Sobek: 2 Players - Control the Market

The Market board is the heart of Sobek: 2 Players (and the main difference from the original 2010 Sobek). It’s in this 6x6 grid that you’ll take available Goods and Character tiles. On your turn you take a single action. Taking a tile from the Market is one of the 3 options available to you (in addition to selling a set or playing a character). This action involves important consequences and subtleties; it’s the action you’ll take the most often during the game. Depending on both players’ situations, available tiles are far from equal.

When you want to take a tile, your choices are determined by the position and orientation of the Ankh pawn on the board. Both players will share this pawn and move it depending on their actions and choices. You can only take a tile in the row, column, or diagonal that the Ankh pawn is pointing towards. When you take a tile, you must move the Ankh pawn on its space and orient it as shown on the tile chosen.

This is where corruption comes into play: the further the coveted tile is from the Ankh pawn, the more Corruption you’ll gain. Take every tile that the Ankh pawn passes over while moving to the chosen tile’s space and add them to your Corruption board. At the end of the game, the player with the least corruption gains Debens equal to the difference between both players’ Corruption levels. Don’t let your opponent win in this sneaky way!

These two details depend on subtle strategies in a huge way. By taking a tile, you know exactly how much corruption it will cost and which options your opponent will have on their turn. Once you’re more experienced, you’ll be able to anticipate your opponent’s actions and use corruption to remove tiles they’re interested in.