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The Zapotec people lived in what is now central Mexico from about 700 BC. They originated in three separate areas surrounding an open no-man’s land. This central area later became the site of their main city Monte Alban where their monuments were built. They may or may not have had a legendary Queen Zapitis (probably not!).
Zapotec, the game sees player compete via worker placement and resource management gaining VPs via these buildings, constructing central pyramids and performing “rituals” and “sacrifices”. It has similarities with Lost Ruins of Arnak with its different scoring tracks and with the Century : Spice Road series of games in trading resources.
Three’s A Crowd
The Mayans had counting systems based on 20 now I don’t know if the Zapotec civilisation had systems based on the number 3 but Zapotec the board game certainly does we have 3, 3x3 and 3 cubed rippling throughout the design as we shall see.
After a slow start where you can not do much on the first turn the game rapidly gains pace. You build Villages, Temples and Corn Fields which combine together in rows to provide ever increasing levels of resources. This engine building phase revolves around three groups of three types. You have 3 Regions each dedicated to a god : Etla has an Owl, Ocotlan the Rain Goddess and Mitla a bat but you can think of thesm as blue, gold and green. Each of these regions has 3 separate Terrain types : Plains, Hills and Forest. Each Terrain has spaces for 3 different building types : Village, Temple and Cornfield. These 9 sections each have space for 5 various buildings although with three or two players some of these spaces are not used.
The Buildings are built using the basic resources. The Resources also come in 3s : there’s Basic : Wood, Brick and Stone and advanced Corn, Gold and Priests. Each combination of 2 types of basic resource will build one of the 3 building types : Villages are built of Wood and Brick, Cornfields of Wood and Stone and Temples of Brick and Stone. These buildings will produce an advanced resource in a logical manner : Cornfields provide Corn, Villages Gold and the Temples Priests. These advanced resources will be used in various combinations to purchase trading tiles, build levels of pyramids in the central area, perform Rituals and make Sacrifices the last three of which will garner VPs.
Playing A Round
Zapotec is controlled by Action Cards and is played in rounds. After just five rounds Zapotec concludes and the VPs are tallied to determine the winner. Each Player has their own identical player board with a 3x3 (of course) grid which determines which resources they will get. 9 houses that they use to mark buildings they have built, 6 Pyramid pieces of 3 different sizes, a Palace token and 5 coloured discs to show their position on the scoring and Sacrifice Track plus which Rituals they have conducted.
Each player starts with 1 Wood, 1 Brick and 1 Stone and between 4 to 6 Action cards dependent on the number of players. The action Cards have 3 (naturally) sections. The top one shows which row or column on your grid you can chose to collect reources at the start of your turn. The middle section shows which of the 9 areas you can build in this turn and the bottom is an unique number from 1-27 (yes there are 3 cubed cards) which determines player order for the round.
Each player in turn takes resources according to the grid and then conducts Capital Actions : Buying Trade tiles, Building a Pyramid level, peforming a Ritual or making Sacrifice. These will all cost resources and bestow benefits. The more you concentrate on one area or another the greater the benefit will get. Finally you build one or more buildings according to the property type on your action card. Picking the tile off the board you place one of your houses there and then put the tile oin your resource grid where it will contribute extra resources in later rounds.
You score points at round end if you have buildings in the designated action area on the scoring card and then you replenish the Action card you used and reset the scoring card for the next round.
At the end of 5 rounds the game is over and you add the scores from your Pyramids, Rituals and Sacrifices to find the overall winner.
Three’s A Crowd But One's Alright
There is a competent solo mode where you play against Cocijobot, the rain god, who has its’ own deck of 27 (there we go again) cards that determine its’ actions as you play normally.It will build, perform actions and finally score points according to the 3 full pages of specific rules. There is even a suggested way of adjusting the difficulty of solo mode either up or down.
Zappy Tech
I really like Zapotec. It’s got clever mechanisms that all neatly interlock together. It has a good table presence with attractive components and a reasonable thematic flavour. What sets it apart is the constant challenge it gives you to make the right decisions in deploying your resources to make powerful combination moves. If I do this then I can do that followed by that but I won’t be able to do this other thing! You must always weigh up the choices ahead of you to determine which will be the most productive in terms of VPs and being prepared to change your strategy if necessary.
It scales well from 2 to 4 players and the separate solo mode is suitably challenging.
It’s worth replaying again and again to try different strategies. You are not going to have enough time to do everything so do you focus on getting your pyramid built or pushing high up the sacrifice track to gain the glittering prizes of the upper echelons? Do you get there by many buildings in your regions or by astute dealing on the trading rows?
You decide and remember “It’s a jungle out there!”
That concludes our thoughts on Zapotec. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy Zapotec today click here!
