Ranking the South Tigris Trilogy from Garphill Games

Welcome to this week’s gaming post! I recently reviewed the last two games in the South Tigris trilogy from Garphill Games and thought it would be fun to look back to see how they all stack up. To preface, while I do have a favorite and least favorite, I still enjoy all three of these games, and they will all be remaining in the collection. Furthermore, even though they share some similar mechanisms, each of them are able to stand on their own. So without further ado, let’s jump into the games!

Starting off with the third game in the trilogy: Inventors of the South Tigris. In the game, players are largely focused on inventing, building, testing, and publishing devices. Of the three games, Inventors has the most player interaction due to these devices. For example, one player could invent a device, while another builds it, another tests it, and finally another publishes it. Overall, there are a ton of moving pieces in this game, and in my review, I discussed how Inventors was by far the heaviest/most complex of the three. When comparing Inventors against the other two, Wayfarers feels the most open/sandbox, whereas Scholars sits on the opposite side of that spectrum. Inventors definitely leans more towards Wayfarers, but it still falls somewhere in the middle. That is why it ultimately landed in my number three spot along with it being most complex. When it comes down to it, this game will likely see the fewest plays of the three because of these reasons. However, I still think the devices are a very cool mechanic, and this will be what keeps me wanting to come back to Inventors.

Moving onto the middle child in the trilogy: Scholars of the South Tigris. Of the three games, this one has the most interesting theme, which revolves around translating scrolls in ancient languages. The game also uses the color wheel, such as combining two primary colors to make a secondary color, in interesting ways. Also, even though there are dice, I like that there are ways to mitigate luck by using workers to modify the number on a dice and how not all actions require a certain dice value. Whereas both Inventors and Wayfarers throws a ton of options at you, in Scholars it’s easier to set a goal (translate this scroll card) and figure out the best path to get there. If you missed my full review, you can check it out here. Even though Scholars isn’t my number one, I can see why some would have this as their favorite of the three because of the innovative color wheel mechanic and the game being the most focused of the three.

Even though Scholars and Inventors put up a fight, it was always going to be a difficult challenge for them to knock Wayfarers of the South Tigris off the top spot. For context, Wayfarers was inside my top 20 games of all-time last year, which speaks to how much I enjoy all three. I recently pulled this game off the shelf to see if my feeling for the game had changed after playing so much of Scholars and Inventors recently. Short answer: no. I love the amount of variety in the game between the different land and sea cards that open up more action spots, and upgrading the icons for your dice feels incredibly satisfying. Each game of Wayfarers feels unique because of these reasons. If I were to nitpick, Wayfarers has the least amount of player interaction between these three games, and I wish there were a few more ways to combat poor dice rolls. Overall though, Wayfarers is a joy to play every time it hits the table and is my personal favorite of the South Tigris trilogy. 

With that, I’ll wrap up my definitive ranking of the South Tigris trilogy! I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the games I’ve mentioned, and for anyone that has played all three, I’d be interested to know how you would rank them. Happy gaming!

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