Tigris & Euphrates

Set up Tigris & Euphrates by placing the main game board in the center of the table. Place red temple tiles and treasure tokens on designated temple spaces, and set out six monuments nearby. Separate the four types of victory point tokens into individual piles, and put all remaining civilization tiles into the cloth drawing bag. Each player chooses a dynasty, taking the corresponding player screen, two catastrophe tokens, and four leader pieces (King, Priest, Farmer, and Trader). Every player draws six random civilization tiles from the bag to keep hidden behind their screen, and places the unification token near the board before randomly selecting a starting player.

The main objective in Tigris & Euphrates is to build prosperous and powerful Mesopotamian kingdoms by strategically placing leaders and civilization tiles across the board. Players compete to earn victory points in four distinct categories represented by colors: red for temples, blue for farms, green for markets, and black for settlements. Success requires balancing your civilization rather than focusing entirely on a single area, as final victory depends heavily on your lowest-scoring color.

The game is played in clockwise turns where each player performs two actions, which can be repeated if desired. Available actions include positioning or moving a leader on an empty land space adjacent to a temple, placing a civilization tile on the board following specific land and river rules, placing a catastrophe token to permanently block a space, or replacing any number of hidden tiles from your hand. After completing actions, players refill their hand to six tiles before passing the turn.

Players score victory points during tile placement when matching colors align with leaders inside a kingdom, during revolts when a leader challenges another of the same color using adjacent temple support, and during wars when kingdoms merge and supporters are counted. Monuments also provide steady scoring opportunities at the end of each player's turn if a matching leader is present in the kingdom. Additionally, treasure tokens collected by traders act as wild victory points that can be assigned to any color during final scoring.

The game of Tigris & Euphrates concludes immediately after a player's turn under two specific conditions: either only one or two treasure tokens remain on the board, or a player needs to draw a tile but the drawing bag is completely empty. Once triggered, players reveal all hidden victory points and assign collected treasures to maximize their scores. Final rankings are decided by comparing each player's lowest-scoring color, with ties broken by checking secondary and subsequent lowest colors until a winner is determined.