How to Play Tigris & Euphrates
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Tigris & Euphrates is often considered Reiner Knizia's best game; at the time of this writing, it occupies the 11th position in the rankings at BoardGameGeek. Unfortunately, many people have trouble with the somewhat complex rules, keeping them from fully enjoying this great game; this article provides a hopefully simpler explanation of the rules. T&E, as the game is often called, can be purchased at any game store.
As with many of Knizia's games, the object is to collect the most complete sets of differently-colored cubes; in this case, red, blue, green, and black. Each set is worth one point, and treasure cubes (to be discussed later) can replace missing colors to fill out a set.
At the start of the game, each player receives two disaster tiles, six kingdom tiles, a player aid (which also serves to hide his kingdom tiles from the other players), and a set of four leaders. A player's leaders are distinguished from the other players' leaders by picture, not color; each player has a red, green, blue, and black leader, but the pictures differ.
At the start of the game, the board will contain a number of red tiles (temples), each of which contains a tan cube; these cubes are the treasures, which can be substituted for other cubes in the end-of-game scoring.
On each player's turn, he has two actions, each of which can be any of the following:
- Position a leader
- Play kingdom tile
- Play a disaster tile
- Discard tiles and redraw
- Pass
Leaders can be placed on the board, removed from the board, or moved from one location to another for one action. Leaders must always be placed next to a temple (red tile); if the last red tile next to a leader is removed (due to a disaster or monument being placed), that leader is immediately removed from the board. "Next to" in the context of this game always means orthogonally (left, right, above, below), not diagonally.
A civilization is a group of tiles that contains at least one leader; a leader can never be placed such that it would join two civilizations. Leaders also cannot be placed on top of tiles or on river spots. If a leader is played into a civilization that already contains a leader of the same color, an internal conflict occurs; those will be discussed below.
Kingdom tiles can be played on any open spot on the board. If a kingdom tile is played such that is connects to exactly one civilization, then if that civilization contains a leader of that color, its owner gets a cube of that color. (In other words, if a blue tile is played, whoever has the Farmer (blue leader) gets a blue cube). If the appropriate leader is not present in the civilization, whoever has the black leader gets the cube (in the above example, a blue tile is played but no blue leader is present, so the owner of the black leader gets a blue cube). If neither the appropriate leader nor the black leader is present, nobody gets a cube.
If the tile connects two or more civilizations, nobody gets a cube and an external conflict begins.
In either case, if at the end of the action there exists a 2x2 cube of four tiles of the same color that includes the just-placed tile, the player who placed it may now (and only now) choose to create a monument, if any appropriate ones exist. There are six monuments available, one for each possible combination of the four colors; to create the monument, flip over the four participating tiles and place an unused monument that contains the creating color on top of the tiles. Monuments will score points at the end of the turn.
At the end of any action (in practice, either placing a leader or placing a tile) where a civilization contains a Trader (green leader) and two or more treasures, the owner of the Trader takes the treasure closest to the corner of the board; in case of a tie, any treasure may be taken.
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Disaster tiles are powerful but rare, each player receives only two for the entire game. Disaster tiles are played on any square of the board, except those containing a leader or a treasure; that square is effectively out of the game. Any tile that was previously there no longer exists, and nothing can be played there for the remainder of the game.
Players looking for a certain color (or trying to end the game) may choose to discard tiles and draw new ones; as an action, the player may discard up to six tiles and draw back up to six. Notice that discarded tiles are removed from play; tiles never go back into the bag.
The pass action is fairly self-explanatory (and rare).
At the end of every player's turn, that player scores one cube for each monument that belongs to a civilization containing his leader of the same color; for example, a player with a Priest (red leader) and King (black leader) in a civilization with a red/blue and red/black monument would receive one black and two red cubes. All players with fewer than six tiles draw back up to six. The game ends at the end of any turn when no more than two treasures remain on the board, or immediately if there are not enough tiles left in the bag for a player to draw all the tiles he requires.
The heart of the game, and the part that most players have trouble with, is conflict. Conflict comes in two types, which resolve similarly but with different results. In all cases, the attacker is the person initiating the conflict; in case the person initiating is not involved (which can happen with external conflicts only), the attacker is the first involved player to his left (this is determined separately for each pair of leaders involved in the conflict). The defender always wins ties.
An internal conflict is when a leader is placed into a civilization that already contains a leader of that color. Internal conflicts use red tiles only, regardless of the color of the leader. First the attacker chooses to discard any number of red tiles (including zero); his strength is the number of tiles he discarded, plus any red tiles that are adjacent to hit leader. The defender does the same; he also wins ties. Whichever leader wins scores its owner a red cube, while the loser is removed from the board.
External conflicts are a little more complicated. If more than one external conflict is triggered at once (which is common), the user causing the conflict chooses which to resolve first; it is possible that resolving this conflict may break up the civilization, preventing the other conflict from occurring. External conflicts rely on tiles of the matching color; each player adds up the number of matching tiles in his civilization (not counting the tile that joins the two, which doesn't count) and adds as many tiles of that color from his hand if he wishes (attacker first). The loser removes his leader and ALL tiles of that color from his civilization; the winner scores a cube of that color for each piece (including the leader) that was removed. The exception is an external conflict involving red leaders: only red tiles that are not adjacent to other leaders and do not contain a treasure are removed.
Everything make sense? Check out my hub on basic T&E strategy and go play a game!
