In ancient prehistoric times, you have discovered a new land with plentiful lakes, mountains and forests (and apparently many stone rocks that shall be called dice). Your people can develop new things like basketry or find oxen or simply GROW and conquer.
In Rise of Tribes, players control a tribal faction in prehistoric times looking to GROW, MOVE, GATHER, and LEAD their people. The board is modular, composed of hexes in various terrain types. Each hex has a population limit. Players manage the number of tribe members they place on any one hex to either trigger or avoid conflict.
Each turn the active player rolls two dice, then selects two of the four actions to take - GROW, MOVE, GATHER, and/or LEAD. Each action is resolved one action at a time. The power of each action taken depends on the die roll plus the last couple of dice placed onto the action board on the selected action by other players. Once both actions are taken, the active player resolves any Conflicts. The final step of each turn is the time to build villages and complete goal cards.
Victory is possible in a couple ways: gathering resources to build villages and/or completing development and achievement goal cards for your civilization. Villages (limited to 1 per hex) score 1 point for the tribe that built them at the start of that tribe's turn. Goal cards will score points immediately when completed. Every tribe's ambition is to score 15 points. The tribe to score 15 points first wins the game.
Solo mode, with the addition of Rise of Tribes: The Vul'Keth Invasion (required and sold separately), is a very challenging way to play Rise of Tribes.
Rise of Tribes - Microbadges
Rise of Tribes fan
Rise of Tribes fan
- Beautiful art and thematic tribe variety
- Approachable gateway to heavier area-control games
- Fast, 30–60 minute play windows with multiple strategies
- Dice-driven randomness can influence outcomes
- Depth may be shallower than heavier titles
- Tribe leadership and territorial development
- Prehistoric tribal civilizations; city-building and expansion
- Accessible gateway to heavier area-control themes
- Dominant Species
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area control / development — Grow your tribe by building villages and developing territories.
- Unique dice pushing — Dice-driven action economy; two actions per turn depending on dice outcomes.
- Victory-point pacing — Earn points by constructing villages and achieving milestones; first to 15 wins.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "it's a two-player game but you can also play solo and it's rather quick"
- "not collectible; it recreates the Battle of Hastings and all the events of 1066"
- "it's a beautiful and strategic Carcassonne style game for two to four players"
- "Minerva is a unique tiling resource management strategy game that relies on cunning spatial strategy and intense competition for timing of actions"
- "the main system is formed by a sandbox of Fighters bosses rivals allies and stages for the players to mix and match"
- "arcade mode for a quick game with a lot of variety and story mode which links your games together"
- "art is beautiful especially the different tribes each tribe is unique"
- "unique dice pushing mechanic which activates two actions per turn"
- "you could say maybe it's like a very very light Dominant Species"
- "it's an atmospheric adventure and it's inspired by 80s fantasy nostalgia"
- "it is a cooperative board game for 1 to 6 players where players control a party of medieval fantasy survivors"