Monday night Tikal at Critical Hit

With the advent of nice weather, my weeknights are getting tied up with soccer. I've decided to try to squeeze a game in on Mondays, when I can, although it seems it might be hard to get players.

This Monday, I brought Tikal down to the shop, hoping to find Tim and Jerod, and maybe another player. Tim wasn't available, but Jerod agreed to try out a two player game.

I've only played Tikal once, with four players, and the optional tile auction rule. I think this game suffers a little from downtime between turns, with players having so many points to use/decisions to make. The auction rule, although adding strategic thinking, certainly enhances the feeling of downtime and lengthens the game considerably. I decided to play the basic rules, getting a feel for the game as, apparently, the designers initially intended it.

This game was certainly affected by tile draw. I drew most of the treasure tiles, and was able to get a massive treasure advantage over the course of the game which would have made it hard for Jerod to win under otherwise optimal circumstances. As it was, with both of us inexperienced (he had never played at all before), things were decidedly sub-optimal for him, and I finished quite a ways ahead.

I learned a bit from this initial play. The foremost thing that I learned is that, in 2-player games at least, the number of available workers becomes huge in the late game. Jerod and I had big control fights over big temples in the beginning of the game. I ended up spending my leader and five workers to get the 10 temple (before the first scoring phase!). I also got the 9, for just one worker. This probably would have totally wrecked me in the late game, but for the 7 and 8 that he guarded, Jerod spent his leader and only 2 less workers than me, total, also fairly early in the game. As the game stretched out, so did my lead. As the tiles came out, though, I could see how, if he had more workers remaining, scoring opportunities would really have blossomed for him. As it was, he got a bit of a lead on the number of controlled temples, but my massive treasure lead was more than enough to keep me ahead.

GG, GL