Scholars of the South Tigris

This game has a big table presence that stretches your brain (I had to pull out the folding table). I took a chance on this game, as reviews online seemed mixed, and I was not disappointed. I've only played it at 2 players but look forward to trying it solo too.

Dice manipulation - not just with pips but colour also. As with most Garphill Games, there are multiple ways to gain victory points, but you will have to balance all the options to maximize your score.

There is lots going on but we liked the challenge.

If you like Garphill and you like the South Tigris series, you'll probably like this game.

Great design from shem Phillips this is easily one of his best games along with paladins. The solo is really fun and easy to operate.

Scholars of the South Tigris

This game is typical Shem Philips with tightly interwoven mechanics that will melt your brain. It is definitely a step up in complexity compared to his other titles (barring the other two South Tigris’). Really good game!

As the title says

SotST's unique Dice manipulation and engine building translate to a brain melting good time.

Quality you'd expect from graphill games. There's a lot of brain melting moment to moment decision making. The mechanics feel reasonably well explained for veteran gamers. I did do a teach to a slightly newer player and they struggled in beginning but by the half way point was pretty fluent. The icongraphy for me felt intuitive enough by the second game rarely turning to the rule book. Components are quality. The art is great.. In terms of balance it's hard to say as I've only two games under my belt. Both games we ran into a drought of scrolls to the minarets only having the rest action by the middle to end game sending them over as players were electing not to send scrolls over as they'd get stolen and translated immediately by another player.

This could just be beginner mistakes and not enough fore planning. I tried two different strats both games one research centric and one translation and was able to squeak out a win both games. The gold feels very tight and to me (as a complete rookie) the purple research track felt quite underwhelming compared to tracks like gold income, hand size and free upgrade track(green).

Overall enjoyed the game quite a bit. This was my first Graphill games, their reputation for quality games is earned and the impression I'm left with is "I must acquire more graphill games now".

If there was an option I would do 4.5/5. Not quite a perfect masterpiece but a very enjoyable game.