It is said that Wiraqocha created the sun and the pre-Columbian tribes of the Andes. Under his leadership, those who will train the mighty Inca people came out of their caves to discover new horizons in order to subsist and grow in harmony with nature. They venerated Pachamama, Mother Earth, the basis of all living things, plants and minerals, on earth and under the earth.
In Tiwanaku, first announced as Pachamama, you lead your tribe into unknown territory in search of new lands to cultivate. Your goal: To explore regions and draw outlines to develop cultures according to the customs and legacies of Pachamama. If you honor Her by respecting the great principles of diversity and complementarity, Nature will reward you; otherwise, you will suffer his wrath. In this race, risk-taking, deduction, intuition, and a good sense of timing should allow you to get through.
Each scenario disc indicates a unique arrangement of terrain tiles and crop tiles. Terrain tiles are in regions of 1-5 spaces, and a region of one color does not touch a region of the same color, even diagonally. Crop tokens have a value of 1-5, and each value has a different size/color (level 1 is brown, level 2 is green, etc.). A size 1 region will contain a value 1 crop token, a size 2 region will contain crop tokens of value 1 and 2, and only a size 5 region will contain crop tokens of each value. Two identical crop values can never be adjacent, even diagonally.
On a turn, take either an explore action or a divine action: At the end of an explore or divine action, you can hand in 1-5 offering cubes for 0-10 points. You can hold at most one offering of each color.
When the final terrain tile is placed on the game board, the end of the game is triggered. Starting with this player, each player in turn can take a single divine action or pass. If you pass, you take no further actions. If you divine, you gain points and an offering cube like normal, or you lose points and must pass. Keep taking turns around the table until everyone has passed, then make a final offering, then see who has the most points.
- challenging, elegant deduction puzzle with multiple viable strategies
- varied scenarios ensure high replayability
- accessible to teach to new players and easy to explain
- strong components, including colorblind-friendly stickers
- solo and cooperative play options in addition to competitive play
- can require long thinking turns; some players may not like crunching math
- potentially slow pace with players who take long turns
- not all players enjoy cryptic, information-sparse deduction games
- Earth mother Pachamama bounty, fertility goddess, crops and terrain challenges
- A valley and surrounding mountains where exploration and cultivation unfold
- cryptic deduction with a backstory about uncovering the layout of terrain and crops
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action_selection — Two core actions exist: Explore and Divine, chosen each turn.
- deduction — Hidden information is revealed as players explore and divine the crops on tiles.
- diversity_token_scoring — Score is driven by aligning diversity tokens with terrain and crop varieties.
- scoring_and_tokens — Collect offering tokens and exchange them for scoring points; diversity tokens drive scoring.
- tile_placement — Players deduce and place terrain tiles and crops, using clues to group tiles by type.
- worker_movement — Kechua meeples move to explore, triggering tile reveals and scoring opportunities.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is Tiwanaku it's a very fun deduction game figuring out which terrain tiles are placed where and what crops are placed on top of them
- there are a lot of ways to go about playing the game and trying to get the most points possible
- i like it more because even though there is only one right way how things are laid out you can be less worried about some of the aspects
- it's a top deduction game by sit down games
References (from this video)
- Addictive deduction mechanics
- Online implementation is excellent
- Deep strategic space for two players
- Complex for new players
- Heavy to describe without visuals
- agriculture and discovery in a mind-sweeper style
- Memory deduction and field uncovering around five crops
- puzzle-dense, exploration-driven
- Feast for Odin
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- memory deduction — you uncover fields and crops, deducing where values lie
- set collection / field discovery — you reveal and claim fields to score based on uncovered counts
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- we're going to be talking about 10 games we will have some runners up as usual
- it's a memory game through and through
- this is a card game that we were sponsored to play on the watch it play live stream
- Rome in 20 minutes and that's about it
- it's the first time we've ever done a three game video
- Anacron with the fractures of time expansion really changes the game