Zapotec - EN

Product detailed description

The Zapotecs were a pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Oaxaca Valley in Mesoamerica. Archaeological findings reveal their culture dating back at least 2,500 years. Remains of the ancient city of Monte Albán in the form of buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs, and finely crafted gold jewelry testify to this once great civilization. Monte Albán was one of the first major cities in Mesoamerica and the center of the Zapotec state, which controlled a large part of the territory that now belongs to the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

In the game Zapotecs, you build temples, cornfields, and villages in three valleys surrounding the main city to acquire the resources needed to build pyramids, offer sacrifices to the gods, and perform rituals.

In each round, players simultaneously choose a card from their hand, determining the order of their turn and the resources they will gather. Players then take turns spending resources to build new houses, gain access to special abilities, make offerings to the gods, and build pyramids. The played action card determines three important aspects of each player's turn:

The resource printed at the top of the card determines the row or column that is activated on the resource grid to gain income.
The icon in the middle of the card corresponds to one of the nine attributes of building sites on the map (one of three types of buildings, one of three regions, or one of three types of terrain). In their turn, players can only build on squares that match the icon.
The number on the bottom of the card determines the turn order in that round when the card is played.
At the end of the round, players draw new cards from the central offer, with the last undrawn card becoming a scoring bonus card for the following round.

After five rounds, players earn points for pyramids, their position on the sacrifice track, and their ritual cards. The player with the highest number of victory points wins.