The stakes are high in both desert and sky
WAYFARERS OF THE SOUTH TIGRIS
Designer: Shem Phillips & S J Macdonald | Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Kicking off Garphill Games latest series following the North Sea and West Kingdom trilogies is Wayfarers of the South Tigris, a worker and dice placement title of cartographic set-collection. But that sounds somewhat reductive; it turns out mapping the land, seas, and stars surrounding Baghdad is a touch more complex than that. Indeed, across it’s substantial (yet variable) gamelength, players will be optimising their own dice-placement spots, navigating an unpredictable market of public workers, and building a personal panoramic tableau from no less than five different decks.
So, as you might’ve guessed, Wayfarers leans toward the heavier end of Garphill’s spectrum, but does this weight lead to something that feels fun or new? The short answer is yes. Fans of the previous trilogies might find themselves in familiar territory – thanks to the aesthetics and mechanical touches such as Tags and card combining – but will likely lose themselves once Wayfarers’ unique blend of mechanics kicks in. Thankfully, this initial disorientation soon gives way to the realisation that the real weight and originality here comes from the meaty decision making players have let themselves in for; decisions that can either make or devastatingly break a player’s strategy.
Whilst players begin the game with a couple of workers, they do not exclusively own them. Instead, Wayfarers opts for a far more interactive solution to worker management by having them fall into the possession of whoever adds the cards they sit upon to their tableau. In this sense, it’s entirely possible for a player to hold a monopoly on workers – although the more likely result is their almost organic circulation amongst players. It’s a fascinating approach to the genre and sits well beside the more dominant dice-placement mechanics occurring within the game.
Turns typically revolve around players either assigning a die to one of the available action spots within their tableau, or sending a worker out to one of twenty cards surrounding the main board. These cards are organised into five sections representing Townsfolk, Space, Land, Sea, and Inspiration, and placing a worker upon one subsequently activates the ability printed above or below.
The dice-placement too has its own twists, particularly in regard to the customisation of each players’ Caravan. Displayed rather abstractly at the top of the player boards, the Caravan comprises of a grid set beneath a row of die pips. Over time, tiles depicting the symbols needed for certain actions will fill the grid, giving the die result above those particular benefits. It’s a brilliant take on die customisation merged with polyomino mechanics, one which would be exciting to see developed in future games, but in this form makes for an engaging mini-puzzle.
Elevating the challenge of Wayfarers dramatically is the sense of risk tied up with the Journaling track. Looking much like a tech-tree, this is where players track their progress, with each junction presenting a choice of prerequisites which must be satisfied before advancing. Once a player reaches a final spot the game end is triggered. But racing through this track is foolish, as without meticulous planning it is not uncommon to reach a junction whose prerequisites cannot be fulfilled. Players falling into this trap might be tempted to call the game ‘broken’, but viewed in a different light this potential for punishment signifies a precision and craft extending to both the game’s design and how players should approach it.
With this in mind, Wayfarers may not be the most accessible or inviting title in Garphill Games generally approachable catalogue, but its masterful blending and reinventing of mechanics, alongside the challenge it presents, makes for an irresistibly moreish experience for seasoned gamers.
CHAD WILKINSON
WE SAY
A genuinely challenging puzzle packed with engaging and original mechanics.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗7 Game Boards
◗166 Cards
◗20 Dice
◗76 Wooden Tokens
◗168 Cardboard Tokens
◗ Plastic Insert
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED PALADINS OF THE WEST KINGDOM...
Similarly weighted and both packed with ‘The Mico’s’ fantastic art.