Teotihuacan: City of Gods
Travel back in time to the greatest city in Mesoamerica. Witness the glory and the twilight of the powerful pre-Columbian civilization. Strategize, accrue wealth, gain the favour of the gods, and become the builder of the magnificent Pyramid of the Sun.
In Teotihuacan: City of Gods, each player commands a force of worker dice, which grow in strength with every move. On your turn, you move a worker around a modular board, always choosing one of two areas of the location tile you land on: one offering you an action (and a worker upgrade), the other providing you with a powerful bonus (but without an upgrade).
While managing their workforce and resources, players develop new technologies, climb the steps of the three great temples, build houses for the inhabitants of the city, and raise the legendary and breath-taking Pyramid of the Sun in the centre of the city.
Each game is played in three eras. As the dawn of the Aztecs comes closer, player efforts (and their ability to feed their workforce) are evaluated a total of three times. The player with the most fame is the winner.
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Teotihuacan: City of Gods is an interesting little game with a modular board and a very different take on worker and how they interact, yet this will feel familiar if you played another of Daniele Tascini’s games, Tzolk’in. To be clear this is not a bad thing necessarily, just something I noticed right away
Gameplay/replay
Much like Tzolk’in (get used to seeing this) you play over a set number of turns which are separated by eclipses (when scoring for that round are done). You have a modular board where you move workers represented by colored 6 sided dice 1-3 spaces and take said space’s action paying cocoa based off the number of different color dice with the power of the action based off how many of your color dice are there and the pip count on your lowest die after which you raise the pip count of one of your dice in that location, pray for god track elevation (much like Tzolk’in) locking your die to the space until someone else prays there or until you buy it off of the lock with cocoa, or take cocoa based on how many different color workers are there. Actions vary from gathering gold, wood, or stone (much like Tzolk’in) to building path of the dead buildings for vp and movement on the path of the dead, to adding to the pyramid in the center of the board for vp. Between rounds you score points based off masks you gather, path of the dead placement, and participation in building the pyramid. At this point workers must be fed (much like Tzolk’in) cocoa based off how many you have and how many have a pip count of 4 or 5
If a die is promoted to the 6 side, it ascends, moves to the 1 space on the board, and you get a bonus but a turn toward the eclipse happens as well (meaning like in Tzolk’in, certain events accelerate the game forward)
After the 3rd eclipse, the game ends and round points and final points for getting to the penultimate space on any god track are awarded. Most vp wins
The bad
This is a slightly more difficult game to learn, though to the thick rulebook’s credit, it does have a first time play instructions that allow you to jump in with less time than learning the more traditional version would take. Also, as I have often repeated, this game seems like Tzolk’in’s brother. Probably aa more complex brother and it plays differently enough to distinguish itself, but it cannot be denied the similarities are many and prolific. If this would annoy you, it might be a turn off
In conclusion
It’s a heavier one, but worth learning. I like the promoted workers and how you have to plan accordingly because while powerful workers are good, feeding them is a task and one the game penalizes you for failing to do so a well timed 5 to a 6 can be a game changer as can a poorly timed 3 to a 4. Still a worthy heavier euro to add to the collection if you like that sort of thing. I would advise try before you buy however cause it has a lot of moving parts