More about the scholars!

In our first post about Scholars of the South Tigris I concentrated on the dice aspect of the game, because it’s so important and unique. Mixing the colors of your 2 played dice to get the value and/or color that you need for a specific action? I definitely haven’t seen something like that before! 🤯 But there are many more nuances and clever ideas in the game design! 🕵️

The way you take 1 of the 4 actions of the game is by playing one of your cards into the appropriate slot of your player board. There is a limited amount of slots so you can only do each action once or twice, then you have to rest. 💤 Your cards all work the same, allowing you to place one or two dice on them to power the action, however they each have a different Rest bonus - mostly activating income from the 6 knowledge tracks.

Which brings me to the tracks. 😉 Research and some effects allow you to go up on these. Odd spaces will give a one-time bonus, while even spaces increase the income you get. But you have to be aware that you only get income from tracks for which you've played a card! Plus the order of your cards is important too, because you activate them strictly from left to right! 😮 Tracks are sometimes boring in games, but in Scholars it's super interesting and a central element! 😊

So what are these 4 actions? 🧐
🙋 Recruit: you can discard a translator card for a one-time bonus, or employ one if you can pay the cost. Translators are the heart of the game, as they translate the scrolls you gather to Arabic.
📊 Research: move one of your markers up a track
🧭 Travel: you can move around on a rondel, either gaining some resources, or putting a scroll into the House of Wisdom if you have enough coins.
✒️ Translate: you can translate a scroll in the House of Wisdom if you can pay enough gold to the translators. If you do, you get the scroll which has an end-game scoring condition, meaning you can hand-tailor your goals each game.

There is a nice rhythm to the game, as you are always either short on coins or gold, so you have to do each action, but there are always more ways to get what you need!