Targi (game)

Targi
Game data
author	Andreas Steiger
graphic	Franz Vohwinkel
publishing company	cosmos
Publishing year	2012
Art	Card game
Teammates	2
Duration	about 60 minutes
Age	from 12 years
Awards
	À la carte card ; game award 2012 Kennerspiel des Jahres 2012: nominated ; German Games Award 2012: 6th place ; International Gamers Award 2012: nominated

Targi is a card game and the first publication by the German game designer Andreas Steiger . The game was published by Kosmos in 2012 , and Franz Vohwinkel was responsible for the graphic design . Targi won the “ à la carte card game award” in 2012 and was nominated for the “ Kennerspiel des Jahres ” award.

Plot and game play

Targi is the name of a male member of the Tuareg , a Berber people living in central West Africa . One of the tasks of the Targi is trading, which plays an essential role in the game. As tribal leaders, both players send their tribe members to purchase dates , salt , pepper and gold , which in turn can be exchanged for certain advantages for their own tribe. The actual goal is to collect as many victory points as possible .

The game material includes:

80 cards (45 tribal cards, 19 commodity cards, 16 border cards)
3 Targi figures and 2 tribal markers per player
1 robber figure
30 goods tokens (each 10 × dates, salt and pepper)
8 gold coins
15 victory point markers

Before the start of the game, a “game board” is put together from 5 × 5 cards. The 16 edge cards form the constant frame, the missing nine cards in the middle are added from the tribal and commodity cards that were previously separately shuffled and stacked face down. Each player receives his figures and markers, two trade goods each, one gold coin and four victory points. The robber starts next to one of the edge cards.

The course of the game is divided into rounds. At the beginning of each round, the robber is placed on the next edge card; this cannot be used by the players in the round. If it is a corner card, both players lose some trade goods, gold or victory points. Now the players alternately place their three Targi figures on each unoccupied edge card. The four corner cards, the card with the robber and positions opposite an opposing figure may not be used. The placement of the figures automatically results in one or two "intersection points" in the map field in the middle, which are marked with the tribal markers. The evaluation of all cards marked in this way follows:

Edge cards either add trade goods to a player's supply or allow certain actions to be carried out. They remain unchanged after use.
Goods cards in the middle are used to acquire trade goods, gold or victory points and are removed from the game after they have been evaluated.
Tribal cards always bring victory points and often an additional advantage, but cost the player a certain amount of trade goods and / or gold. Some of the advantages work immediately (for example, the opponent receives a disadvantage for the next round), at the end of the game (extra points for certain cards collected) or for each of the following rounds (receiving additional trade goods). The players take acquired tribal cards and place them in their display. The symbol printed on each tribal card still plays a role here, as certain symbol combinations give additional victory points at the end of the game.

The cards taken from the card field are replaced by new ones from the deck, then a new round begins. The game ends when a player has been able to add 12 tribal cards to his display, otherwise after 16 rounds at the latest, when the robber reaches the fourth corner. The player with the most victory points wins.

Awards and reviews

In 2012 Targi was awarded the “ à la carte card game award” and was also on the nomination list for “ Kennerspiel des Jahres ”. In its reasoning, the jury for Game of the Year wrote:

“The small box contains a comparatively large and exciting strategy game with a long-lasting appeal. This is mainly due to the ingenious intersection mechanism, which repeatedly has dilemmas in store for both opponents. Only rarely do you get a chance in all the desired actions. But which option should be given priority? While you think about it, the atmospheric drawings on the cards transport you into the Tuareg culture. "

- Jury game of the year

Targi achieved 6th place at the “ German Games Prize ” and was also nominated at the International Gamers Awards in the “General Strategy: 2-Player” category.

The reviews of Targi were consistently positive to very positive. In particular, the reviewers praised the innovative and successful placement mechanism, the harmonious mix of tactics and luck, as well as the resulting game depth. Many also liked the simple graphic design. However, several reviewers criticized the insufficient number of victory point tiles contained.

background

Originally the game was supposed to be called Tuareg . Under this name, however, a card game by Francesco Berardi was published by Adlung-Spiele in 2011 . Despite the thematic similarity, there is no connection between the two games.

The author then justified the insufficient number of victory point tiles criticized in some reviews by stating that the original plan was to print numbers on the victory point tiles, but this was apparently forgotten when the material was implemented. This deficiency was corrected in the second edition, since then the victory point markers have been printed with the numerical values 1, 3 and 5.

International distribution

Targi is now also published in other languages: English ( Z-Man Games ), Italian (Giochi Uniti, Stupor Mundi), Greek (Kaissa Chess & Games), Spanish (Devir), French (Filosofia Édition), Dutch ( 999 Games ) and Japanese (Group SNE).

New cover art has been created for the English and most of the European versions , showing a group of Targi with camels. The Japanese edition also shows its own cover in the Manga style, the image contains a reference to the original cover . Only the Greek edition uses the original image.

In Spain the game was published under the title Tuareg .