Zapotec Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Zapotec, an area control and hand management game published by Board and Dice. In Zapotec, players are trying to earn the most points over the game's five rounds.

Publisher Board & Dice is back with another look at early-civilization strategy, this time by way of Mesoamerica and the Mexican state of Oaxaca. True to form, Zapotec bears hallmarks of some of the publisher’s previous output: era-specific resource production, technology upgrades, solo play, and centralized pyramids. But in a stunning turn of events, we’re provided only one track to traverse.

Designer Fabio Lopiano, of Calimala and Merv fame, showcases a midweight area majority hand management system that’s filled with temples, villages, and plenty of corn. Let’s dig into the review field and plant some seeds to see if this is a game that will grow beyond the depths of board game obscurity.

Zapotec’s board is filled with three regions dedicated to specific deities (Etla, Ocotlan, and Mitla) as their civilization was polytheistic. In each of these regions, there are three areas made up of plains, mountains, and forests. Each of these terrains contains a different distribution of building types (temple, village, or cornfield). How a cornfield is a considered a building is not up for discussion. The remainder of the board is filled with space for pyramids, trade tiles, and the sacrifice track.

In each of the five rounds, players select a card from their hand to play simultaneously. These cards feature a resource (brick, wood, or stone), a property related to the regions on the board, as well as a number. The resource icon indicates the income options available this round, whereas the property dictates where players can build houses for area majority