I had the opportunity to play Teotihuacan: City of Gods on Tabletopia last week. This is my second time to play. The first was with the physical copy of the game at a local gaming convention. After having played a couple of times, I formed some initial impressions and insights on this heavy euro-style game. Comparison of Versions After having played both a virtual and physical version of Teotihuacan, I will say that the Tabletopia implementation is very well done. It is an accurate depiction of the board and all the components. Because it's virtual, the setup is much easier than with the physical game, however you will still need to give each player their starting resources as it varies depending on who is first player and so on. A downfall of the virtual version, as with many virtual games, is the lack of the tactile experience. The pyramid pieces for instance are made of a nice heavy weight plastic material similar to dominoes. There is some satisfaction that coincides with physically handling the pieces and placing them in a desired orientation on the pyramid. Though you can still place pieces in the virtual world... its really not quite the same. The overall experience and gameplay are much the same regardless of playing the physical or virtual versions. About the Game Teotihuacan is a relatively complex game with worker-placement and resource-management mechanisms at the core. This game has quite a lot of rules. So much so, that I'll concentrate on a few specific highlights of gameplay. I would suggest that you download one of many player reference sheets to use when playing. During the first few gameplay you will undoubtedly be using the references or rules often. In Teotihuacan players move workers (6-sided dice) along the perimeter action boards of the gaming area gathering resources, praying to the gods, improving stats, constructing the pyramid, etc... Each perimeter location has a specific thematic function. Most locations allow the worker to "level-up" after performing its action. Worker levels are indicated by the number of pips on the six-sided die (worker). Once workers advance to level six, they "ascend" giving the player a special action and subsequently resets that worker to the starting location at level one. One of the favorite locations is the Construction Action Board. This is where the player can select tile(s) and place on the pyramid, thus earning victory points for each matching symbol as well as movement up one of the three temple tracks if a colored emblem is matched. The game is played in three phases which each come to an end with an eclipse. A white disc moves a space on a time track each time a worker ascends and at the end of each round moving closer to a black disc placed at the end of the track. Once the two discs overlap, creating an eclipse, it indicates one more full round of play for that phase and then eclipse scoring is done. After the third eclipse phase the game ends and the player with the most points wins! Final Thoughts
This game has a lot to it. Definitely can benefit from a player reference sheet. Though I don't want to give the impression this is too complex of a game. Its really not hard to learn the concepts and the game flows nicely... there are just many different things to do and strategies to employ that create complexity. The worker/dice that level up, is probably one of my favorite aspects. Also, placing tiles on the Aztec temple is a treat. There's certainly a lot to explore here and to improve upon in future plays. I feel comfortable in recommending Teotihuacan. If you want to read more about it out on Board Game Geek click here or check it out on Tabletopia. Keep an eye out for occasional updates, information and comments on the King's GameNight Facebook page. Game on!
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