Announcing the Return of a Classic Game

The king surveyed his territory, wondering where to build a temple to the goddess Inanna, a promised reward for her help in ending a rebellion. The city was crowded thick with houses and markets, bounded by the Tigris River and ringed by the bright colors of cultivated land. His eyes finally came to rest on a flat-topped hill looming over the city’s northern edge, long held by another king. There had been decades of peace between the two kings, but the temple must be built or else the goddess would exact terrible vengeance for the broken promise. The king had no choice. It was time for that peace to end.

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to be publishing Tigris & Euphrates, Reiner Knizia’s award-winning tile placement game, in which two to four players take on the roles of rulers building civilizations in ancient Mesopotamia.

This edition of Tigris & Euphrates maintains the game’s original mechanics while giving it an updated look based on the art of ancient Sumer and Babylon. It also features all the components necessary to play advanced variations, from a double-sided game board and civilization buildings to a wonder tile and accompanying idol.

Nascent Civilizations

Tigris & Euphrates takes you back in time thousands of years to the moment that humans began building permanent settlements. As a ruler amid the chaos of this rapid urban growth, you have the chance to establish a civilization that will endure for centuries. But Mesopotamia is a narrow region, an island of priceless arable land surrounded by vast deserts with only enough space for one dynasty to flourish. If you want to make a mark on history, you must subjugate your opponents and develop the region’s strongest, most magnificent civilization. Only one ruler can dominate the fertile crescent!

You begin your civilization by placing a leader and a tile – either a blue farm, red settlement, green market, or black temple on the board to form a kingdom. Each type of tile has a leader token of the same color, and when you place a tile in the same kingdom as its corresponding leader, you earn a victory point.

Your goal is not only to build the largest civilization, but also the healthiest one, balanced between commerce, agriculture, housing, and religion. All four spheres of civilization are entwined and necessary. Markets without nearby settlements will be empty. Without farms, a city will starve. Without temples, th e people cannot appease the gods. The strength of a player’s civilization is measured in victory points, and whoever has the most points in their weakest sphere wins.

Competing Dynasties and Lasting Monuments

Growth breeds conflict. Dynasties may coexist peacefully for a little while, but soon the region’s limited resources will set even vowed allies at odds. Another dynasty’s leader may try to weaken you by inciting rebellion among your people and forcing you to fight for your own territory. Whichever leader has the most divine support – the most temples – controls the rebelling area. Wars occur when two kingdoms are united under leaders of the same color, and wars are fought using tiles of that color. If by placing a tile you unite two kingdoms with blue leaders, for example, you must muster more farm tiles than your opponent in order to win.

As your civilization develops and your dynasty persists, you may want to erect a monument to its greatness, a four-tile brick and stone edifice that your people can take pride in. You may construct a civilization building for your people, such as a library, granary, or palace, or even build a massive five-tile wonder crowned with an idol and visible for miles around. Wars and rebellions may ruin farms, destroy settlements, and close markets, but monuments cannot destroyed. They can, however, be taken over by another ruler, and building a monument may make you the target of an envious neighbor seeking to enhance his own power.

Civilization Begins

Mesopotamia was once an unsettled wilderness, its soil unbroken by plow, its landscape free of homes and ziggurats. Once its wealth was discovered, not just farms and homes, but entire cities appeared and quickly expanded. As the population grew, the region became densely crowded with competing monarchs, each trying to rule over as much territory as possible. Generations of warfare ensued, until one dynasty emerged victorious and ruled the region for centuries. Do you have the leadership and strategic skill it takes to create a balanced civilization, defeat your opponents, and found a dynasty to last the ages?

The struggle to dominate the fertile crescent begins in first quarter of 2015. Until then, look for more information and detailed previews on the Tigris & Euphrates minisite.

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