From the rules: "Conquer and occupy the valuable desert grounds. And also keep your home village ! By tactically moving groups of camels through the different desert grounds and by using its specialties you can rule the desert."
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Targui has a board made of large square tiles representing the different types of desert ground. These provide varying economic and strategic value, from 0-5, and with a salt mine in the center, random distribution (with a little tinkering) makes a varied map each game. Players have a village tile which they place on the outer edge, and start with some camels and money. Your turn simply consists of moving and buying camels if you want to. Each time you move to a fresh adjacent square, you put your color marker on it to show ownership.
If you try to enter a tile owned by another player, a dice battle of attrition takes place. The attacker rolls a d6 and adds the strategic value (SV) of its tile, divides by two, and kills that result of defender's camels. The defender always gets a reply in the same way, (d6 + SV)/2 camels die. The attacker may decide to quit the attack, but if the defender has no camels left, the attacker must walk in at least one camel. This way, only overwhelming attacks can definitely win, since lucky dice rolls can reduce the attackers camels to a Pyhrric victory.
After moving/attacking (or choosing not to move), a player may buy as many camels as money allows into one owned tile.
At the end of a round, players collect money for the economic value of all the land they control. Note, you do not need to keep camels in an area to own it. Simply passing through empty land gets you control, and the more money you can reap, the more camels you can buy.
However, you can only earn money if you still control your home village. In this way, a player might be eliminated by allowing their home village to be occupied, denying income, and unable to buy more camels, attrition will prevent them recapturing their village (unless another player assists).
The game has a deck of 20 fortune cards, some good, some bad. These are numbered, and for a shorter game, a selection is given. These form part of a very clever turn order mechanism in the game. Each player has 5 cards for their tribal colour. At the start of a round, you roll a d6, and on 1-5, each player hands over that number of their cards. One fortune card from the deck is added, and the whole pile is shuffled into a deck for the round. The first card is turned up and that player takes their turn and so on. (On a roll of 6, one player card is used but for a double turn).
In this way, the round has a known but variable number of turns, and turn order within the round is totally random. Add in the effects of the fortune cards (camels die/birth, money is robbed/gifted) and players are not certain what will happen next. One player may get all their moves in early, or get a brief chance to defend against a growing threat.
Targui has very simple mechanisms, and is in effect a simple rolling war game with obvious tactics. But the random turn order creates a wonderful world of rapidly shifting alliances, with players making and breaking promises within moments. Defending your home village is crucial. The winner is not the one with most money or camels, but with the most economic value under their control. Without your village, you have nothing. But as players fight for space, control of the powerful salt mines in the centre becomes vital.
The game plays nicely with 3 or 4 players. Three players mean the leader is under constant barrage, but this switches quickly to the new leader. Four players means more conflict, since there are only six vital oases tiles in the game (worth 3/3), and 4 into 6 does not go!
However, Targui is a long game. Eight rounds takes about three hours, so using the whole deck of 20 fortune cards makes for an over-long game. If you enjoy Risk or light wargaming, then you'll get a lot from Targui. If you dislike dice-rolling or elimination, you won't enjoy Targui much. But if you want a unique experience, playing that randomised turn order mechanism is a real eye-opener. |
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