So… East Asia was a little interesting as far as seeing all the games from a region. To give this topic more legs:
What’s in your collection (obvs)
What game makes the best use of the geographic or cultural subject matter?
Any game that you feel disservices or exploits the theme?
Any game that taught your, or motivated you to learn more, about the region?
What’s your favorite component from any of these games (pictures always appreciated)
And just for specificity, let’s call this region “Spanish Speaking America + Brazil.” I know that drags in Mexico and excludes Belize but if you have a Belize, Suriname, or Guyana themed game you can do what you want with it
Games we’ve played / owned / encountered
Die of the Dead
Tzolk’in
Tikal
Mexica
Cuzco
Pax Porfiriana
Teotihuacan
Incan Gold
18Mex
Panamax
Cuba Libre
Lamaland
Ayar: Children of the Sun
Yucatan
Altiplano
Puerto Rico
Great Western Trail: Argentina
Santa Maria
Darien Apocalypse
Cacao
Brazil: Imperial
And games without specific settings but clearly inspired by the region:
Pax Porfiriana is the only one I own that is themed in this region. The game is also rather evocative of its theme, even though it’s a simplistic majority game and, unlike Pax Ren and Pax Pamir, lacks any map.
The Mask Trilogy is my fave from this region. K&K area majorities. Tzolkin and Teotihuacan are good Euros from this region too.
Currently my one game is Teotihuacan. It’s been great, I really like the modules approach to the expansion content. I like the conceit of the theme of the pips of the die symbolising gaining experience and getting closer to death. While the overall theme hasn’t made too much impression I think if I was younger with more time I would have investigated more. I wouldn’t have gone deep as historical subjects don’t deeply grip me.
18Mex would be my favourite game in the region. My most played 18xx for slightly arbitrary reasons but that familiarity has elevated it for me. Means we get the best games with the group with everyone having 5 or so games under the belt. It’s closely historically based so I could learn about Mexico through it but I haven’t. As Mexico has a history of railways it’s thematically apt and fits well but being part of such a big genre of games it’s hard to get too excited about one of them in particular.
I used to own Panamax and that slightly motivated me to learn more about the Panama Canal. I watched several documentaries on the subject. It did lead me to wonder if hagiography could be applied to a work about a canal rather than a human. I think that theme was pretty strong and given how commercially vital that canal is to the world a harsh economics game is broadly a good fit.
Cuba Libre (well it’s not the continent but does it count?)
Ark Nova has quite a few animals from the Americas… … without wanting to debate the concept of Zoos… it does a good job of representing the animals. A better job theme-wise than Quest for El Dorado… just saying.
Played:
Tzolkin (2 games on BGA)
Teotihuacan (Learning games, 1 or 2 solos)
Tikal (app games)
Lamaland (3 or 4 games, used to own, sold)
I think it is not very present in my collection because
a) I’ve never had any interest in traveling there (except for Cuba once upon a time but we never did and now it’s slipped down the list for–lengthy–reasons). For me in Germany most of South America is just too far away and I have places in the East that have always interested me more.
b) the region as a whole does not seem to be very well represented in boardgames? Am I wrong? A “Family” search for Region: Central America turns up wargames and not much else. Continents: South America fares a little better. Caribean Sea does best… due to Pirates and Colonization themes oO
Best component must be the wheels in Tzolkin, isn’t that a given?
Otherwise the Lamaland Lamas are really cute.
I think with some distance that Lamaland might have had better chances to stay. I do like the idea of stacking tetris tiles. But I think the multiplayer games were just too slow. Maybe not play with 4.
I bought Cuba Libre with the express aim to learn more about Cuba. And I did even from the single learning game I played 4 handed. None of the other games have motivated me to learn more…
Same. But it’ll have to be taught to me. I’m not learning that by myself! I even skipped Sankore for the same reason. Only played Shackleton Base thanks to someone
Sitting very much on the edge, Colt Express, but it’s more “generically Western which probably includes a bunch of Spanish-speaking people” than “set in Central or South America”. But I don’t think I own any games that are more specifically set in the region, even though I have two set in the Pacific Islands…
I played a fair bit of Junta back in the day though it’s too long and ifddly for me now. Also best with a large group. Ah, the Yanquis have not been generous this year…
What game makes the best use of the geographic or cultural subject matter?
Hard to pick – they each make a pretty different usage, and they’re all very thematic in their way (although I couldn’t speak to accuracy). All three are themed around European outsiders in the country in question, though, so none of them provide much of a cultural experience in that respect.
Any game that you feel disservices or exploits the theme?
Puerto Rico is quite famously controversial for its depiction (but it’s certainly not a pasted-on theme). Tikal has explorers stealing treasure from temples. And as far as The Lost Expedition goes, if the ‘lost city’ had actually existed in the form that the explorers were hoping for, one can only imagine it ultimately being ransacked – although I don’t recall whether the game (in which the city does exist) makes any such suggestion. Mind you, TLE is a game where most (and frequently all) of your party will die before ever finding what they’re looking for!
(I don’t know if that’s “exploiting the theme” so much as being themed around exploitation, but it’s what came to mind.)
Any game that taught your, or motivated you to learn more, about the region?
I’d read the book which inspired The Lost Expedition before I ever played the game. (That’s “The Lost City of Z”, which I’d easily recommend to anyone interested in learning about the subject.)
I’ve learned a bit about the other settings from the games, but it’s pretty minimal. Tikal presents a suitably fascinating setting for me, so it’s not the fault of the game that I remain quite so ignorant as I am about it all.
What’s your favorite component from any of these games (pictures always appreciated)
Art. Franz Vohwinkel’s Tikal board (Rio Grande / Ravensburger editions) is simply gorgeous, and the cards of The Lost Expedition by Garen Ewing are fabulous too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an edition of Puerto Rico which might contest this category, though!
Is that a sequel to Altiplano where Ants take over the city of Orleans?
I have played Altiplano - albeit only two-handed. I didn’t like it, so I bought Orleans instead, which I also didn’t like when I two-handed it. Then I did like Orleans against real people on BGA so… I’d probably like Altiplano against real people.
It’s delightful in terms of theme and components. The bag building and board filling is almost exactly like Orleans, but the travel aspect is woven into the rest of the game where you have a market that needs to be certain places to take certain actions, and you need to pay to move that marker where you want it.
I recall the extra buildings were also more dynamic - easier to aquire and more varied in purpose so your board took on a bit more unique character each game.
That said, history has chosen Orleans. I think forums and reviews are more divided, but aftermarket and overall ratings are overwhelmingly Orleans.
Yeah, this seems to be a sparser region all around.
Here’s what I have:
Puerto Rico
T’zolkin
Teotihuacan
Quest for El Dorado
Skull (I’m putting this here for the strong Dio de los Muertos aesthetic)
And then also thought of:
Mexica
Tikal
Altiplano
GWT Argentina
I’d have to say T’zolkin makes best use of the subject matter? Taking the iconic Mayan calendar and creating the iconic rotation mechanics as time passes is quite a thing.
Puerto Rico, as others have said, really dropped the ball. I think they could have gotten away with brown workers - I mean, they are wooden components. Yes, we all laughed a bit at the original Settlers robber being “the black component” but we knew it was just an unfortunate coincidence, and the piece was colored to distinguish it from player pieces and make it easy to see on the colorful board. Not a conscious or unconscious racial bias. But having the PR laborers arrive on new ships every round was a choice… anyway.
I think you could argue that El Dorado and Tikal romanticize a non-existent concept of the new world but it’s a fun concept and I have no problem stepping into the romance there.
I learned about the history of Mexico City from Mexica, which I appreciated. Altiplano inspired me to look up the difference between Llamas and Alpacas (which I have since forgotten).
Personally, I like the El Dorado map. It’s fun every time to see it laid out and what the journey is going to be.
This thread had excellent timing. In a documentary I was watching today about UK bridges inserted the fact that the width of passage for a boat through Tower Bridge in London matches panamax. Seems to have been the old international standard. I think the old panama canal max width not the new standard. Well done @Acacia
American Indians would be interesting. Not as a shoed in mechanic like GWT but just as a Euro. The concept of living in balance, living on the land but not owning it, would be an interesting resource management and efficiency game with perhaps the nomadic concepts from The Wolves, the circular engines of Pipeline or La Granja (have to keep putting in to keep getting out, as opposed to standard flows with resource generating spaces and linear upgrade/conversion pathways), and perhaps even shared incentives of jointly managing (or ruining) resource pools. (And I’m realizing this is NORTH America but hey I had the idea. Sorry.)
El Camino Real - I realize this is California but it’s old Spanish California. Each mission is built a day’s journey from the prior mission. It would be an interesting puzzle of trying to move resources down a path while using them to build said path.
I’m fascinated by the cenotes in the yucatan (oh yeah, Yucatan - sequel to Kemet. Another game). Don’t know what the game would be.
As others mentioned, Machu Picchu and the Andes in general.
I’d like a game about the semi-nomadic tribes in North America or maybe the Mesoamerica ones. But done in a thematic manner (and for once, someone who isn’t an Eklund nor Werhle). The games I see with this theme are usually these soulless Euro crap.
A game I previously owned set in the region and blanked on was Santa Maria. A very good combos euro with a theme that was thought through but not easy to see as a normal
Colonialism fare. The theme wasn’t pasted on but it is a mechanics focussed puzzle so it doesn’t feel thematic.
I don’t know much about the history and culture of these places but what I do know seems very broad and often political. So a lot I’ll have to skip the following 2 points maybe skirt just enough so I’ll risk it
However it did give rise to thinking maybe there’s a game on the spread of death from infection brought over by conquistadors and missionaries to central America. The abstraction around infection contact and subsequent movements could easily be very board gamey, however how to gamefy it with decisions and player actions I don’t know about. Maybe impossible, maybe possible for an actual board game designer maybe possible for someone else on this forum.
A broader point I think is that any resource trading/generating type game could be set in any country. There’s no where without some food system plus other work system. With this region going through the tropics it’s really fertile so farming type games should be easy enough to set. Isn’t there a Brazil set 4x one that came out recentlyish? I think @lalunaverde played it and found it fairly generic which suggests it’s mainly fashions* that keep this region and Africa low down the games settings list.
*this is maybe a political wormhole and I don’t think that word covers it but as it’s a politics free forum…
