{"id":3907,"date":"2003-11-05T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-11-05T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2003\/11\/05\/maya\/"},"modified":"2003-11-05T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2003-11-05T11:00:00","slug":"maya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2003\/11\/05\/maya\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maya<\/a><\/h2>\n

Games can’t get more German than this. If you’re fond of little wooden cubes
\nand cherish a certain predilection for obtaining majorities, this game is for you.
\nI’ll try to draw a rough outline of the game. I deliberately won’t attempt to
\nmention every single rule.<\/p>\n

As you expect from an El Grande style game, there are two different phases: Gaining
\ncubes and placing cubes. The gaining cube phase has the players put face down cards at
\ndifferent places. Those different places pay a different number for cubes for the first,
\nthe runner-up and sometimes lower scorers. Additionally, they give special abilities to
\nthe winner (like: “place one cube immediately for free” or “in the placing
\nphase, miss one turn if you want”). As a rule of thumb, the more powerful the
\nspecial abilities are, the less cubes you can earn at that place.<\/p>\n

Each player has the same set of numbered cards which are, as already said, played
\nface-down. Contrary to games with similar mechanics (“Corruption”, “Caesar
\nund Cleopatra”) which tend to be more or less luck-driven, Maya introduces two
\ndifferent backsides for those bid cards. This means you can see whether a player is
\nreally interested, even if you cannot know whether he played 6, 7, or 8. Or, you see that
\nhe only played 3, 4, or 5 and so he is probably satisfied with a third place.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Aaron complained after the game this approach still involves too much luck. Well, yes.
\nIt’s frustrating to lose a place by one point (or even the tie-breaker rule). On the
\nother hand, games need some luck element. In any case, it’s a much quicker and much
\nless chaotic way to gain cubes than “Venezia’s” built-in pigeon wargame.
\nAnd I was impressed that in our 5 player game players always got 7-9 cubes (with 9 being
\nquite rare) – this implies thorough game testing.<\/p>\n

The placing phase has some interesting new ideas, too. Most surprising perhaps is the
\ntie rule. Imagine two players with two cubes each and three players with one cube each.
\nIn most games, the 2 players would share the victory points for the first and the second
\nplace. In Maya, both get the full number of victory points for the first player, and,
\neven more astounding, those 3 players get all the number of victory points for the
\nrunner-up. In most games there are scoring areas which you can completely ignore. But in
\nMaya, it is always possible to get points with just one cube. This makes the game more
\nthrilling.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

All El Grande style games need a mechanism for removing cubes. In Maya, each player
\nwho scored loses a cube (so in our example, each and every player loses one cube, leaving
\na single cube of those two players who have two cubes each before).<\/p>\n

And there is another surprising element: The scoring areas are different levels in the
\npyramids which afford more victory points the higher up you get. All first levels have to
\nbe covered before you can place in any second level and so on. You are not allowed to put
\na cube in a level if there aren’t any cubes of yours in every lower level of the same
\npyramid. This means: often, you just put one cube in a pyramid to keep your options for
\nhigh levels. But woe on you if you happen to score with your single cube – remember it
\ngets removed, and if it was indeed your last in that particular level, all cubes from
\nhigher levels are removed as well.<\/p>\n

It can be very confusing to read descriptions of games you haven’t played, and
\nthis was perhaps already confusing enough. However, my main point is that Maya offers a
\ndazzling variety of tactical choices, and I tried to convey that. Perhaps I am a little
\nbit over enthusiastic (compare how other WPGs scored the game) but for me it is the best
\nEl Grande style game at this time.<\/p>\n

Westpark Gamers ranking: 7.8 (G: 8, P: 9, A: 6, H:7, W:7)<\/p>\n

\u00a92003, Peter Riedlberger<\/i><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maya Games can’t get more German than this. If you’re fond of little wooden cubes and cherish a certain predilection for obtaining majorities, this game is for you. I’ll try to draw a rough outline of the game. I deliberately won’t attempt to mention every single rule. As you expect from an El Grande style … Maya<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":7,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}