Tasty Minstrel Games Gentes

In many civilization games, you are tasked with acquiring workers, resources, maybe some knowledge and influence, and you never have enough time (in game actions) to do everything you wish. The economy of decisions is the primary appeal. In Gentes, you can take more time to do some big things, but the longer you wait, the more opportunities your opponents have to crowd you out of places that you need to visit to make those big moves really pay off. You have a personal board with 6 different types of workers that can be used in combinations to accomplish tasks on cards that you draft from the board. These cards are best used when their abilities combine to build an engine that generates money, points or other resources. There is also a common board with spaces that players will claim for various effects. Generally the first player to stake a claim gets the best value, but you can double up on your personal time track to gain more from these spaces. The downside, is that you'll have fewer actions in the next phase of the game. It's an excellent mechanic that allows you to essentially "buy now and pay later." There are so many things you can do on your turn and so many strategies you can use to win, that combined with the unique time-track mechanic I don't think I would ever turn down an opportunity to play Gentes even with hundreds of games in my collection. Edit: I included a photo of my personal board from the "deluxified" edition. The one sold here is the standard edition from TMG. Same game, but without any expansions or blinged-out components.

I found the game easy to learn and had some very interesting mechanics. The timing of the hourglasses made for some interesting decisions. Overall a good strategy game.