Targi

Unlike in other cultures, the desert Tuareg men, known as Targi, cover their faces, whereas women of the tribe do not wear veils. They run the household and have the last word at home in the tents. Different families are divided into tribes, headed by the ‘Imascheren’ (or nobles). As leader of a Tuareg tribe, players trade goods from near (such as dates and salt) and far (like pepper) in order to obtain gold and other benefits, and enlarge their family. In each round their new offerings are made. Cards are a means to an end in order to obtain the popular tribe cards. The board consists of a 5x5 grid: a border of 16 squares with printed action symbols and then 9 blank squares in the centre onto which cards are dealt. Meeples are placed one at a time on the spaces at the edges of the board (not including corner squares). You cannot place a meeple on a square the opponent has a meeple on already, nor on a square facing an opponent's meeple. Once all meeples are placed, players then execute the actions on the border squares the meeples are on and also take the cards from the centre that match the row and column of the border meeples. The game is predominantly scored and won by playing tribal cards to your display. These give advantages during the game and victory points at the end. Usually cards are played (or discarded) immediately once drawn. A single card can be kept in hand, but then requires a special action to play it (or to discard it to free the hand spot for another card). Each card has a cost in goods to play. Goods are obtained either from border spaces or from goods cards. The display (for scoring) consists of three rows of four cards that are filled from left to right and cannot be moved once placed (barring some special cards). There is also a balance to be found between the victory point score on the cards themselves (1-3 VP per tribal card) and the combinations per row (a full row of four identical card types gets you an additional 4 VP, and a full row of four distinct card types gets you 2 VP). The winner at the end of the game is the player with the most victory points.

{
  "game_id": 118048,
  "name": "Targi",
  "core_verb": "place worker on border",
  "decision_shape": "spatial",
  "reward_schedule": "engine_compounding",
  "aesthetics": [
    "Challenge"
  ],
  "core_loop_pitch": "Place workers on the border of a 5x5 card grid; intersections of your row and column workers grant the inner cards.",
  "mobile_translation_difficulty": "Easy",
  "translation_difficulty_reason": "Pure 2-player abstract with elegant geometry; would translate cleanly, only Board Game Arena currently has it digitally.",
  "direct_digital_port": null,
  "closest_loop_translation": "none yet",
  "primitive_tags": [
    "border_worker_intersection",
    "row_column_claim",
    "blocking_via_facing",
    "tribe_card_set_collection",
    "two_player_perfect_info_lite"
  ],
  "confidence": 0.8
}

{
  "game_id": 118048,
  "name": "Targi",
  "mechanics": {
    "core_verb_long": "Each round your hands place 3 Targi pawns on the 16-square border of a 5x5 grid (one Targi per turn, alternating with opponent), then drop 2 Tribe markers on the inner 3x3 grid at the *intersections* of the rows-and-columns where your three Targi sit. The cadence is alternating-place-then-resolve: 3 placements each, then the 5 pieces (3 Targis + 2 Tribe markers) trigger their card actions in chosen order. Constraint: you may not place a Targi in a row or column already occupied by an opponent's Targi, and the Robber walks the border each round, blocking one square.",
    "core_loop_long": "Setup: 16 Border action cards + 9 face-up Tribe cards in the central 3x3 grid + a Robber pawn on the border. Per round: place 3 Targis alternately on Border cards (occupying both that row and that column for opponent purposes), then place 2 Tribe markers at the row-column intersections defined by your 3 Targis (usually 2 valid intersections; sometimes you trace 3 intersections). Resolve all 5 actions in chosen order: Border cards trigger commodity gain (dates, salt, pepper) or auxiliary actions; intersection Tribe cards either drop into your hand (1 hand slot) or get bought into your tableau by paying their commodity cost. Tableau cards score VP and trigger ongoing effects. Robber advances 1 step on the border each round; game ends when Robber finishes the loop OR a player tableaus their 12th card. Score: tableau VP + row-of-4-matching bonus + row-of-4-distinct bonus.",
    "decision_space": "Each placement is a denial-puzzle: blocking your opponent's preferred row/column is half the game; the other half is geometric — choosing 3 Targi positions whose row/column intersections land on the inner Tribe cards you actually want. The signature tradeoff is greed-vs-tempo: a Targi placement that grabs the perfect inner Tribe card might leave 2 of your 3 Targis on weak Border action squares. Hand cap of 1 means you can rarely pick a card 'for later' — you must afford it now. Choice space at any placement is small (5-12 valid Border squares) but the geometric layering across 3 placements makes the planning feel deeper than the menu suggests.",
    "skill_expression": "Dominant skills are spatial geometric planning (visualizing which intersections N Targi placements will create — this is the unique skill Targi tests, not present in any worker placement game I've encountered) and resource arithmetic (commodity-stocks vs. tribe-card costs; the math is small but constant). Tempo against the Robber clock is moderate. Memory load is low (everything is open). Almost no luck once initial Tribe-card display is set. The geometric core is what gives Targi its cult 2-player following — Andreas Steiger designed an unusually elegant abstract under fantasy-flavor coat.",
    "tactile_dependency": "low",
    "tactile_dependency_reason": "The 5x5 grid is pure positional information; the row-column intersection logic is *exactly* what a digital UI handles better than tabletop (highlight valid intersections live as you drag a Targi). Cards are commodity costs and VP. Hand of 1 is trivial digitally. The board's 16-card Border + 9-card center is small — fits a phone screen with room to spare. Targi is one of the cleaner candidates for digital port among 2p Euros."
  },
  "theme": {
    "promise": "You're a Tuareg desert tribal leader, trading dates, salt, and pepper across the Sahara to grow your tribe and earn nobility.",
    "setting": "Historical, desert/Saharan, North African (Tuareg culture)",
    "narrative": "none — pasted-on theme. Mechanically Targi is a geometric placement abstract; the Tuareg flavor decorates commodities and tribe-card portraits but has no narrative weight. The cultural framing has been mildly criticized as orientalist veneer over Eurogame mechanics. The Expansion adds 4-player support and slightly more scenario flavor but no story.",
    "audience": "hobbyist Eurogamer, designer-game-aficionado",
    "art_direction": "Franz Vohwinkel illustration: warm sand-and-earth palette, period-North-African flavor in muted reds and ochres, hand-drawn caravan/tribe portraits. Iconographic Border-card commodity glyphs are highly legible at small sizes — designed for the small KOSMOS 2-player box format and travel-compatible. Visually distinct from Eurogame painted style; closer to historical illustration."
  },
  "translation": {
    "digital_meta_layer_ideas": [
      "Async ranked PvP: Targi is a near-perfect 2p mobile candidate — short rounds, full information, geometric core — and a seasonal-ELO ladder with opening-position theory (the 16 Border cards' relative strengths are studyable) would dominate the 2p Euro mobile niche",
      "Solo daily puzzle: each day the Border + Tribe display is fixed, AI plays a deterministic seed — players race to optimize VP. Already proven format from Knizia's Through the Desert mobile and chess.com daily puzzles",
      "Roguelite caravan campaign: 5 caravans across the desert with escalating Robber speed and rotating Tribe-card subsets, draft 1-of-3 'Caravan' modifiers between (Salt Trader: salt costs -1; Date Merchant: extra hand slot; Pepper Diplomat: tribe-card VPs +1), run ends if Robber laps you",
      "Coaching/replay mode with intersection-heatmap overlay — visualize where each Targi placement would land Tribe markers, perfect for teaching the unusual geometric mechanic to newcomers"
    ],
    "closest_mobile_genre": "async PvP card battler",
    "live_service_potential": "medium"
  },
  "confidence": 0.85,
  "extraction_version": "v3"
}