Mexica plots the development of the city of Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco. Players attempt to partition it into districts, place buildings, and construct canals.
Districts are formed by completely surrounding areas of the island with water and then placing a District marker. The player who founds a district scores points immediately.
Canals and Lake Texcoco act as a quick method of moving throughout the city. Players erect bridges and move from one bridge to the next, which costs 1 action point regardless of the distance. They must also erect buildings. This costs action points, the exact number being dependent upon the building's size.
In the scoring phases of the game, players score points (El Grande style) based upon their dominance in a District. In the 4 player game, players with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd most buildings score decreasing numbers of points.
Only districts are scored in the first scoring round.
In the second scoring round at the end of the game, all land areas are scored, not just districts.
The player with the most points wins.
Mexica is the third game in the Mask Trilogy.
- stunning resin pieces
- beautiful production
- least favorite of Mask trilogy
- quite mean area control game
- Aztec
- area control
- city building
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- these games have amazing table presence by which i mean people are going to glance across the room and go what is that person playing and i want to play all these games
- stacking games have table presence like nothing else
- looks beautiful it looks like a load of sweets on the board
- one of my favorite games of all time
- i don't like that sort of game i find that one of the most frustrating game mechanisms
- the central marble dispenser is your main draw in this game
- absolutely brilliant strategic game quite complex game
- it's actually my favorite of the mask trilogy
- i'm almost scared to say this but i don't really like azul very much
- biggest most overlooked game on this list
References (from this video)
- Huge sense of choice for players
- Thematic depth in the trilogy
- Can be overwhelming due to options
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action Point Allowance — Part of the mask trilogy where actions cost points from a pool.
- temple/district building — Players explore and develop spaces with a focus on building and expansion.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- actions selection it's a very hard thing to pin down
- there are so many options but some players will find this totally overwhelming
- one of the most ill-defined sort of category of games
- the clever action selection mechanism here relates to the sharing of these dice between the players
- in Dominion a player has their own personal deck of cards
References (from this video)
- clever use of rivers and majorities in scoring
- deep strategic options with strong spatial planning
- can feel abstract and unforgiving to new players
- pacing can be tense due to heavy planning
- city-building and control via temples and rivers
- Aztec/Mexican civilization
- abstracted, area-control with regional scoring emphasis
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- AP (action point) style planning — six action points per round used to move, lay temples, or manipulate map features
- Area control with river/lake division — map is partitioned by rivers and lakes; control yields majority points
- Temple placement and teleport — powerful temples provide high action costs but significant benefits; can shift control
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- there is this more injected element of player interaction
- it's a genius twist
- the market is completely driven by the players
- money is such a tight resource in this game
- the rules overhead is very low
- a timeless design
- you can bet your funds on other people being right
- loads of things to weigh up, a complete package of the game