Main Catalogue |  Board Games & Card Games |  Rio Grande Games |  Euphrates & Tigris Card Game

Euphrates & Tigris Card Game Price: £19.99 Card Game, 2-4 Players by Rio Grande Games The fruitful region between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers has long been an area of conflict. It is no different now and was not different 5000 years ago. Neighbouring rulers are constantly scheming and fighting, always looking for the upper hand in the region. Those with cunning, and a little luck can become famous; those without that, infamous or unknown to history. By taking his excellent board game to a card format, Reiner Knizia has simplified some aspects of the game, but it remains Knizia and Euphrates & Tigris! And with 200 cards and 16 wooden discs, it is more than just a card game! ++++++++++++++++++++ Counter magazine review ++++++++++++++++++++ 2-4 players, 60 minutes designed by Reiner Knizia reviewed by Ben Baldanza Games that are considered excellent and strong five to ten years after their release are rare, and often termed as classics. Euphrates and Tigris is such a game, and it did as much to strengthen Reiner Knizia\'s reputation as any other single game he designed in the 1990s. The release of the card game version this year will hopefully encourage those who joined the hobby this decade and haven\'t played the original yet to go try it. Even if they don\'t, however, this game packs the full flavor of the original and, as Dan Blum mentioned in his Counter 31 letter, it\'s hard to imagine that the card game version could be any closer to the original. Obviously the board has gone, as have the wooden cubes and cardboard tiles. These are all replaced by cards, and initially the eight Treasure cards are laid out in a row, with space between each for another card, and room below for up to eight cards in columns. The Dynasty disks with a Bowman, Lion, Steer, and Vase in four colors carry straight over from the original to represent the players\' leaders in each of the four domains. Each player gets a hand of eight cards and play begins. On a turn a player takes two actions from three possible: place a leader, play a card, or play his catastrophe card. The card game eliminates the ``swap tiles\'\' possible action from the original, but the eight card hand makes this less useful anyway. Playing cards to extend a kingdom means playing a card into one of the eight Treasure card columns. If a leader in the card color played is present, that leader can earn a victory point in that color. This is where the card game most diverges from the original board game. In the board game, placing a red tile, for example, allows the player to take a red cube from the stock and put it behind his screen. In this game, in order to collect a victory point a card must be played from the hand into your victory point stack. To get a red point, I must have my red leader present in the kingdom, play a red card into that kingdom, and then take a second red card from my hand to score the point. In order to merge two kingdoms, a card is initially played between the two Treasure cards of adjacent kingdoms, and then any conflicts are resolved. Conflict is handled the same as in the original, with both internal and external conflicts possible. Internal conflicts happen when a same-colored leader from another Dynasty enters the kingdom, and these battles are fought with red cards from the hand. The winner takes a red card from those played in the battle (or his hand, if none) as a reward. External conflicts are caused when kingdoms are merged, and this results in same-colored leaders present. In this case, the battles are fought with cards of the conflictive color with support from same colored cards in their original kingdoms. This is identical to the process in the board game of course. The winner of the external conflict gets a card in that color, and also sweeps all those cards from the loser\'s kingdom. Also like the original, a green leader in a merged kingdom can earn a joker (Treasure card) but in this case they must play a red card from their hand to replace the card in the display, else lose the joker opportunity. Monuments from the original game are replaced by ships in this card game version. Ships can replace any adjacent set of four same-colored cards in a kingdom, and the ship generates a victory point each turn for the leader in the ship\'s color. Again, though, that player must have a card to play from their hand to get the point. Catastrophe cards allow the removal of any card, thus functioning the same as their board game tile peers, but in this game each player gets only one such option instead of two. Scoring is as expected, into what is now commonly referred to as ``E&T\'\' scoring for games like Einfach Genial. One last difference in play of the card game is that it is suggested for each player to keep a stack of their scoring cards without referencing cards after they are covered. There is no particular need to play that way and the rules offer the option to sort them by color as a variant. The net effect of streamlining the board game into its raw essentials is a gem that plays much faster, is easier to set up, and smaller to store. It doesn\'t save any table space, though, as the card grid takes up a lot of space but doesn\'t look as nice as the board game. If E&T is considered a classic and a great game, then how can a card game which plays almost identically not be considered great as well? The answer is simply that it doesn\'t add to the game\'s mystique, but rather in some ways detracts from it by showing just how abstract and basic the concepts in the original are. Everyone who plays it knows that, of course, but it\'s more ``in your face\'\' in this version. So I\'d say if you have the original, play it instead and enjoy the eye candy while playing. But when traveling or needing a faster Knizia fix, it\'s hard to beat this little gem. More ...

Main Catalogue |  Board Games & Card Games |  Rio Grande Games |  Euphrates & Tigris Card Game