Wayfarers of the South Tigris – 5 Days to go for the Kickstarter!

I admit it.

I’m a Garphill Games fanboy.

I love almost everything they’ve produced (though I’m not a rabid one, as there are a few of their games that I’m not interested in, and I am not a big fan of Explorers of the North Sea).

All of this is to say that when they announced the first game in the “South Tigris” trilogy of games, Wayfarers of the South Tigris, I was there instantly.

The Kickstarter has 5 days left in it, so you can go back it today! Warning: there is no Pledge Manager or late pledging, so if you want it sooner than retail, you’d better get cracking.

Of course, you can wait for retail as there are no Kickstarter-only add-ons. But you won’t get it quite as fast.

I backed it the first day, but you know what made me think that this may turn out to be my favourite of this series of games designed by Shem Phillips and SJ Macdonald? Even beating out Architects of the West Kingdom?

The 2-player playthrough that Shem and Sam did for it.

This game looks freakin’ amazing!!!!

The artwork looks stellar, as usual.

What is this game about?

Let’s quote the Kickstarter.

“Wayfarers of the South Tigris is set during the height of the Abbasid Caliphate, circa 820 AD. As brave explorers, cartographers and astronomers, players set off from Baghdad to map the surrounding land, waterways, and heavens above. Players must carefully manage their caravan of workers and equipment, while reporting back regularly to journal their findings at the House of Wisdom. Will you succeed in impressing the Caliph, or lose your way and succumb to the wilderness?”

Just from observing the playthrough, I love how you start with your playerboard and you are building a tableau of sea and land cards, as well as the night sky above, all extending out from your board. The symbols on the cards can chain together to get massive bonuses.

Like the other games, you can hire townsfolk, but in this case they just make some of your actions better. They don’t have actions of their own.

I guess technically some do, but they are more like “when you take this action, you can also do this.” You can’t specifically choose a townsfolk’s action.

All the mechanisms seem to really go together and give you lots of options, different paths to scoring points. The decision space does look quite large, so even though the rules are simple, the number of things you can do might cause some AP?

Whatever.

Watch the video to see how it plays. And then go back this.

It’s already way past its funding goal, but still.

Don’t you want it before the stores get it?

Let me know what you think of this.

What is your favourite Garphill Games game?