In tribes, you basically try your best to score the most Victory Points (VP) by advancing your tribe and completing goals. It sounds pretty easy and to be fair the game is easy, however, you soon realise that it is not that straight forward and you may need to think about the course of action you will take in this game.
Let us quickly cover the basic information about this game;
Players: 2 - 4
Age: 10+
Time 45 minutes.....ish
Now that is out the way let's take a look at what you get in the box!
What is the stone box?
Shockingly you get some game pieces with this game for you to use! I know it is crazy! In this box you will receive;
1 Game board
60 Tribe meeples (15 of each colour)
1 Starting player token
48 Marking stones (12 of each colour)
16 Progress markers (4 of each colour)
15 Achievement tiles (5 of each colour)
24 Event tiles (8 of each colour)
6 Action tiles
50 Land tiles (10 of each type)
89 Bear teeth tokens (VP);
30 1 VP tokens
20 2 VP tokens
12 3 VP tokens
14 4 VP tokens
12 6 VP tokens
4 Arrow tokens
20 Shell tokens
1 Land tile bag
1 Land tile bag token
So yeah, look at it all, you get quite a bit in this game and now let us talk about the point of this game.
How do I simply win?
One does not simply walk into.... wait a minute! I am getting confused here, back to tribes!
The player at the end of the game with the most VP wins, to gain VP you need to complete event tiles (or avoid some), complete achievement tiles and progress different actions allowing you to score more VP at the end of the game. The game ends when a certain amount of event tiles from the top row are activated and completed;
2 player = 2 events
3 player = 3 events
4 player = 4 events
Setting up the game?
Just like any other game you need to set it up before you start, yes we all know how much of a pain in the butt this can be but we can not avoid this! So let us get off our butts and make a start!
1: Get the tile bag token and put it on the tile bag using the drawstring, I know so very easy right now.
2: Put the game board in the middle of the table, you are killing this if you already reached this step....
3: Each player takes;
15 Tribe member meeples of their colour
12 Marking stones of their colour
4 Progress markers of their colour
5 Shell tokens
1 Arrow token
4: On the left-hand side of the board there are 4 progress tracks;
1 for Procreating
1 for Exploring
1 for Moving
1 for Strength
Place 1 of your progress markers at the bottom of each tracker.
5: Place the land tiles in the land tile bag and give them a good shake and mix!
6: Each player needs to draw 3 land tiles from the bag, if you draw 2 tiles with the same symbol you need to keep drawing until you have 3 different tile types. Place your first tribe member on one of the land tiles, if possible try to use one that no other player as used.
7: Shuffle the 6 action tiles and place them at the top left side of the game board, this creates the action tile sequence.
8: Separate the 15 achievement tiles into colour (3 colours) and shuffle each stack of 5, place them face down in each space of the matching colour on the game board and discard the last tile into the game box, this discarded tile must not be seen by any player! Once down flip the bottom row face up so you can all see the achievements.
9: Separate the 24 event tiles into colours (3 colours) and shuffle each stack of 8. Once shuffled place them in the matching colour row and space on the right-hand side of the board.
10: The oldest player starts the game and takes the starting player token.
11: Place the VP tokens in piles for all players to reach and follow the table below;
4 player game - 3rd and 4th player receives 1 VP each
3 player game - 3rd player only gets 1 VP
2 player game - 2nd player only gets 1 VP
There we have it! We have set the board up and we are ready to play the game!
How do we play this game?
The game is really easy to play and teach, it took us 1 play through to get to grips with the game.
In this game on your turn you will perform the following steps in order;
1: Select 1 action tile
2: Perform the action
3: Place the action tile at the end of the row
That is all you do each turn but of course, there are more rules and we are going to cover them now.
Select 1 action tile
At the start of the game, we shuffled the 6 action tiles and placed them in a row, this is the action tile row. On your turn, you are going to select 1 of these action tiles to perform, however, if you want to pick an action tile that is the 4th one you need to place a shell on each one before that tile! This is where shells come into the game and why we need them.
If you want to pick the first action tile this will cost you 0 shells because it is the first 1, however, after this, you have to pay;
2nd tile = 1 shell
3rd tile = 2 shells (1 shell per tile)
4th tile = 3 shells (1 shell per tile)
5th tile = 4 shells (1 shell per tile)
6th tile = 5 shells (1 shell per tile)
If you have only 2 shells left this would mean you can only pick the 1st, 2nd or 3rd action tile. If you ever run out of shells you can only pick the first action, even if you do not want to pick that one!
When you take an action tile that already has shells on you collect the shells and your shell stock is replenished, this is the only way you can gain more shells.
Okay, you are now wondering what on Earth am I trying so hard to get actions further down the line? Well, you see, you need these, certain actions allow you to of course perform them! Let us look at the actions now.
Procreate = The procreate action allows you to expand your tribe, with this action you produce the number of new tribe members that your progress marker is currently on (this always starts at 1 and a max of 3). Once you create the tribe member you must place 1 tribe member meeple on a land tile you own with a tribe member already on, these can not spawn on unmanned land.
Move = The move action allows you to move tribe members a certain amount of land tiles depending on your current progress (this is 1 by default and max 3). You can move up to that amount and move less if you wish, you can spread that move between as many tribe members as you wish, if you had 3 movements you could move 1 member 1 space and another 2 or 3 members 1 space each. This is up to you.
Explore = The explore action allows you to take new land tiles from the land tile bag depending on your progress (1 by default and max of 3). Once you take the land tiles you must place them next to land tiles you already own, however, once these are placed they can not be moved!
Dual Tiles = These allow you to perform 1 of the actions on the tile or the hand symbol. The hand symbol is the achievement action and this allows you to complete an achievement long as you meet the criteria if not you can use them to perform whichever other action is shown.
That covers the basic actions now let us talk about the achievement tiles and why we need these actions to help us achieve these.
The achievement tiles show several key information we need to know for us to complete them;
1 = The land tile with the matching symbol you need 1 tribe member on to complete the achievement (as you move up ages (rows)) these need more than 1 tile.
2 = The progress tracker it affects by increasing it by 1
3 = The VP you gain for completing this 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th and if it triggers an event.
For example, the hunting event tile in the bottom row shows us the goat symbol so we must have a land tile with the matching goat symbol and 1 tribe member on that tile. If so we can then take a dual action and use the achievement symbol and achieve this goal.
You are the first to complete this achievement so you place your marking stone on the furthest left empty space;
1st space = 2 VP and an event tile
2nd space = 1 VP
3rd space = 1 VP
4th space = 1 VP and an event tile
From the above, you gain 2 VP and you take the top event tile from the right-hand side of the board in the same row and read out the text, you then place the event tile at the end of the action tile row.
You then see the eye symbol (explore) and you move your progress marker on that tracker up by 1.
You then flip the achievement tile above this over so everyone can see the next achievement in this chain.
These are a great way to score VP and unlock events that can score more VP or hinder other players or help everyone, you just never know!
Bottom row achievements only need 1 land tile
Middle row achievements need 2 matching land tiles
Top row achievements need 3 matching land tiles
This is why you need to use the explore action to gain more land and hinder other players! You of course will need to use the procreate action to make sure you have at least 3 tribe members and use the move action to move them onto the land tiles to complete the achievement.
You can never complete the same achievement tile twice, you can only do it once.
There is a wild card tile rule that is handy, if you are struggling to get a tile you need you can exhaust a tile and use it as any symbol. You must have a tribe member on that tile, you then flip it over to the other side to show it was used. You can then use that tile as any symbol to complete an achievement. You must also note that if it is a middle or top row achievement you must have 1 of the symbol tiles and can exhaust 1 or 2 land tiles to meet the requirements.
You can only move up a row if you have completed the first achievement in that column, however, once per game, you can use your arrow token to break this rule and complete an achievement you have not completed the achievement underneath. Place the arrow token under the achievement you should not be able to complete to show that you are using this token to accomplish that achievement (you still need to complete the land tile criteria and have the dual action selected you do not skip those).
Event tiles!
Event tiles always go to the end of the action tile row.
Event tiles can be skipped if you have a shell to place on it.
If you can not skip the event tile you must activate it.
If an event tile refers to strength you use the strength progress tracker.
If anyone is tied they are either the strongest or weakest depending on where they are on the tracker.
If an event tile says you must lose tribe members you can never go below 1 tribe member even if the tiles says lose 4 and you only have 3 you will keep 1.
If an event says exhaust land tiles you can only select ones with no tribe members on, if they all have members on you ignore the exhaust.
If it says all players it starts with the player who activated the tile and then goes in clockwise order.
If a bottom or middle row event is completed it is discarded, if it is a top row event it goes above the action row to keep track of the events activated to end the game!
Once the game ends you just need to add up all your VP points!
Add VP from the progress trackers
The player with the most tribe members gets 2 VP
The player with the most land tiles gets 2 VP
Ties in these both get 2 VP each
Add up the bear teeth VP
The highest VP from all of these of course wins the game!
Additional rules:
1 = No tribe members left you can instead move tribe members onto land with other tribe members when using the procreate action.
2 = No land tiles, flip over exhausted land tiles you own.
That is how you play this game! Not that hard but sounds complicated haha but trust me it is easy!
Final thoughts
Is this the best game in the world? No
Is it a top ten game? No
Is it a great game? No
Is it a good game? Yes
Tribes is an easy to learn and quick to teach simple game, it is not going to go out there and win loads of awards but at the same time, it is not going to make you want to blow out your brains.
It was easy to set up, it was quick to learn, it was dead easy to teach and do you know what? It was fun to play, 2 of us had a really good time and 1 of us did not overly enjoy it as they thought the colour scheme was a bit dull and boring.
The game mechanics are simple and effective for the style of game, the game pieces are actually well made even though the tribe meeples look a little confusing (get it and check one out). It does not take too long to play and it's a pretty easy to play filler game.
I am not saying this game is going to be everyone's cup of tea but I actually had fun playing this game and I am looking forward to playing it again.
7/10
