How to Play

Ethnos

2-6 players 45-60 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

In Ethnos, players recruit fantasy tribes by collecting matching cards by color or creature type. Each turn, either draw a card or play a band of allies to place tokens in corresponding regions and activate tribal powers. After each age, players with the most tokens in regions claim glory points. Victory goes to whoever accumulates the most glory across three ages.

Published 2017

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Place Glory Tokens

Shuffle Glory Tokens face-down, place 3 per Kingdom on the board, then flip and sort lowest to highest from left to right

Adjust for fewer players

For 2-3 players, remove tokens marked 4+ and place only 2 per Kingdom

Take Control Markers

Each player takes Control Markers in their chosen color and places 1 on the 0 space of the Glory Track

Create the Allies Deck

Shuffle the grey Setup Cards, deal 6 of them, take the corresponding Tribe Decks and shuffle together to form the Allies Deck

Set up Merfolk components

If Merfolk are in play, place the Merfolk Board by the game board and each player puts a Control Marker on its 0 space

Set up Troll components

If Trolls are in play, place all 6 Troll Tokens next to the game board

Set up Giant components

If Giants are in play, place the Giant Token next to the board with the side matching player count face-up

Set up Orc components

If Orcs are in play, give each player 1 Orc Horde board

Deal starting cards

Deal 1 card from the Allies Deck to each player

Create face-up market

Deal face-up cards equal to 2x the number of players

Prepare Dragon Cards

Split remaining Allies Deck in half and shuffle 3 Dragon Cards into the bottom half face-down

Determine start player

Pick a start player for the first Age; for later Ages, last place on Glory Track goes first

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Choose your action

Either draw 1 Ally card OR play a Band of Allies

Draw from market

Take 1 card from the face-up Ally cards without replacing it

Draw from deck

Take 1 card from the top of the Allies Deck

Handle Dragon Cards

If you draw a Dragon card, reveal it, set it aside, and draw another card from the deck

Respect hand limit

Maximum hand size is 10 cards; if you have 10, you must play a band instead of drawing

Form a Band

Select 1-10 cards that all share the same color OR belong to the same Tribe

Designate a Leader

Choose 1 card from the Band to be the leader and place it on top

Place Control Marker

If you have fewer Control Markers in the Leader's Kingdom than cards in the Band, add 1 Control Marker to that Kingdom

Use Leader ability

Apply the special ability on the Leader's card only (other cards' abilities have no effect except Skeleton)

Discard remaining hand

After playing a Band, discard all remaining cards face-up next to the board for other players to pick up

End of Age trigger

When the 3rd Dragon is drawn, all players immediately discard all cards in hand

Winning

How to claim victory.

Game length

The game ends after 3 Ages (2-3 players: 2 Ages only)

Score Kingdoms each Age

Compare Control Markers in each Kingdom to award Glory Tokens

Score Bands each Age

Award Glory based on cards per band: 1 card = 0, 2 cards = 1, 3 cards = 3, 4 cards = 6, 5 cards = 10, 6+ cards = 15

Apply special tribe scoring

Dwarves give +1 card for Band Scoring; Giants award extra VP to token holder; Merfolk board scores like another Kingdom; Orcs may convert tokens to VP; Trolls break Kingdom ties

Determine winner

Most Victory Points wins

Break ties

Most Control Markers on board, then largest Band played in last Age, then second largest, and so on