LogFAQs > #933550325

59. Tzolk'in (2012)

Category: Player vs Player
Genres: Worker placement, point salad
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 5
Game length: 90-120 minutes
Experience: 4-5 plays over 4-5 sessions (including online) with 2-4 players (2015-16)
Previous ranks: 34/100 (2016), 33/80 (2018)

Summary - Tzolk'in is a Mayan-civilization themed worker placement game, played over twenty-four rounds. On a turn you can either 1. place available workers on the lowest open spots of gears or 2. pull placed workers off of gears to gain benefits. The gears physically(!) rotate each round, moving each placed worker on it one spot higher. The higher a worker is on a gear when it is pulled off, the better the reward is gained. Goals include feeding workers, going up temple tracks, gaining resources, building monuments, and improving technology tracks.

Design - It's impossible to talk about Tzolk'in without talking about its gear system. They are its defining characteristic and by far its most distinctive visual feature. Each gear is themed: this gear is for resource conversion; this gear is for corn to feed workers; this gear is to upgrade tech tracks. And physically speaking, they're gear-shaped for a reason: they are all connected to one larger gear in the center of the board, which is turned each round (automatically moving your workers up gear tracks). The center gear represents the flow of the entire year as well; when it makes a full revolution (a full year), the game ends. Tzolk'in is almost painfully clever in that mechanism.

And how well does it integrate intp the gameplay? Pretty damn great -. There are two general flavors of worker placement: You place a worker (or workers) and immediately take the action (see Lords of Waterdeep), or you place your worker(s) during one phase and resolve them during another (see Caylus, Pret a Porter). Tzolk'in is undoubtedly a worker placement game, but uniquely, some turns you'll be seeding actions and others you'll be reaping them. The passage of time can give you a feeling of really "investing" in your workforce. It's really satisfying to pull off multiple workers in one go and make big turns.

All of the mechanisms of Tzolk'in are great, and on top of those, it's fun to play. You get a bunch of stuff to do, depending on the gear you've strategized in. You can build an engine and reap repeated rewards by going to the tech track; you can get a ton of resources and gain VPs from monuments; you can gain unique rewards off crystal skulls; and you can race people to get immediate and future resources and VPs by going up the god tracks. Feeding your workers isn't that punishing, and you can get large amounts of corn quickly on the corn track, and you don't need that much if you don't blow your corn by placing higher up than the bottom. The decision tree is very broad, which is great. Lots of good feelings.

I have to wonder, though, if Tzolk'in is particularly deep, or if it has a coherent strategy in mind. While I'm no expert (I've never won a game or been particularly close), it does have a typical "rush to max your workers" element to it. In a game where feeding workers is an element, I've noticed that occasional starvation can seem extremely profitable. The game feels a little too eager to throw you into the sandbox without fixed goals, but some synergies appear overwhelmingly strong compared to others. Maybe this is intentional. Hard to say! Nonetheless, deciding when to place and when to pull off your workers always feels like a satisfying puzzle.

Experience - Tzolk'in has been a staple on my list in the mid-high tier since the first one. Obviously, it's been a long time since I've played the game - it was one of my first heavier games that I enjoyed, which can be attributed both to its relatively forgiving game design and spectacular table presence. I've also played it online, which speeds up the game of course (especially the upkeep) and lets you see a little more clearly just how others are gaining those points, though not being able to turn the wheel naturally doesn't feel great.

Future - I think Tzolk'in is overdue to be played again! Once again, I find it somewhat unlikely it will hit the table for me soon given the people who own it - but I think it's very deserving of a "second" look.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness