma zato, ker se malo trudi skriti svojo mehaniko.
Ne poskuša vsega povezati v neko tematsko točko.
Šele ko preučite, zakaj so stvari narejene tako, kot so, opazite tiste malenkosti, ki naredijo igro bogatejšo.
Tigris & Euphrates odstopa od tone uveljavljene dogme v evropskih igrah.
Zmagovalnih točk kot takih ni.
V resnici ne gre za igro učinkovitosti, saj bo vroč začetek na koncu pogosto razveljavljen in neveljaven.
Deska je lahko zelo dinamična in se spremeni v eni sami potezi.
In žrebanje ploščic je neusmiljeno nedosledno in igralce prikrajša za barve, ki jih potrebujejo v najslabšem možnem času.
Nenavadno je, da te lastnosti niso bile veliko posnemane v letih od izida.
Še enkrat, te igre ni enostavno rešiti.
Svojih skrivnosti ne razkrije hitro, kar se obrestuje z izkušnjo igre.
Igro lahko preizkusite zdaj s klikom na spodnjo povezavo (ponujamo nekaj različic ter običajne in napredne deske), od 2 do 4 igralce:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?ga~...~seuphrates
Radi bi se zahvalili dr.
Reinerju Knizii in njegovi ekipi za prijazno dovoljenje za prenos igre na Board Game Arena in Z-Man Games, ker so nam dovolili uporabo njihove umetnosti.
Vse prilagoditveno delo je razvil thenmal, in če je vse skupaj precej trezno, bi moralo poudariti mehanske lastnosti igre, ne glede na to, katero napravo uporabljate.
Hvala mu za to odlično priredbo!
To je to za danes, poletni koledar še naprej prinaša svoje dnevne objave,
ne pozabi klikniti na vsak kvadratek, vsak dan, med dvema potopoma v vodo (vemo, da ni povsod poletje, a težko se zavedaš, ko imaš noge v vodi)!
Pazite in igrajte dobro!