Building pyramids in Mexica, and a new podcast!

Two entries in one week? Well, folks, I have some news! I’ve joined a group of talented folks on their podcast, The Five By, and today is my first episode with them. Go subscribe! Each episode is about 30 minutes, where 5 different co-hosts give 5-minute game reviews. I’ll also be posting the podcast episodes and the text of my segment here, if I haven’t already talked about the game on the blog. This episode features Near and Far: Amber Mines, Dinosaur Island, 1775: Rebellion, Mexica, Spirits of the Wild! Enjoy!

 

Mexica is a game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling. It was originally published in 2002 by Ravensburger and Rio Grande Games. Now it’s made by Iello. Mexica is the third game in the Mask Trilogy, after Tikal and Java.

Mexica is a game for 2 to 4 players, and plays in about 60 to 90 minutes. It’s an action-point selection game with area control. What’s cool about this game is that unlike many other area controls, you’re actually building out the districts on the map. What’s excellent about this game is the pyramids! Solid, study, meaty pyramids of varying heights, from 1 to 4 levels. Super excellent components. It definitely has great table presence and just gorgeous to look at.

The game is played out over two periods, which are played out exactly the same way. Players receive their first set of 9 pyramids, and the other 9 will be available in the second phase. Any pyramids not used in the first period will be added to a player’s supply for later.

Player also receive a Pilli Mexica, which is your little meeple. All the Pilli Mexicas start at the temple in the center of the board. The entire board is a grid system, and players use their action points to orthoganally move your Pilli Mexica meeple, construct canals, build bridges, place pyramids, and found a district. Each player has 6 action points to spend during their turn, and can do any number of these actions based on their various costs of doing them.

Before the game starts, you shuffle 15 calpulli tokens and randomly select 8 of them to use for the first period. The next 7 will be used later. Tokens will have numbers for a district size, and prestige points for the player who founded the district, and points for anyone in the district when it’s founded.

So how do you build districts? On your turn, you can spend 1 action point to place a canal that’s either a single or double square onto the board. Canals can only be placed on open spaces and can only touch other canals diagonally at a corner. As game play continues, these canals will segment areas of the board. The surrounding lake and the temple in the middle also act as borders for districts. When an area is completely closed off by water, a district can be founded.

In addition, your meeple must be sitting inside the district on a square to found a district. When you found a district, which costs 0 action points, take an available token that exactly matches the district size and place it on an empty space inside the district.

Once this is set, the token can never be removed from the place, and this district cannot be broken up on future turns. You then receive the amount of prestige points on the token, and if anyone else happens to be inside your district, they receive the smaller secondary number.

Players can also score prestige points at the end of the period by building pyramids to establish majority. The number of action points to spend to build is equal to the level of the pyramid you’re placing on the board. 1 point for a 1 level, 2 points for a 2 level, etc. To build a temple, your Pilli Mexica must be inside the district you’re placing it in.

At the beginning of the game, before any districts are founded, it’s much easier to do this, but you run the risk of your pyramid not being inside a high-value district. Once districts start filling up the board, then you’ll have to become more strategic in how you move your meeple and put down temples.

Once a temple has been placed on the board, it cannot be removed or upgraded. I like how the pyramids have pips on the top of each of them, so that you’re not spending your entire time counting each level. It’s not the number of pyramids that determine majority; it’s the number of pips, which represent the total temple levels.

Another way to get around the board is building canals. Canals enable meeples to enter a district that has already been segmented off. Canals also allow your meeple to travel via an imaginary boat down canals. You’re basically bridge hopping and spending action points to do that. The lake also counts as a body of water when you do this action.

There’s also one last action to collect action point tokens, which give you extra actions for a future turn.

The first period of the game ends when all 8 calpulli tokens are taken placed on the board, or when one player places all 9 of their temples. Scoring happens again for every district founded. Determine which players have the most, second-most and third-most majority in that district, and prestige points are handed out based on the calpulli tokens in that district.

Everything on the board stays on the board. The rest of the calpulli tokens are revealed, everyone gets 9 more pyramids, and the game continues just like the first half.

On the cover of the rulebook, there’s a subtitle that calls Mexica “a game of placement, blocking and majority.” In other words, this game can be all kinds of mean! Meeples cannot pass through each other, so you can completely block a person from exiting or entering a district. That person then has to spend 5 action points to magically teleport to any location on the map, which, when a person has only 6 action points per turn, is a pretty hefty cost. 

For people who don’t like games that can be mean, Mexica would not be for you. Also, having 6 action points to choose from can also bring out AP in some players. The person with the prestige points at the end of the game is the winner.

Mexica also has a 2P variant that allows you to place a number of neutral temples across the board to act as competition when scoring up majorities. And that’s Mexica!

This has been Meeple Lady for The Five By. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as Meeple Lady, and on my website, boardgamemeeplelady.com. Thanks for listening!