Great pick and a fine review. I agree with this as an innovative worker placement/resource management game that is easier to pick up then many others in the genre. If this feels a little daunting to you other options I would recommend include Caylus and Pillars of the Earth. In the former you use workers to obtain resources in order to build work spaces that other players can use; however when they use them you get rewards. The game has various special neutral spaces that players can use in order to gain certain additional benefits and each player may also (should also) use their obtained resources to contribute to the construction of a castle for the benefit of the king. By doing so players gain points and bonuses (called favors) that become more robust as the game goes on. The game is a bit easier to get into than Tzolkāin because advanced planning is easier and the array of option somewhat more straight forward (some would say Caylus is fired by Lords of Waterdeep but I own both, play both and prefer Caylus).
The later has players bidding for turn order, then placing workers of various spaces in order to gain certain privileges, obtain certain resources and take specified actions. As in Caylus, the ultimate objective is to contribute to the construction of a central communal project, namely a cathedral. Again, advanced planning in Pillars of the Earth is easier than in Tzolkāin. However, Pillars has a unique action sequencing mechanic that adds a flare that I quite enjoy. Also, the privilege cards make for some fun and interesting game dynamics.
I am not bashing Tzolkāin, by any means, and can see it as a great entry into worker placement, but I just wanted to add a few other options that I have found to be a little more accessible. Another option that many people like very much but which I find to be a bit repetitive and flat is Stone Age, largely considered by many to be the ideal gateway worker placement game.
I do not know what a āEuro cube-pusher tropeā is. Something from the worlds of Aztec fantasy author J.R.R. Tzolkāin?
I was surprised how much my house enjoyed Stone Age. Looking forward to playing Tzolkāin. Iāve been recommended Lords of Waterdeep, but hadnāt heard of Caylus. Thanks!
now iām imagining Snoop Doggās Lizzord of the Rizzings. Frizzodo and Gizzandolf tizzaking the rizzing to Mizzount Dizzoomā¦
Caylus is the grand-daddy of worker placement, and it shows. I find it a bit dry, though the foran mechanic is quite neat.
If you have casual board gaming friends, go for Waterdeep. Oodles of theme, and the expansions are much more cut-throat. I also like pushing people into the family rules variant of Agricola. Tzolkāin is pretty awesome though, too.
I canāt really disagree with LOW as an alternative to Caylus, especially for newer gamers. However, for whatever reason, Caylus gets many more plays in our house. One reason is probably theme, as my wife is not the biggest fantasy fan. The Skullport and Under Mountain expansions (to LOW) do add a great deal of player interaction, which I enjoy. I would actually characterize them as essential at this point.
ā¦doesnāt like the theme?!? What about with D&Deeples?
(A shameless plug, but germane!)
Donāt get me started. The number of ādiscussionsā we have had about her saying āI have three purple cubesā rather than āI have three magesā is exactly, too many. I know it is tedious of me, but come on sweetheart, they. are. mages.
Love the wooden DnDeeples, but never really felt the pull to get them. Really impressed with your printed ones. If I had a 3d Printer I would be all over that.
I will abstain from plugging myself (not really, but I will be a little oblique); however, I produce and co-host a Dice Tower Network podcast that focuses upon coupleās gaming and we reviewed LOW a while back and the discussion was pretty lively.
Oh wait, I just noticed my avatar. Soā¦ that was awkward.
Huge fan of Puerto Rico, especially the way that it separates resources used for building and resources used for claiming victory.
Iāve been interested in Puerto Rico, but my understanding is that it takes over an hour to read the damn rule book and explain the rules to everyone else. Has that been your experience?
If my friends were more hard-core gamers, that would be fine, but anything that takes more than 10-15 minutes to explain and 30-mins per player to play is a bit much for my group.
I guess itās not trivial, but Iāve found that once someone knows the game, they can lead everyone else through one game pretty quickly, then everyone will have it.
Also, experience isnāt an enormous advantage in the game: once you basically understand what youāre doing, youāll find that your intuition of a strategy translates pretty easily into a strategy.
You may want a timer handy if you have one of those guys who thinks heās Kasparov playing out the possibilities 12 moves into the future.
I do love Tzolkāin, great game. One thing I love (but havenāt done myself) is how creative folks are when they decide to āpimp their gameā by painting the gears.
Example (by timothĆ©e licitri, posted on Board Game Geek - visit their Tzolkāin gallery for plenty more examples)
i have 2 friends i donāt invite to games anymore because they refused to sit still long enough to learn FLUXX.
i will check out your podcast! my gf and I have just recently gotten into games, which is wonderful (i grew up on D&D, she did not). So far, weāve gotten to play several FLUXX variants and Stone Age. I adore the chrononauts-variant Back to the Future game as well, but have only played once and donāt own (yet).
I am familiar with those people. Boo hiss.
Personally, I play Fluxx because my 9 year old loves it (and itās his game). He also loves Catan and some others, but his younger brother has a tendency to become really needy and demanding if both his parents.sit down to play a game with big brother - and āyou can be on my teamā only works so well at this point.
Another year or two and I think the younger one will be the power gamer of the house, but not just yet.
I love the game, Iāve played it a lot and I think itās great; I love the german-styled or european-style games; the first one I played was Die Siedler Von Catan and I canāt stop playin this kind of games since.
The only thing I want to say ābeing an obnoxious mexican prickā is that it is funny how everyone talks about the āmayan calendarā and uses the aztec calendar as an ilustration. Even in serious stuff. So yeahā¦ this mayan themed game has aztec stuff on it. Just to note that aztec and mayan cultures are separeted geographically and historically.
Anyway, great game!
It looks like theyāve mixed cycloid with involute gears. The chatter is going to be terrible when it gets up over a few RPMs. 
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