Thames & Kosmos - "Targi: The Expansion"

Photo above is property of Thames & Kosmos

Company: Thames & Kosmos

Game: Targi: The Expansion

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Tabletop Games (Card Game) 📬

Genre: Strategy, Worker Placement

Date Played: April 14, 2024

Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5/10

Size of Team: 2 Players

Time: Approximately 60 Mins.

Price: $19.95

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Targi is a two player only game, where each person takes control of opposing Tuareg tribes competing to become the most successful traders in the Saharan Desert. Who will accumulate the most wealth and prestige by collecting and trading the precious resources of the desert; dates, salt, pepper, and newly featured with the expansion, water?

This review incorporates the expansion, aptly named ‘Targi: The Expansion’, which features the added resource of water, Dune cards, refined border cards, and a new figure, the Targai.

Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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The beauty of Targi is in its simplicity; quick to setup, fairly easy to teach, and intuitive to play. The game consists of a 5x5 grid of cards, the 16 cards running along the edges are predetermined cards known as border cards, which stay the same for each game. Each offers individual bonuses or actions. The 9 central cards consist of Goods and Tribal cards, which much like the desert sands, will constantly change throughout the game, offering players different bonuses or scoring opportunities.

Players take turns placing one of their four targi meeples onto a border card (not including corner ‘raid’ cards), however you may not place your piece on a card either occupied by your opponent or the robber, or opposite your opponent. Once all pieces have been placed, players activate the rewards of their chosen border cards, plus they get to take the central cards which intersect with the row and column of their meeples.

Tribal cards come with a cost, which you must be able to pay before playing. The cards offer both in game bonuses as well as end of game scoring and should be placed in their own 3x4 grid; once placed, these cards cannot be moved. The placement of the cards can be important to your end game point total depending on the conditions they require.

If you can’t pay for the card immediately, you can keep one card in hand. To play it later, you need to have the resources and place a meeple on the Noble edge card.

Goods cards offer an immediate resource, such as salt or dates, and are then discarded from play.

The Robber moves clockwise around the border cards, starting from the first card, and blocks a different action each turn. He will also perform a raid whenever he visits a corner card, so be sure to have the necessary resources or you’ll have to pay with victory points.

The new Targai figure, like the robber will move to a new card each turn, however she begins on card number 16 and moves counterclockwise. Players will receive a bonus whenever they choose to place a meeple on her space. Her addition to the game presents players with more choice when it comes to placing your meeples; perhaps a space you would not have initially desired suddenly becomes a more intriguing option because she (and her reward) are now on it.

The Targai does offer a second reward to players; you may pay any one good to reveal and receive the top card from the Goods deck. If you don’t like the card, you can pay another good to draw the next card and receive this instead; this may be done as many times as you wish. Unfortunately, this reward is much weaker and almost never used, as you seldom get more out of it than you put in.

The Dune cards are setup away from the main grid, three at a time. These cards offer significant abilities should you choose to go here; however, players will have to sacrifice making an intersection on the main board to do so.

We loved this addition to the game, they offer so much more by the way of choice and strategy, which really mixes up the game play, making each play feel unique. The cards offer diverse and powerful options, but losing that intersection on the board can also be costly. We found that we almost always went to the Dune cards first, either because we wanted the ability for ourselves or because we didn’t want our opponents to get it. Sabotage at its best!

The game finishes once either the robber reaches the last border card or a player places down their twelfth Tribe card. The winner at the end of the game is the player with the most victory points.

Photo above is property of Thames & Kosmos

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The game’s core mechanic is worker placement, players should use their meeples to not only maximize their potential resource haul, but to also limit and frustrate their opponent’s plans.

Our games frequently feature plenty of expletives as one of us would undoubtably cut off the other, foiling their plans for that turn. Everything in the game, resources, victory points, tribal cards, is in full view, so you can likely predict what your opponent might want, and that’s one of the elements which makes the game so fun. Player interaction isn’t huge, but it is a meaningful component; whether you mean to screw someone over or not, it’s going to happen and on more than one occasion.

Set collection and tableau building are important elements for maximizing your protentional victory point total. Long term planning and the ability to pivot, depending on which cards appear on the table, will give you a greater chance for success.

Resource Management is another important aspect to the game, especially with the addition of Water, which is a powerful and rare commodity that acts a bit like a joker. Collecting resources is needed to not only buy Tribal cards, but to also protect your victory points when raids occur. Since Tribal cards filter through the game quite quickly it will be important to try and always have an even spread of resources, but less so when incorporating the expansion. Generating water affords players more options as they can be traded in for coins or goods, or used on their own.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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Despite being first published in 2012 (the expansion coming in 2016), this game still offers one of the best 2 player strategy gaming experiences. Each turn is tight and meaningful with impactful decision making which shouldn’t be affected too much by analysis paralysis. We found the first player switching varied how we would approach each turn, either by being proactive or reactive. On occasions I would sacrifice making an advantageous move for my game in order to disrupt my opponents turn, and she likewise to me. So, players should be aware that confrontation is an unavoidable aspect of this game.

For our gaming tastes, we found the expansion to be a necessary part of the game now, and we’ll never play without it. In addition to the water, Dune cards, and Targai, it also refines several of the border cards and introduces a bunch of new Tribe cards which all contribute to producing a more variable and thoughtful gaming experience. Despite each game taking about an hour to play, we often found the time went quickly and that we wanted to play a second time immediately after.

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Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of the game:

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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Disclosure: We thank Thames & Kosmos for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

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