5 Tribes Review | Why This Mancala Classic Still Wins

5 Tribes is a competitive area control and set collection game for 2 to 4 players aged 13 and up, in 40 to 80 minutes. You pick meeple stacks up off a 30 tile board and sow them across it Mancala style, the last colour you drop decides which tribe you activate, and the game is scored once at the end from seven piles. There is no dice and no luck after setup.

I am Spector, a dad to Alex, 7, and Emma, 10. This is the game on our shelf that I am happiest to lend out and least happy to have back, because it is the only one where I know the winner was decided by a decision rather than a throw. It also is the game where I have watched more grown ups get the rules wrong than any other, in the same three places, so this page exists to fix them.

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5 Tribes at a Glance

Aspect	Details
Designer	Bruno Cathala, with playtesting credited to his regular group
Publisher	Days of Wonder, first published 2014, art by Clement Masson
Players	2 to 4, and each player plays twice per round in a 2 player game
Age	13 and up on the box
Playtime	40 to 80 minutes on the box and the rulebook cover
Setup	7 official steps, about 10 minutes
Board	30 tiles laid at random as a fixed 5 by 6 rectangle, no board growth
Meeples	90 wooden pieces: 16 Viziers, 20 Elders, 18 Builders, 18 Merchants, 18 Assassins
Cards	22 Djinns, 3 face up, plus 54 resource cards (36 Merchandise, 18 Fakirs), 9 face up
Markers	8 camels each at 3 and 4 players, 11 each at 2, plus 12 palm trees and 10 palaces
Win condition	Most victory points when the game ends, and the highest scorer is the Great Sultan
Scoring	Once, at the end, from seven piles
Expansions	Whims of the Sultan, The Artisans of Naqala, The Thieves of Naqala

The one thing on that list that surprises people is the board. It does not grow. All 30 tiles are face up from setup to scoring, which is why a single game contains no hidden information beyond the cards.

How Do You Set Up 5 Tribes?

Setup is seven steps and step four is the one everybody rushes, which is why a first game feels random in a way the design is not meant to produce.

1. Punch out the pieces on the first play only, and keep the empty frames under the vacuum tray so the box stays flush.
2. Take camels and turn markers. At 3 or 4 players everyone takes 8 camels and 1 turn marker in a colour of their choice, and the spare pink and blue sets stay in the box. At 2 players, one player takes all 11 pink camels and 2 turn markers, the other takes all 11 blue camels and 2 markers.
3. Take 50 gold coins, made up of 9 coins worth 5 and 5 coins worth 1, and keep your coin total hidden face down for the whole game.
4. Lay all 30 tiles face up at random in a rectangle of 5 by 6 tiles. That is the Sultanate, and in the base game it does not grow.
5. Drop the meeples. Put all 90 in the bag, then grab and drop them in random sets of 3 on every tile, so each tile starts with 3 meeples. Do not sort them by colour, because the distribution is the puzzle.
6. Shuffle the resource cards into a face down pile, turn the top 9 face up in a row, then shuffle the Djinns, turn the top 3 face up, and build the coin, palm tree and palace bank.
7. Place the turn markers at random on the bid order track. That random starting order decides who bids first, not who plays first.

The 2 player difference in step 2 is the one that catches couples out. Each player takes 2 turn markers and therefore takes 2 turns per round, and it is possible to play twice in a row if both markers land next to each other.

How Does a Turn Work in 5 Tribes?

A turn has six parts and the order is fixed. The rulebook is short here and most arguments happen because people skip step one.

1. Bid for turn order. Starting with the marker in first position on the bid order track, each player names a spot on the turn order track and pays the bank the coins printed on it. Highest number plays first. You may bid 0, and if you do while other 0 markers are already down, your marker pushes theirs further down the aisle, so the last player to bid 0 actually plays first. Only three markers can ever sit on 0, so once all three are taken the last player must bid at least 1.
2. Move your turn marker from the turn order track to the first free spot on the bid order track, ready for next round.
3. Move meeples from one tile, as described below.
4. Take the tile control check, which is what turns a move into points.
5. Resolve the tribe action of the colour you finished with, then the tile action of the tile you ended on.
6. Optionally sell Merchandise, then everyone runs the clean up.

Gold is a victory point in its own right, which is the whole reason bidding hurts. Every coin you spend to jump the queue is a point you gave away, so the bid is a real price rather than a formality.

How Do the Meeples Move in 5 Tribes?

You pick meeples up, you do not place them. Choose one tile that has at least one meeple on it, take every meeple from it into your hand, then move tile to adjacent tile, dropping one meeple on each tile you pass through, until your hand is empty.

Three rules govern the move, and all three exist to stop the obvious move:

• Last meeple same colour. The last meeple you drop has to land on a tile that already holds at least one meeple of that same colour. This is why you pick up your order of play, because you choose which meeple is last.
• No diagonals. Every step is sideways to an adjacent tile. Hex grids invite diagonal cheating and the designer closed it.
• No immediate backtracking. You cannot drop the next meeple back onto the tile you just came from, though you can loop around and come back later if you have the meeples for it. A loop takes at least 5 meeples.

You may pass through empty tiles and drop a meeple on each, but you can never end your move on an empty tile. The last meeple has to land on its own colour, and that is the tile where your tribe action and tile action happen.

The old mancala family this comes from is worth a look if the sow and count mechanic is new to you, and our ancient Mancala guide covers the counting and capturing side that 5 Tribes deliberately drops.

The Five Tribes and What Each One Does

Tribe	Colour	Pieces	What the tribe action does
Viziers	Yellow	16	Nothing during play. They are pure endgame points, 1 each plus 10 more for each opponent holding strictly fewer
Elders	White	20	Nothing during play, 2 points each at the end. They are also the currency you spend to take Djinns
Builders	Blue	18	Count the blue valued tiles around your final tile including that tile, multiply by the blue meeples you just returned to the bag, and take that many coins
Merchants	Green	18	Return them to the bag and take the same number of resource cards from the front of the face up row
Assassins	Red	18	Return them to the bag and kill one meeple per Assassin, within that many tiles of your final tile, choosing the colour

Two of those rows are the whole game. Green Merchants are how you build a Merchandise set, blue Builders are how you turn the board into money, and red Assassins are how you make your opponent’s good position go away. Yellow and white do nothing all game, which is exactly why everyone fights over the last yellow meeple on the board.

Fakirs multiply. Discarding a Fakir adds 1 to the Builder multiplier, and each Fakir discarded adds 1 tile of range to your Assassins. That is the only use for a Fakir card, apart from buying a Djinn at a Sacred Place.

Assassins can steal tiles. If your kill empties a tile completely, you take that tile immediately, but only if you still have a camel free. Take a tile with your move and you cannot also take one with Assassins that turn.

What Are the Tiles and What Do They Score?

Tile	Colour	Action and cost	Victory points on the tile
Village	Blue	Place a palace. Compulsory	5
Sacred Places	Blue	Pay 2 Elders, or 1 Elder and 1 Fakir, to take any Djinn you want from the 3 face up	6, 10, 12 or 15
Small Market	Red	Pay 3 coins for any 1 of the first 3 resource cards	4
Large Market	Red	Pay 6 coins for any 2 of the first 6 resource cards	6
Oasis	Red	Place a palm tree. Compulsory	8

Only Oasis and Village are compulsory, marked with a red arrow in the rulebook. Everything else you take if you can afford it, which is why the same tile changes value completely depending on your bank.

The two tile types you cannot afford are also the two that pay best, which is the tension the economy runs on. A 15 point Sacred Place next to four others is the best tile in the game, and buying it costs you two Elders you may have wanted for another Djinn.

There are 12 blue valued tiles and 18 red valued, and Builders only count the blue ones. Ending your move in the middle of blue country with four blue meeples in hand is how you buy a Djinn you cannot otherwise afford.

How Do You Score in 5 Tribes?

Nothing is scored while you play. The game ends, then you add seven piles.

Pile	What it scores
Gold coins	1 point each, and this is usually the biggest line on the sheet
Viziers	1 point each, plus 10 points per Vizier for every opponent holding strictly fewer than you
Elders	2 points each, the ones you never turned into a Djinn
Djinns	The value printed on each card, and some also have an end game condition in the text
Tiles you control	The value printed on each tile your camels sit on
Palm trees and palaces on your tiles	3 points per palm tree, 5 per palace
Merchandise sets	The ladder below, for each set of all different cards

The Vizier line is the one that decides games and the one people misread most. It is not “the most Viziers scores double”. It is 1 point each for everybody, then 10 more per Vizier for each opponent who is strictly behind you. At four players, a clear leader is scoring 31 per Vizier while the others score 1, which is why a single extra yellow meeple in the last round is worth more than a whole Oasis.

Merchandise scores on sets of all different types, not on matches.

Cards in one set	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Points	1	3	7	13	21	30	40	50	60

There are only six Merchandise types in the box, Ivory, Jewels, Gold, Papyrus, Silk and Spice, so the biggest single set is six cards for 30 points. Extra sets come from what is left over, which is why duplicates are not a wasted card if they complete a second set. Fakirs score nothing at game end. They are a resource, not a set.

The same ladder is also the price list for selling Merchandise during play: discard a set of all different cards and take that many coins from the bank. Selling early is a safety valve when you are broke, and it costs you the points.

What Are the Djinns and How Do You Get One?

There are 22 Djinn cards, 3 face up at any time. The only way to take one is to end your move on a Sacred Place and pay 2 Elders, or 1 Elder and 1 Fakir, then choose which of the 3 face up you want. If you are out of Elders, you are out of Djinns, and Elders are also worth 2 points each, so every Djinn is a real trade.

A Djinn gives you its printed points at the end, and many also carry a special power. Powers with a cost can only be used once per turn and only on your own turn. You are allowed to use a power the moment you take the card, and 22 cards in a deck of 22 means you will see most of them.

Djinns are the reason the row of three face up cards is the most valuable strip on the table. The Elders you spend are the same Elders you would have scored, so a Djinn is a bet that its printed points beat the two Elders you gave up.

Are There Elephants, Keys, and Level Bonuses in 5 Tribes?

No, and it is worth saying plainly, because search results and other reviews keep inventing them. There are no elephants, there is no key token, and there is no level or track to climb. The markers in this game are camels, and with The Artisans of Naqala you also get one tent per player. The only tokens you place on tiles are 12 palm trees and 10 palaces.

What people are usually remembering is one of these three real things:

• The camel limit is the real “level”. You get 8 camels at 3 or 4 players, 11 at 2, and the game ends the moment you place your last one. Every tile you take costs you a level of your own progress.
• The Merchandise ladder is a bonus track, the 1 to 60 table above, and it climbs steeply enough to decide a game on its own.
• The fabulous cities in the expansion are a step bonus, worth 5, 20, 45, 80 or 125 points for controlling one, two, three, four or all five. That is the closest thing in this game to a level bonus, and it arrives with Whims of the Sultan.

Can You Play 5 Tribes With Five Players?

Not in the base box. The base game is 2 to 4, and the official fifth player is the Whims of the Sultan expansion, which is also the only way to get a 6 by 6 board. The one line in its own rulebook that catches people out is that the fifth player is only possible by adding at least one expansion that adds tiles.

What the expansion changes:

• New bid and turn order tracks for 5 players, with two spots each at 1, 3 and 5 coins. Unlike the base game, two players can bid the same number, and the second one to choose a value pushes the first up the track and plays before them.
• A bigger board. With Whims of the Sultan alone, all 36 tiles are laid as a 6 by 6 square. With Artisans of Naqala as well, the middle 4 by 5 block is built first and the remaining tiles are laid around it to make a 6 by 7 grid.
• 5 fabulous cities with the 5, 20, 45, 80 and 125 bonus ladder, plus a new tile action that hands you the Whim of the Sultan card sitting on that city.
• 22 Whim of the Sultan cards, one face up on each city. Meet the requirement and you take the coins printed on it; cards still in hand at the end are worth nothing and cost you nothing.
• The Great Lake, an impassable tile that stays empty. Every palace or palm tree next to it is worth double, 10 and 6 instead of 5 and 3, so it is the best defensive tile on the board.
• Extra components: 15 more meeples, 8 camels, 1 tent, 1 turn marker, 42 gold coins and 2 Djinns.

If your group is five and you do not want to buy anything, our best board games for 5 players guide has games that seat five with nothing to assemble.

Which Version of 5 Tribes Should You Buy?

What you want	What to buy	Why
The base game, and the one to buy	5 Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala	2 to 4 players, 40 to 80 minutes, 90 wooden meeples and 22 Djinns. Complete on its own
A fifth player and a bigger board	5 Tribes: Whims of the Sultan	Adds the 5 player tracks, 5 fabulous cities, the Great Lake and 22 Whim cards
A sixth tribe and a tent	5 Tribes: The Artisans of Naqala	Purple Artisans craft items, tents score extra on red tiles, and mountains and a Chasm break up the board
A mean game night	5 Tribes: The Thieves of Naqala	A mini expansion of 6 thief cards and 1 Djinn, sold on its own or as a bundle
Something your children can actually win	Nothing official	There is no younger edition of 5 Tribes. Play it with adults, or pick a different game for the family table

The honest buying order is base game first, then Whims of the Sultan if your group is five or you want the fabulous cities, then Artisans if you have played the base game enough to want a sixth tribe. Thieves is the cheap one and it is a good gift for someone who owns the box already.

• Similarities: Engine building, a shared contested board, and set collection that decides the winner.
• Differences: 5 Tribes has no engine that snowballs and no fixed player board. Everything happens on one 30 tile map, and a good turn can be dismantled by an opponent three turns later.
• Why this game fans will enjoy it: If you want a modern Euro that plays a little more tactically and a lot less smoothly, this is the version where the position you built is genuinely in danger.

Is 5 Tribes Good for Kids?

Not at the ages the box allows and not for the reason people usually give. The rules are readable at about 11. The barrier is the length and the downtime, because a 40 to 80 minute game with three adults thinking is roughly 20 minutes of your child’s life spent watching.

The one thing younger players do enjoy is the physical part. Laying 30 tiles and dropping 90 meeples in sets of three is genuinely satisfying setup, and a 9 year old can be trusted with it. The moment after that is where it stops being their game.

The trade is worth it in one direction. Play it with your kids as the grown up who teaches, not as a game they join halfway, and put the family game on the table either side of it. Our best board games for teens list is where we look when Emma is the player rather than the spectator, and if the problem is rules overhead rather than strategy, our guide to games for kids who dislike complex rules is the honest alternative.

How Many Players Is 5 Tribes Best For?

Three and four is where the game is designed to live, and two is the best two player game in our shelf that nobody puts on a best of list.

Two players is unusual rather than thin. Each player takes 2 turn markers and plays twice per round, so the game has the pace of four turns, and there is no downtime at all. It is the configuration we recommend most often for a couple.

Three players is the sweet spot for learning. The board is busy enough that players get in each other’s way, but not so busy that a good move is erased before it lands.

Four players is the hardest and the most interactive. Every tile you want is contested, the Assassins have three targets instead of one, and the Vizier majority bonus is worth more because there are more opponents to be ahead of. Our Splendor review is the opposite shape if you want four players with less interference, each building a private engine instead of fighting over one map.

Our House Strategy, Not Official Rules

Everything above is the printed game. This part is what we actually do at the table, and none of it is in the rulebook.

1. Bid for position, not for tempo. Only bid high on a round where you have already seen a move you want to make. Coins are points.
2. Plan the drop order before you touch the board. Lay the meeples down sideways as you plan, then stand them up. The last meeple chooses your tribe, so the order is the decision.
3. Count blue tiles before you commit the Builders. Do the maths on the board first, because the multiplier is the whole point and the Fakir bonus is worth planning around.
4. Save one Elder. You need Elders for Djinns, and a hand of Djinns you cannot pay for is worth nothing.
5. Take the tile you end on, not the tile you pass through. Controlling more tiles feeds every Djinn condition at once.
6. With Assassins, kill the colour you want them to have, not the colour they have most. Removing a Builder is usually better than removing a Vizier.
7. Hold Merchandise until the last round unless you are broke. The sale and the score use the same ladder, so selling early costs you points unless it saves the game.
8. At two players, play your two markers on opposite sides of the track. It stops you playing twice in a row, which the rules allow and which feels bad.

5 Tribes FAQs

How many players can play 5 Tribes? Two to four in the base game, and each player takes two turns per round when you play two. A fifth player is only possible with the Whims of the Sultan expansion, which brings its own 5 player bid and turn order tracks.

How long does a game of 5 Tribes take? The box and the rulebook both say 40 to 80 minutes. Four players who enjoy the bidding maths sit at the long end, and a confident pair usually finishes nearer the short end because nobody is waiting between turns.

What age is 5 Tribes suitable for? The box says 13 and up. The rules are readable from about 11, but the 40 to 80 minute length and the downtime between turns are what actually stop younger players, not the complexity of the rules.

How do you win in 5 Tribes? By having the most victory points when the game ends. The game ends after the turn in which a player places his last camel, or as soon as no legal meeple move is left, and then everyone adds up their seven piles.

How do you move in 5 Tribes? You pick up every meeple from one tile and drop them one at a time on adjacent tiles as you move. No diagonals, no immediate backtracking, and the last meeple you drop has to land on a tile already holding that same colour.

How many points are 3 of a kind in 5 Tribes? None. Merchandise does not score on matches at all. It scores on sets of all different types, worth 1, 3, 7, 13, 21 and up to 30 points for a set of six, and the same ladder is what you get if you sell the set during play.

Are there elephants in 5 Tribes? No. There are no elephants, no key tokens and no level track. The markers are camels, one per tile you take, plus 12 palm trees and 10 palaces, and the tent only arrives if you own The Artisans of Naqala.

Do you need the expansions to enjoy 5 Tribes? No. The base game has 22 Djinns, 30 tiles and five tribes and it is a complete experience. Buy Whims of the Sultan for the fifth player and the fabulous cities, and Artisans of Naqala for the sixth tribe, but neither is required.

Can you play 5 Tribes with two players? Yes, and it is one of the best two player games available. Each player takes 11 camels and 2 turn markers and plays twice per round, so there is no downtime, and the board is small enough that every move is contested.

The Verdict on 5 Tribes

5 Tribes is a Mancala game with an economy printed on top of it, and the combination works better than it has any right to. The pick up and sow movement is the hook, the last meeple same colour rule is the puzzle, and the seven pile score sheet is where a game decided in the last round still produces a real argument about who was ahead when.

Two things to know before you buy. Bidding costs you victory points, so the player who spends the most to play first is often the player who loses. And the Vizier majority bonus is worth 10 points per Vizier per opponent you are ahead of, which means a single yellow meeple matters more at the end than any tile.

If you want the same weight of modern Euro for a different reason, our Dune Imperium strategy guide covers the game where the worker placement is conventional and the card timing is the whole fight, and our Lost Cities review is the sharpest contrast we own, because there your set collection costs you 20 points before it ever scores. This one is also the game most often handed to new players without its punchboard, so if your copy is missing pieces, our guide to games that still work without the rulebook explains what to do about a lost manual. The summary sheets are the other thing worth protecting.