Tikal

TIKAL was one of the most important ancient Mayan cities. Its ruins lie in what is now Guatemala, in the middle of impassable jungle. The players lead a science expedition to explore the remains of the city. They will explore the jungle, discover temples and unearth priceless treasures.

TIKAL is one of the most popular modern board games in the world. The game won many awards, including the most prestigious - Spiel des Jahres.

What is it about?

The game board is a mysterious, unknown area of the jungle. Each turn, players draw terrain tokens and place them on the board. These tokens can be wild jungles, temples, volcanoes, or hidden vaults. Over time, as the board begins to take shape, you can see more and more temples and vaults that would be interesting ...

A player's turn begins by drawing a terrain tile and placing it next to the "explored" jungle terrain (previously placed tiles). Then, the player has 10 action points to use to move his travelers across the discovered map and perform specific actions. If you are exploring the treasury, you can spend action points to take the treasures and move them to your home base. If you are researching a temple tile, you can excavate it there and thus make it more valuable and score better. You can also place a guard next to the temple, thanks to which your opponents will not take over your temple.

Players successively discover (create) a larger map, explore temples, and collect treasures until one of the three volcano tokens is drawn. As a result, each player immediately counts the points gained so far (adds the value of the controlled temples and acquired treasures). The game ends when the last terrain tile is placed on the board. Then the points are counted for the last time and the player with the most points wins the game.

Important : for players who do not like the random system of drawing board tiles, Tikal offers an auction system - players bid for the chips they receive. This mechanism significantly reduces the random factor and adds an additional, important element of the strategy to the game.

Who is Tikal for?

Tikal is a strategic game, but its level of advancement allows you to play it not only for "old-timers", but also for beginners. We recommend the game to people looking for a strategy game at a not very advanced level, with a clear atmosphere, friendly to a wide range of players. The game may appeal to fans of "Catan".