The Extremely Condensed Guide to Tigris & Euphrates

or: How to take over the Cradle of Civilization in 8 easy steps

1. Start by placing a leader or two next to a red temple. Add tiles of the leaders’ colour. Blue tiles only go on the river. Gain a victory point each time you connect a tile to your leader of the right colour. Congratulations, you now have a kingdom.

1a. Twist: You can hook up any colour to the black leader for a point.

2. Add more tiles to beef up your kingdom. Put some red tiles right next to your leaders to make them more secure.

3. Connect to another kingdom weaker in those colours and smash it to bits for victory points and that warm feeling. Tiles players have hidden in their hand add to their strength in that colour.

4. Do this in all four colours. If you can. Your actual score is the lowest of your four colour scores.

4a. Connect your green leader to two different temples with treasures to gain delicious joker victory points. These count as whatever colour you need most.

5. A kingdom has only room for one leader of each colour. If you cannot smash a kingdom, put your leader on a temple in there and kick out the other guy of that colour. You need red tiles in your hand for this. Temples next to you and the other guy add to your strengths.

6. Place 4 tiles of the same colour to build a monument. This is an automatic victory point dispenser. Connect two leaders in the colours of the monument to it and enjoy.

7. If you’re feeling desperate or just in the mood, place a catastrophe. Break up kingdoms. Destroy temples to kick out leaders. Leave craters in the landscape. Fun!

(8. — optional – Wear a hat with horns on it and call yourself King of Kings, Master of the Four Corners of the World, ruler of all the realms from the Upper Waters to the Lower Waters. Then play another game and get destroyed.)