In the land of Ethnos, the players are leaders seeking to reunite the six kingdoms. To do this, they must grow a force drawn from six different tribes of fantasy creatures. Leaders must use each race’s unique ability to gain dominance over the other players and the land. One Ally from the Band of Allies is assigned the leader. The leader's colour designates which region the player may place a control marker if they have played enough cards. The leader's race also determined the power a player uses that turn. In Ethnos, players call upon the support of giants, merfolk, halfings, minotaurs, and other fantasy tribes to help them gain control of the land. After three ages of play, whoever has collected the most glory wins! How to Play Ethnos Round-Up Some area control games can have opponents messing with your pieces, moving them or killing them to gain control of regions. Thisstyle of game can be frustrating for some, especially when it ruins a move or a strategy built throughout a game. Ethnos is not one of these games, instead focusing on simply building more control than other opponents. Are There Any Issues? At the end of the Second Age, the player with the most Control markers in a Kingdom earns Glory equal to the highest token there. Unlike the normal game, the player with the second-most Control markers does not earn any Glory for that Kingdom.

All Control markers on the main game board, the Merfolk board, and the players' Orc Horde boards, if any, remain for the next Age. All Troll and Giant tokens must be returned to the side of the main game board.Players win 'Glory' at the end of each age by having the most control markers in each kingdom. They add control markers by sending in a Band of Allies. But only if they play more Allies than they have existing markers already in that region. A Band of Allies is a group of cards that you play together from your hand. A Band can include anywhere from 1 to 10 cards. All of the cards in a Band must belong to the same Tribe (i.e., have the same name and art) or to the same Kingdom (i.e., have the same color). Turn over only five of the Setup cards (instead of six). There will only be five Tribes in the game. a. If the Merfolk are in play, place the Merfolk board next to the main game board with the side matching the number of players in the game face up. Each player places one of their Control markers on the "0" space of the Merfolk board. In case of a tie, the winner is the tied player with the most Control markers on the board. If a tie persists, victory goes to the largest Band of Allies played in the last Age, then second largest, and so on.

On your mention of Skat that is similar to the game 500 (pretty common in New Zealand and Australia and the Northern US and Canada from what I hear - well, at least in the 70s & 80s) where there are... Having a bit of lighter fun with people at the local club playing Forgotten Waters. The only disappointment is that because there's around 20 people playing different games in a pub's function room... There are 12 different races available with only six in each game (five in the 2-3 player version). The Centaur’s power, for example, allows a player to send a second Band of Allies into Ethnos on their turn. The power of the Wingfolk is to place a control marker on any kingdom no matter what colour the leader is, although the size of the band still has to allow for the placement in that region. Example: if there are 2 of your markers, and 1 of your opponent, to add a marker you need to play a Band with at least 4 cards.The variation of the races in each game makes for a tonne of things to think about. Only half of those available are so you’re never really playing the same game each time. Also, due to them not being in the game all the time there’s no ‘one strategy’. Races Lay down the cards you want to include in the Band in front of you-remember that they must all be the same color or Tribe. At the end of an age, of which there are three, the leader with the most control markers gains the most glory. In the second age, both first and second place winners gain glory, and in the third, the top three players willscore. At the end of the game, the leader with the most glory wins! A Deeper Look Into The Rules