Mexica Board Game - Buy/Read Reviews  

Rainy Day Game's Board Game Review of Mexica:

Mexica in Summary

The Mexica board game has you developing the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlán, and what an interesting city it is! Aztec temples, canals and bridges... It's a great setting for a game, and the Kiesling and Kramer team (Tikal, Java) take you there with Mexica.

The Mexica board game is a classic development game: you're given a certain number of action points and have to use them wisely to grow the city and dominate it. You compete directly with the other players and the back-and-forth for control of the city is the most exciting part of the game.

Mexica Gameplay

Players of the Mexica board game start with an empty island. Each turn the Mexica players are given 6 action points to spend on movement and building canals, bridges, and buildings. From the center, you start building a canal system, which encloses plots of land. When a plot of land is surrounded by water, you may found a disctict of the city, as long as the area of the land matches one of the district card areas.

To control these districts, you must erect buildings on them. A building has between 1 and 4 stories, and the players with the most stories in a district score points. For example, you can get 13, 7, or 4 points for district if you're the first, second, or third largest property owner in that district.

Movement is either done across the Mexica board at the cost of 1 AP per square, or by "teleportation" which means you can pick up your piece and place it anywhere on the board at the cost of 5 AP. Finally, those canals you're building provide a fast an efficient means of travel: you only spend 1 AP per bridge you pass.

The Mexica board game is played in two turns. The players get about half their total buildings and half the city district cards in the first round. When all the districts are played and at least one of the Mexica players runs out of buildings, the first round is over. You recieve points for all the districts your a major property holder in. Then the rest of the district cards and buildings come out for the second round, and a final scoring round occurs when they're used up. The Mexica player with the most points wins!

Who should buy Mexica?

We play the Mexica board game whenever 3 or 4 of us want a bit bigger challenge than the non-gamer board games, and isn't going to last all night. We highly recommend Mexica to gamers who want a relaxing way to enjoy an evening.

Younger children or non-gamers may have trouble appreciating it, to be honest. We like Mexica as a second game. After they've gotten to enjoy Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne, that's when we introduce the Mexica board game to up the ante a little.

So if you're looking to expand your games collection a little, or want a little more bait to suck your friends into the gaming life, then buy the Mexica board game and discover the ancient Aztec city for yourself!

The Manufacturer's Board Game Review of Mexica:

First the players explored Tikal, next they developed Java, and now they can help build Mexica. The Aztec prophesy foretold they would build their home where they found an eagle on a cactus eating a snake. After years of seraching they found their eagle on an island in lake Texcoco and there began building a city. Using dams and the natural landscape, they built a city with districts separated by roads of water and connected by many bridges.