Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala - Tips & Strategies

In the show Arrested Development there is a line that says “There is always money in the banana stand.” And much the same way, there is always money in resource (aka merchandise) cards.

So far I’ve found Five Tribes to be more of a tactical game than one where you use a pre set strategy. That being said, it’s good to understand the strategies you can use, and when to use them. The one early game strategy I’ve seen I’ve seen the most is a focus on resource cards.

The easiest way to get them is with Merchants (aka green meeples). Pick up a a few and gain the same number of resource cards from the start of the line.

The next way is by end you movement on a market tile, and paying the cost to get either one or two resource cards depending on if you end on the small or big market.

The first time you do either action…will not set you up for much. But once you have 5 or more unique resources, the bonus for adding another unique resource is 10 points. Considering the points value of a Djinn is typically 6 or less, 10 points is big. So while it may cost you 6 coins to get them, the end result of 2 new cards can be +14 points. Not bad at all.

You can also trade in your sets of unique cards for coins. This can help ensure you can bid what you need to at the start of a round. As such, it’s not a bad idea to pick up as many resource cards as you can early on…more so if you do not have a move that will give you control of a tile.

My first play of this game was daunting. Rules explanation was rushed through, and it was the end of a longer game day. I was really on the fence about keeping the game. How did I go form that to LOVING the game?

A quick 2-player variant!

By the rules, in a two player game each player gets 2 Player’s Turn markers. What we found was by only using 1 player marker the game moves at a decent pace and the bidding becomes less of an issue. This allowed us to learn the mechanics much fuller.

Since then I’ve gone back and forth of playing with 2 turn markers in a 2 player game and it really is a simple way to change the game up and add even more variation to the game.

I play this with 2 players sometimes, but change a couple of rules to improve the flow of things:

1 – drop the first player bid, it slows everything down if you stop to bed after 2 actions. Just randomise and take it in turns.

2 – Replace market cards and Djins immediately, not after your opponents turn.