Ethnos

In Ethnos, players call upon the support of giants, merfolk, halflings, minotaurs, and other fantasy tribes to help them gain control of the land. After three ages of play, whoever has collected the most glory wins! In more detail, the land of Ethnos contains twelve tribes of fantasy creatures, and in each game you choose six of them (five in a 2/3-player game), then create a deck with only the creatures in those tribes. The cards come in six colors, which match the six regions of Ethnos. Place three glory tokens in each region at random, arranging them from low to high. Each player starts the game with one card in hand, then 4-12 cards (double the number of players) are placed face up on the table. On a turn, a player either recruits an ally or plays a band of allies. In the former case, you take a face-up card (without replacing it from the deck) or the top card of the deck and add it to your hand. In the latter case, you choose a set of cards in your hand that match either in tribe or in color, play them in front of you on the table, then discard all other cards in hand. You then place one token in the region that matches the color of the top card just played, and you use the power of the tribe member on the top card just played. At the end of the first age, whoever has the most tokens in a region scores the glory shown on the first token. After the second age, the players with the most and second most tokens score glory equal to the values shown on the first and second tokens respectively. Players score similarly after the third age, then whoever has the most glory wins. (Games with two and three players last only two ages.)

{
  "game_id": 206718,
  "name": "Ethnos",
  "core_verb": "play matched band",
  "decision_shape": "combinatorial",
  "reward_schedule": "mixed:immediate+delayed",
  "aesthetics": [
    "Challenge",
    "Discovery"
  ],
  "core_loop_pitch": "Recruit color/tribe cards from a market, discard hand to play a band, claim region influence.",
  "mobile_translation_difficulty": "Easy",
  "translation_difficulty_reason": "Card market, hand discard, and area majority math are all clean digital primitives; only tabletop simulator mods exist currently.",
  "direct_digital_port": null,
  "direct_digital_port_kind": null,
  "closest_loop_translation": "none yet",
  "primitive_tags": [
    "set_or_color_band_play",
    "hand_dump_on_commit",
    "shared_market_no_refill",
    "area_majority_age_scoring",
    "variable_tribe_powers"
  ],
  "confidence": 0.7
}

{
  "game_id": 206718,
  "name": "Ethnos",
  "mechanics": {
    "core_verb_long": "On your turn you make a binary choice: either pick up one card (from a 4-12 card face-up market or blindly off the deck) into your hand, or commit a 'band' from your hand by playing 2+ cards that share either a tribe or a color, designating one as the leader. Committing a band discards every other card in your hand — so the tension is hand-size versus band-size. Each band lets you place a control marker in a kingdom matching the leader's color, and trigger the leader-tribe's special ability.",
    "core_loop_long": "Setup: 6 of 12 tribes are randomly chosen for this game (5 with 2-3 players); a deck of those tribes' cards is built; 12 glory tokens distributed (3 per region in 6 regions, ascending values). Each turn: (1) draw a card OR play a band; if you draw, play passes left; if you play a band, you discard the rest of your hand, place a control marker, and use the leader's tribe ability. The Age ends when 2 (or 3, depending on player count) Dragon cards are revealed from the draw deck — at which point the deck is reshuffled minus dragons, hand is cleared, and the next Age begins. Scoring: end of Age 1, top region holder scores token #1; end of Age 2, top two holders score #1 and #2; end of Age 3, top three score all three. Plus end-of-game band-size bonuses (a band of 5+ scores extra). Player with most glory wins.",
    "decision_space": "Core tension: every card you draft into your hand is a card opponents could have taken, and every band you play torches your remaining hand — so the meta-decision is 'how big a band do I commit, and at what risk of losing the rest?' Tribe-and-color overlap creates combinatorial possibilities: 7 cards in hand can yield several legal band shapes, each triggering a different tribe ability, each marking a different region. Push-your-luck pressure from Dragon cards: when the Age might end any draw, sitting on a 5-card hand is dangerous. ~5-10 reasonable plays per turn; planning horizon is 2-4 turns into the same Age.",
    "skill_expression": "Dominant skill is tempo management — knowing when the Age is about to end (Dragon-counting and deck-thinning math) and squeezing one last band before the cleanup. Second is hand-shape optimization: balancing tribe versus color overlap so a single hand encodes multiple potential bands. Third is opponent denial — taking face-up cards opponents need, racing into regions where you're 1-marker behind, exploiting tribe abilities (Wizards peek the deck, Centaurs chain-band). Memory matters (which cards are gone). Math is simple. Weak players hoard hands; strong players cycle hands aggressively, knowing the band-size bonuses reward small frequent commits at scale.",
    "tactile_dependency": "low",
    "tactile_dependency_reason": "Cards, tokens, board regions — all legible information. No hidden physical state beyond hand cards. Translates cleanly; the only tactile loss is the heft of the John Howe art on physical cards."
  },
  "theme": {
    "promise": "Recruit fantasy tribes — giants, merfolk, halflings, minotaurs, wizards — to dominate six kingdoms over three ages. The art is the experience; mechanically you are sorting cards.",
    "setting": "fantasy, high-fantasy, kingdoms",
    "narrative": "none — pasted-on theme. Ethnos is mechanically a rummy/area-control hybrid; the tribes are reskinnable into anything (the working title and earlier prototype literally were generic). John Howe's art does heavy lifting to sell theme.",
    "audience": "gateway, hobbyist Eurogamer",
    "art_direction": "John Howe (Tolkien illustrator, Lord of the Rings concept artist) painted fantasy: rich oils, classical fantasy archetypes (giant, elf, troll, merfolk) rendered in heroic-realist style. Earthy palette, painterly textures, no cartoonishness. The art outclasses the game's mechanical depth and is the primary purchase driver — many reviewers note buying it for the cards alone."
  },
  "translation": {
    "digital_meta_layer_ideas": [
      "Tribe-rotation seasonal meta: each 4-week season ships a fixed pool of 6 tribes (one new tribe rotated in monthly), reshaping the strategic meta and giving lapsed players reasons to return",
      "Async 4-player rooms with full Age-timer (Dragon-reveal triggers turn-time pressure for everyone), weekly leaderboard by glory totals",
      "Roguelite solo run: face 5 escalating AI opponents, draft an extra tribe-ability relic between matches, run ends on first loss",
      "Live tournaments around new tribe drops: 'Sphinx week' where a special tribe is forced into the pool, top finishers earn animated card backs"
    ],
    "closest_mobile_genre": "async PvP card battler",
    "live_service_potential": "high"
  },
  "confidence": 0.8,
  "extraction_version": "v3"
}