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Era of Tribes is a civilization worker-placement strategy game for 1-4 players from 14 years+, where your goal is to develop, expand, discover, and interact with your fellow players in Europe from the Neolithic period to the High Middle Ages.
It combines the best of the two worlds Amithrash and Eurogame; so I call it "Eumerithrash"
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Europe at start of Neolithic period. The human population is scattered all over the continent, living in dark and humid caves. You represent the clan chief of a dynasty, and your one goal is to become the ruler of a vast empire.
However, realizing this goal will be an arduous journey. Your subordinates will have to faithfully strengthen you, and your armies will have to be more advanced and stronger than those of your enemies. You will have to conquer areas and develop colonies to receive resources and luxury goods. You will have to skillfully maneuver on a political level and use scientific progresses to its maximum value. If you are successful, you will become the supreme ruler of the known world.
Objective of the Game:
Your objective is to get the most Influence Points (IP) by the end of the game. To reach this goal, you have to develop your empire with the help of your leaders. Take turns placing them in the different boxes of your tribal action board, where they can help you in different and unique ways:
The "Expansion" chamber allows you to spread your vassals, found cities, collect luxury goods or resources, and decide conflicts.
The "Trade” chamber allows you to increase your wealth by trade.
The "Taxes" chamber allows you to levy taxes in your cities.
The "Diplomacy" chamber allows you to negotiate with your neighbors, raise your influence with them, and either change the play order or acquire additional leaders.
The "Improvement" chamber allows you to discover new improvements that enable you to construct more cities, improve your strength, gain more influence, raise the moral of your population, enhance the effectiveness of your farmers, execute navigation, or improve your trade.
The "Bread & Circuses" chamber allows you, in combination with luxury goods, to increase the morale of your people.
Finally a "Revolution" allows you to ascend into the next higher epoch if you meet the requirements.
The additional rooms "Faith" and "Intelligence" allow direct actions against your opponents and will be available as an addon soon.
You gain influence by taking different actions during play, and by Influence Cards which are distributed secretly at start of the game. These cards will be evaluated at the end of the game and will add additional influence if you have fulfilled their conditions. Furthermore, there are some aspects which will give you additional Influence Points after finishing the game. Again, the player with most IPs will win the game.
There are several end of game conditions. Amassing wealth, holding many provinces, reaching the ancient times, developing the most advances, conquering an opponents main territories, gaining a certain amount of IP, and meeting your influence marker with your triumphant march.
The game is for up to 4 players, with ten different unique tribes you can choose from. It takes about 30 minutes per player in the normal game, and 60 minutes in the long game (higher game end conditions).
- Having everything nicely contained makes the host more enthusiastic about learning the game.
- The game seems very heavy and the rulebook is involved.
- Pieces for the organizer were not labeled on the wood boards.
- One small box in the organizer requires coaxing to fit.
- The main box is a tight fit for all components.
- Civilization
- Scythe
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Setup involves using sticks to 'fence off parts of the map depending on how big you want it,' influencing conflict levels.
- Modular Board — The game features a modular board for map variants, and additional tiles are provided to build custom maps.
- player powers — The game comes with pieces for up to five players, with an additional expansion for a fifth player mentioned.
- Resource Management — The game includes tokens for money and luxury goods that need to be sorted.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is not the video for you if that's the case, because i myself know nothing about this game at the moment, but i've been commissioned to make a how to play video.
- And this game - i'm not gonna lie - this game's kind of terrifying me right now, because it seems very very heavy, and the rulebook is incredibly involved.
- Whoo doggie! i hope you like cardboard tokens! There's certainly enough of them in this game.
- It's a perfect fit! It's like me trying to get into a pair of blue jeans!
- Well there it is: a complete reboxing of Era of Tribes, with the extra player expansions and the modular board and that balsa (pine wood?) ...that wood insert by Laserox, who i believe is a gigantic ox who cuts all these things out with his LASER VISION!!
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is not intended to be entertaining at all
- this is just a this is like a work hangout
- i hate doing the photography that's the worst part of it
- the animation in this program stinks
- it's prison grade
- i have to admit like the entire reason i got those 3d printers and started that series was so that i could create duke mccooder's huge booty doodle for you
- math makes me cry
- good audio is more important than good video
- people will forgive what their eyes perceive but they they can't stand crappy audio
References (from this video)
- Depth of gameplay
- Delightful and distinct factions
- Clever tech tree cost mechanic
- Dynamic and adjustable board size via fog of war
- Morale system adds interesting challenge
- Simple and effective combat system
- Versatile leader/worker placement
- Cool religion track in the expansion
- Brilliant forced expansion mechanic prevents turtling
- Satisfyingly interlocking mechanics
- No wasted components, everything is necessary
- Crunchy gameplay suitable for civilization and area control fans
- High complexity makes it hard to learn
- Rulebook is difficult to navigate with abbreviations and icons
- Long playtime
- Significant setup time
- Solo mode is fun but different from multiplayer experience
- Limited historical/geographical representation of tribes (wish for more African, Far East, or Southern Asian tribes)
- Civilization development and area control
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — Player board allows for various actions like trade, tax, expand.
- Area Control — Civilization area control style game where you are expanding out onto the map.
- Area Majority — Building cities gives access to more vassals, which represent troops and ships.
- asymmetric factions — Each player is going to have their own unique tribe, different enough to give different bonuses.
- Combat — Very simple combat with a little combat board.
- cooperative play — Setting up a trade treaty with another player.
- Engine Building — Advancing on the tech tree unlocks new abilities and actions.
- fog of war — Fog of War type thing, blocking off portions of the board.
- Morale system — Regularly dealing with this morale system.
- Resource Management — Tight package of resource management.
- Set Collection — Collecting resources like ore and wine to buff yourself up in combat.
- Tech Tree — Advancing up various Tech trees.
- Track Advancement — Progression on a religion track (polytheism, monotheism, mysticism).
- Variable board — Modular board expansion and fog of war allows for different setups.
- Worker Placement — Each turn you have several different workers or leaders that you're able to use and place them onto your player board.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's just there is so much going on so very high level overview that we're talking about here
- everything just kind of interweaves and interlocks in a way that is pretty darn satisfying once you get it down
- I love that the the tech tree works I like that you start with almost nothing and that you can choose what one bonus you're going to have
- The best part of the whole game I think is the forced expansion at the end of every round you just can't Turtle
- it is so complex so I've actually had this game for months and the reason it's taking me so long is when I first got it I was looking at it I was like oh my gosh this is so hard
- it's just it is a ton of setup and it just takes a long time
- it has a very high rating on BGG and it does for a reason because it just has no wasted bits nothing is superfluous everything is needed and all of it works together
References (from this video)
- Looks so interesting
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the colonist and I feel so bad for whoever had to sort that afterwards
- Yakob this is how you should store your games you're never going to play them more than once
- ah World War II war game number 567
- this is Atlantic Chase
- we're going to be getting started late just so you know it's probably going to be 7:30 but um this is this is what I'm streaming here in about an hour and a half realistically cuz uh uh stress btic Odyssey is still set up on the table
- stress btic Odyssey is still set up on the table
- it's going to take me a solid 40 minutes to put up stress spct Odyssey
- this feels like a a worthy game for a giveaway
- this is Weather Machine from VTO lerta
- what's your best piece of corrective criticism what what's something that we could do better here on heavy cardboard
- I'd like to hear that as well that's that's actually a really great idea
- the community is really amazing uh inclusive welcoming Comm Community
- if you are watching this and not a patreon I'll see you tomorrow night for laav otherwise if you're a patreon I'll see you in about 90 minutes
References (from this video)
- Massive scope and depth
- Multiple endgame conditions
- Heavy game with long play time
- Civilization development, diplomacy, conquest
- Europe from neolithic to high middle ages
- Epic, sprawling
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Develop and control provinces/regions.
- Civilization/area control — Develop and control provinces/regions.
- Multi-track progress — Politics, science, and military advancement influence scoring.
- Time Track — Politics, science, and military advancement influence scoring.
- Worker Placement — Place workers to gain resources and actions.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- how does a bee carry a stone and how does that stone obstruct another bee
- this still looks like a neat game
- it's a flip and write game that is quick and easy to play but still has enough depth to entertain gamers
- there are several endgame conditions