Targi
RULES
- Goal
- Build the largest Tuareg tribe for the most victory points
- Flow
- Each turn, place 3 Targi pieces on border cards and 2 tribe markers at the intersections of your Targi's lines to execute the cards' actions
- Win
- The game ends when someone fills 12 tribe cards, or the thief reaches the final card — highest score wins
- Twist
- Targi placement is forbidden on cards facing your opponent directly or where the thief sits, and the 3x4 layout has row bonuses
RULES VIDEO
A classic 2-player-only strategy game where each player leads a Tuareg tribe, trading dates, salt, and pepper around a desert oasis and playing tribe cards onto their personal 3x4 grid to grow their tribe. The heart of the game is a clever coordinate-placement system — place your worker on the edge of a 5x5 grid, and it activates the action card at the center square where its row and column intersect — combined with tight route-blocking as you dodge a "thief" that disrupts the first player each round and cut off your opponent's plans.
※When the group has 3 or more rather than exactly 2, making it impossible to even set up the table; when someone finds the tight mind game of predicting and being predicted along the rows and columns of the 5x5 grid mentally exhausting; when a player who gets heavily stressed by having their plans wrecked by an opponent cleverly blocking their path sits down.
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Scores by situation
New faces+−
♡☆☆☆☆ [Strictly 2-Player] Designed exclusively as a hardcore 2-player Euro game from the ground up, so it's physically impossible to bring to the table for a first-meeting group or a couples' party.
Close friends+−
♡☆☆☆☆ [Strictly 2-Player] Unplayable with 3 or more close friends. And even between two close friends, it leans toward heavy, thinky mind games — a tense fight over positioning where you're constantly cutting off each other's air — rather than light, loud entertainment.
Strategy+−
♡♡♡♡☆ [2-Player Bridge/Top-Tier Secondary Strategy] This goes well beyond a casual card game, compressing the core skeleton of a heavy Euro strategy game into a 2-player format. The brain-burning of predicting and sabotaging your opponent's row-and-column coordinates each turn is excellent, earning it high praise from strategy-loving couples and gamers as one of the best 2-player secondary strategy games.
Couple+−
♡♡♡☆☆ [Quiet, Taut Date] The calm desert theme and soothing art make this good for a couple to sit quietly and exercise their brains for an hour. But rather than a peaceful, healing resource-gathering game, painful blocking and interference — "I blocked the path you were going for, hehe" — flow constantly throughout, so a couple without much tolerance for provocation should be careful about it turning into simmering tension.
Duel+−
♡♡♡♡♡ [The Essence of 2-Player Worker Placement] It's hard to find an alternative with such sharp, refined interaction in the 2-player worker-placement genre. Every round becomes a genuine duel of souls as you weave your 3 workers across rows and columns to choke off your opponent and block off the cards they need, delivering the taut catharsis of pure mind games to the fullest.
Gateway+−
♡♡♡☆☆ [Spicy Stage-2 Strategy Intro] Clearly teaches worker placement, set collection, and the synergy of laying out a 3x4 tribe-card layout — excellent modern Euro mechanisms. But even with simple rules, the tightness of the constant blocking and the depth of reading your opponent make the entry bar fairly steep and spicy for someone who's only played casual games.
Frequently asked questions
How many players does Targi need?
2 players, and it is at its best with 2. It also works as a two-player game.
How long does a game of Targi take?
About 60 minutes per game, plus roughly 10 minutes to teach the rules.
Is Targi hard to learn?
It sits at 3 out of 5 on rules weight. The balance is 15 luck / 75 skill / 10 read, so the stronger player usually wins.
Who is Targi good for?
It fits Duel and Strategy especially well. One caveat: When the group has 3 or more rather than exactly 2, making it impossible to even set up the table; when someone finds the tight mind game of predicting and being predicted along the rows and columns of the 5x5 grid mentally exhausting; when a player who gets heavily stressed by having their plans wrecked by an opponent cleverly blocking their path sits down.
How do you win Targi?
The game ends when someone fills 12 tribe cards, or the thief reaches the final card — highest score wins The goal is Build the largest Tuareg tribe for the most victory points
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