Continues if you are looking for games like Five Tribes and are curious about what similar games to play next. The game begins with meeples already in place – and players must cleverly maneuver them over the villages, markets, oases, and sacred places tiles that make up Naqala. How, when, and where you dis-place these Five Tribes of Assassins, Elders, Builders, Merchants, and Viziers determine your victory or failure.
To determine this list we broke down Five Tribes to what it is. It is all about a strategic sprucing up the Mancala mechanic. It lends itself well to some extra bells and whists and both long and short term strategy. If you are looking for something similar, you have come to the right place. We took all this into consideration and came up with this list of the 5 board games like Five Tribes.
FOR MORE: Five Tribes Page | Buy Five Tribes on Amazon
#05 | Yamatai
Yamatai just makes the list of games like Five Tribes because it has the same designer, Bruno Cathala, and has many similar elements going on. It may be a different game, focused exclusively on network building, but it is still about so many different areas all living harmoniously with one another.
Players compete to build palaces, torii, and their own buildings in the land of Yamatai. The game includes ten numbered action tiles, each showing one or more colored ships and with most showing a special action. You shuffle these tiles, place them in a row, then reveal one more than the number of players. On a turn, each player chooses a tile, collects the depicted ships from the reserve, optionally buys or sells one ship, then places the ships on the board for an ideal outcome. For 2 – 4 players, games run 40 – 80 minutes.
FOR MORE: Buy Yamatai on Amazon
#04 | A Fistful of Meeples
A Fistful of Meeples makes the list of games like Five Tribes because it is also is Mancala meets worker-placement in a thematic explosion. Here you just happen to be in the American West instead of an Arabian setting. Both are simple to learn but impossible to master like all great games of its type.
On your turn you’ll grab a Fistful of Meeples and place them around the street in this high tension wild west game. Take actions such as: mining for gold, building businesses, dueling in the street, and setting off explosive jail breaks! After the dust has settled, the player with the most points wins. For 2 – 4 players, games last roughly 30 minutes.
FOR MORE: Buy A Fistful of Meeples on Amazon
#03 | Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done
Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done makes the list of games like Five Tribes because it ticks all the boxes of that thematic mancala evolution. Here you are in a medieval setting instead of an Arabian one but you have similar motivations and challenges to overcome.
The game uses a combination of rondel (wheel representing possible actions) and mancala (moving pieces triggers the moving of other pieces around a circle until you run out) mechanisms. Each player has their own rondel, which they can upgrade over the course of the game, that controls their action choices during the game. Your faction gives you a special power to control your rondel, and the buildings you erect will help you form a strategy. For 2 – 4 players, games run 40 – 60 minutes.
FOR MORE: Buy Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done on Amazon
#02 | Finca
Another great thematic mancala title on the list of games like Five Tribes in Finca. Out of all the games on this list, this is probably the most boiled down. If all you want to take away from Five Tribes is that you like mancala and you like when it is dressed up with pretty characters and story, this is the title on the list for you. It is down to the essentials but they did the theme in a way that is satisfying and properly ties everything together.
Finca takes you to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. Players try to crop and deliver the fruits of Mallorca (such as oranges, lemons, almonds, grapes etc) by means of moving workers on a traditional windmill. This mimics the classic Mancala board situation. The object of the game is to distribute your crop as effectively as possible in order to deliver faster than your opponents. For 2 – 4 players, games last around 45 minutes.
FOR MORE: Buy Finca on Amazon
#01 | Trajan
You can see the pattern, it is all about a subtle build on the ancient classic mancala. The top spot on the list of games like Five Tribes, Trajan, has that in spades and it is a fantastic game. It is one of the most popular board games in existence and certainly well known by many. Like Five Tribes, Trajan adds some great accents which build on the thematics and pull you in.
Set in ancient Rome, Trajan is a development game in which players try to increase their influence and power in various areas of Roman life such as political influence, trading, military dominion and other important parts of Roman culture. A player has six possible actions: building, trading, taking tiles from the forum, using the military, influencing the Senate, and placing Trajan tiles on his tableau. For 2 – 4 players, games go for around 1 – 2 hours.
