Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala Review

Intro

Five Tribes drops you into the mystical Sultanate of Naqala, where the old sultan has died and you're maneuvering colorful tribes of meeples to claim control. Bruno Cathala's 2014 design flips the typical worker placement formula on its head—instead of placing workers, you're moving them around in mancala-style scooping motions across a modular board of Arabian-themed tiles.

This strategy game works beautifully with 2-4 players and typically runs about 80 minutes. With a solid 7.77/10 rating online and a shelf full of awards including the 2014 Golden Geek Best Strategy Game, it's earned serious respect. The complexity sits in that sweet spot where the rules are straightforward enough to teach in 10 minutes, but the tactical depth will have you plotting several moves ahead.

How It Plays

The game starts with five different colored meeples randomly scattered across a 5x6 grid of tiles representing villages, markets, oases, and sacred places. Each color represents a different tribe: yellow Viziers, white Elders, green Merchants, blue Builders, and red Assassins. Your turn begins with bidding for turn order using camels, then picking up all meeples from one tile and dropping them one by one as you move across adjacent tiles—classic mancala mechanics.

The magic happens when you finish your move. You must end on a tile that contains at least one meeple matching the last one you dropped. You collect all meeples of that color from the final tile, which triggers different effects based on the tribe. Merchants let you collect goods, Builders help you erect palaces, Assassins eliminate other meeples, Viziers boost your final scoring, and Elders can summon powerful Djinns with game-changing abilities.

If clearing all meeples from a tile leaves it empty, you claim it for points and potential end-game bonuses. You're constantly juggling multiple paths to victory: controlling valuable tiles, collecting sets of goods, building palaces, summoning Djinns, and positioning for the scoring bonuses that different tribes provide.

Highlights

The mancala movement system creates this brilliant puzzle where every move reshapes the entire board state. You're not just thinking about what you want to accomplish—you're reverse-engineering the perfect sequence of moves while trying to predict how the board will look after other players take their turns. It's like playing chess where the pieces keep moving themselves.

The variety is exceptional. Between the modular board setup, randomized meeple placement, and the deck of unique Djinns with their special powers, no two games feel the same. One game you might focus on collecting rare goods and summoning expensive Djinns, while the next you're claiming territory and building palaces. The multiple victory paths keep everyone engaged until the final scoring.

What really shines is how the turn order auction creates meaningful decisions from the very first moment. Going first gives you more options but costs precious camels. Sometimes the perfect move is staring you in the face, but can you afford to bid high enough to grab it before someone else snatches it away?

The production quality deserves a mention too. Days of Wonder delivered gorgeous artwork that captures the Arabian Nights theme perfectly, and the components are top-notch. The wooden meeples feel great in your hands, and the tile artwork is both functional and beautiful.

Criticisms

Five Tribes suffers from serious analysis paralysis problems, especially with players prone to overthinking. Since every meeple movement cascades into new possibilities, calculating optimal moves can take forever. I've seen games drag past two hours when they should finish in 80 minutes. The turn order bidding helps somewhat since going later gives you more information, but it doesn't eliminate the problem entirely.

The game can feel quite cutthroat, which might surprise folks expecting a more peaceful Euro experience. The Assassins tribe lets players directly attack each other's pieces, and skilled players will absolutely block moves that benefit opponents. If you prefer games where you can focus on your own engine without much interference, this might frustrate you.

There's also a learning curve around recognizing good moves versus great ones. New players often see one or two obvious options while experienced players spot five different viable strategies. This can create an uneven experience where veterans dominate until everyone reaches a similar skill level.

Conclusion

Five Tribes rewards players who love tactical depth and don't mind a bit of direct conflict in their strategy games. If you enjoy games where every decision matters and you're constantly adapting to changing board states, this delivers in spades. The mancala mechanics create something genuinely unique in the strategy game space, and the multiple scoring paths ensure that comebacks are always possible.

Skip this one if you prefer games with minimal player interaction or if your group includes players who struggle with analysis paralysis. But if you want a game that feels different every time you play it and rewards both tactical thinking and long-term planning, Five Tribes deserves a spot on your shelf. Just maybe set a timer for turns.