Teotihuacan: Building a pyramid and ascending

This review of Teotihuacan was featured on Episode 60 of The Five By. Check out the rest of the episode, which also features Dragon Castle, Blue Lagoon, Iron Dragon and Circle the Wagons.

What was the most complicated game that came out in 2018? I actually don’t know the answer to that question. But I can tell you which game was most complicated to say for a lot of people, so much so that there were video tutorials on its pronunciation. I grew up in LA and was surrounded by all types of languages. So seeing and saying a word like Teotihuacan comes pretty naturally to me. But in case you needed a tutorial, the word is luckily spelled exactly how it sounds, which isn’t always the case with Aztec words.

Teotihuacan: City of Gods was published in 2018 by NSKN Games. It’s designed by Daniele Tascini, who has also published The Voyages of Marco Polo, Council of Four and one of my absolute all-time favorites, Tzolk’in.

In Teotihuacan, which plays in about 90-120 minutes, players play as powerful noble families trying to achieve everlasting glory while planning the construction of the pyramid. In its essence, the game is a giant rondel, with, when completed, a gorgeous pyramid sitting in the middle.

The board is incredibly busy, which is a detriment to the game. People see that beautiful pyramid and then slowly back away when there’s a million things they seemingly have to decipher on the board.

I’m here to tell you to come on back and don’t be freaked out by board!

There are 8 action boards on the entire board. Instead of worker meeples players use dice to represent their workers, and the pips on the dice indicate which power level that worker is at. On a player’s turn, they can take a normal turn by advancing one of their dice 1, 2 or 3 action spaces in a clockwise direction.

After moving that worker, that player must perform one of three possible actions on the action board they’ve landed on. They can either collect cocoa, worship or perform a main action.

Cocoa is needed to enter an action space where there are other dice present and if you want to take a main action. To collect cocoa, you count the number of different colored workers already present on the action space, and you receive that number of cocoa plus 1.

If you decide to take a main action on an action board, you must pay cocoa equal to the number of different colored dice on that action location already there. Each action board has a different main action.

Three of the action boards are locations where you receive resources to build houses and/or pyramids. Those resources are wood, gold and stone. When you land on an action board, how strong your worker dice is determines how much you’re receiving. Also, when you land on a location that already has your dice, you’ll also receive more resources because your workers are more powerful there.

Another action board allows you to pay gold in order to receive a technology or benefit for the entire game. If you have two dice there, or you enter the location with a 4- or 5-level dice, you can pay gold for higher-level technologies. Many of these technologies will trigger when you activate a certain action board.

Another action board allows you to use wood to build buildings. The earlier you build these, the more victory points you’ll score, but the houses are relocated from Building Row on the Main Board, which comes to play during the scoring round.

The last two Action boards deal with the pyramid, either selecting decoration tiles that sit on steps of the pyramid, or building the pyramid itself with resources you’ve collected. The pyramid tiles are study square mah-jong-type tiles and are just delightful to play with. Taking either one of these actions moves you along the pyramid track.

Now instead of performing a main action, you can always worship. When you worship, you enter an action board’s worship space and claim a discovery tile, which are benefits or masks for end-of-round set collection victory points, or you can go up a temple track. If you want to do both things, you’ll have to pay with cocoa. There are three temple tracks in the game, from which you can receive more benefits or masks as you advance on them. When your worker worships, that dice is locked until you pay to free them on a future action or until someone pays cocoa to bump you off if they want to worship as well. Also, during your turn, you can unlock all your dice for free, but that’s all you do on your turn.

After performing a main action, at least one die will level up. This is how you get more powerful workers that move around the board. Once you hit level 6, you ascend. You then advance your marker one step on the Avenue of the Dead and select a reward on the Ascension wheel, which includes unlocking a level 3 dice for the board. Your die that ascended then starts at Level 1 again and at the Palace Action Board. When a player ascends, they advance the white disc on the Calendar Track.

The calendar track controls the pacing of the game. A normal round consists of everyone taking their turn, and then advancing the white disc. When the white disc reaches the black disc, an eclipse is triggered. Players gets VPs for their step on the Avenue of the Dead (which is multiplied by the lowest visible number on the Building Row on the main board), and for their step on the Pyramid track (which is multiplied by 4, 3 or 2 points depending on if it’s the first, second or third eclipse.) The player farthest along the pyramid track also gets 4 points, and the pyramid track is reset for the next phase.

Players also get points for collecting sets of masks and each player must pay 1 cocoa for each of their worker that’s a level 1 to 3, and 2 cocoa for their level 4 and 5 workers. The game continues for three eclipses, with fewer rounds each eclipses to trigger end-of-round scoring, and the person with the most victory points wins the game.

Some have said Teotihuacan is a re-skin of Tzolk’in. The time mechanism and sheer genius of Tzolk’in is unmatched, even by Teotihuacan. I feel like Teotihuacan is more forgiving, whereas Tzolk’in is straight up mean, which I love. You can always enter a space in Teotihuacan; what you receive or action you take is determined by whether you have enough cocoa.

But Teotihuacan is still a solid game and worthy of its predecessor. The beauty of this game is managing your workers around the rondel as well as the timing of when to level them up.  I enjoy the variability of each play. The game comes with a lot of components, from the cool pyramid tiles to a bunch of sturdy cardboard tiles. I just wish the board wasn’t so busy with unnecessary artwork.

And that’s Teotihuacan! This is Meeple Lady for The Five By. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as Meeple Lady, or on my website boardgamemeeplelady.com. Thanks for listening. Bye!