- Publisher : Iello
- Designers : Simone Luciani, Daniele Tascini
- Artist(s) : Milan Vavroň
- Players : 2–4
- Playing time : 90 Min
- Weight BGG : 3.67
What's this?
Lead a Mayan tribe and gain prosperity by completing actions such as building monuments, making offerings to temples, and developing technologies.
How do you play?
The game takes place in several phases
➡️Action phase:
During your turn, you must choose:
• Worker Placement: You can place any number of your available workers on the gears. Placing additional workers during the same turn becomes increasingly costly.
• Recovering Workers: You can recover any number of your workers currently on the gears. When you pick up a worker, you perform the action he was on.
➡️ Gear rotation phase:
When everyone has taken their turn, the central gear turns one space clockwise. This movement causes the other gears connected to it to rotate.
The value of the action generally increases as the worker moves on the gear.
➡️ End of round phase or feast day:
Players must feed their workers by giving them corn. We will also be able to score victory points depending on our progress in the temples.
➡️ End of game:
The game ends after a complete rotation of the central calendar gear.
Players earn additional victory points based on their progress on the building tracks of the temples, monuments, and crystal skulls they have collected.
By optimizing worker placement and taking into account cost, stock value, and gear rotation, you can optimize your actions in Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar.
Is it good?
Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar is an excellent worker placement game that will delight experienced players who love planning and optimization. Its original mechanism of interconnected toothed wheels is a pure gem of ingenious design that remains innovative despite the years. For this mechanic alone, the game is worth the detour because it offers a unique gaming experience.
This mechanic requires careful planning and optimization, as it is necessary to calculate your actions several turns in advance. Indeed, players must anticipate several turns depending on the rotation of the wheels. You’ll also need to adapt to the actions of others to optimize your turns, which adds a layer of strategy and complexity to the game. The longer your workers stay on the wheels, the more powerful the actions will be.
Tzolk’in is a deep and rich game that offers many strategies. You will need many plays to master it, as the game has a real learning curve.
The game can be criticized for the fact that its other mechanics are quite classic: resource harvesting, building construction, technology development, temple marches, etc. However, all this remains efficient and fluid, with clear and intuitive iconography.
Despite its years, Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar remains a fun gem and a reference in worker posing strategy games. This is a must-have game in your games library.
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Review Tzolk’in : The Mayan Calendar
Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar is undoubtedly one of the must-have games for strategy enthusiasts.
Positives
- The mechanics of toothed wheels: pure genius
- A deep and rich game that offers many strategies
- A unique game
- Planning and optimization
Negatives
- Works better with 4 players
- Be mindful of skill level differences between players
Breakdown
- Components and illustrations 9.5
- Mechanics 10.0
- Theme 9.0
- Replayability 10.0
- Handling 9.5
- Interaction 8.5
- Originality 10.0
