Zimbabwe Mojo

Recently Joe, Martin and I were talking about our enthused/misguided/terrible shared habit of constantly bringing new games on Tuesdays, and how it might not hurt to slow down and give things more time. With that in mind, I have - massive hypocrisy alert - been playing (new game) The Great Zimbabwe a lot at home, with a view to bringing it the next few Tuesdays running. If not more. Adam T and Joe joined me for an exploratory outing this week (see Andrew's previous post) but maybe it's worth explaining the basics here in case anyone else's curiosity is piqued enough to give it a go. 

So: in The Great Zimbabwe, each player is a leader of a competing tribe in ancient Africa. However, we're not at war with each other, but trading instead; and we measure our progress by building monuments to our Gods. Which Gods vary - in each game there are many to choose from, but we're monotheistic and once you've chosen a God to worship (and gained the ongoing power they grant you) there's no conversions here. The Gods vary wildly in their powers, and some are stronger than others. But that strength is recognised in your victory point requirement: at the beginning of the game, you need 20 points to win (or at least come close) but every advantage you get in the game pushes the Victory point requirement up. Only the 'easygoing' God Elanga reduces it (by two); however, Elanga grants you no special power at all.

Red's requirement is still on 20, but green and yellow have 

probably started worshipping or something 

The main goal is to raise those monuments, then, but for that you need to pay craftsmen for their ritual goods: a potter, an ivory carver, a throne builder and so on. Someone needs to 'build' these craftsmen in order that players may play them, and doing so also pushes up your victory point requirement - but on the other hand, now you'll be getting loads of cows (basically cash) which is good, because cows pay for things: craftsmen being one, and turn order another. 

bidding plaques in foreground

Turn order is almost an irrelevance in the opening rounds, but becomes increasingly critical as craftsmen are built and paid, and monuments raised. When you raise a monument you need as many different ritual goods as the monument's current level, and each craftsman can only access so many resources per turn, so you can find yourself unable to raise at all if you're last to go. So turn order is decided by bidding, using a curious system of dumping cows on the tribal 'plaques' (see pic above) before bidding is resolved and all cows on plaques are returned to the matching tribe. Say I'm first to bid in that pic (Yellow): if I'm flush with cows, to coin a phrase, I might bid four cows, placing 1-2-3 on yellow-green-red and then the fourth on my own plaque again as the bid 'wraps around'. Green bids next, and starts to the right of where I placed my last cow. It's hard to explain, but easily followed once you've done a round or two. 

wooden crosses mark off used resources in each round

Then the real business starts, although it's surprisingly simple in principle: you have one turn in each round and can take one action with it. The actions are: start a new monument anywhere on the board (exception: not next to any other monument, including diagonals); build a craftsman, placing the craftsman tile somewhere on the board within reach of the resource they need (and ideally close to your own in-progress monuments) or raise a monument.

Raising is where The Great Zimbabwe's juice is, but also where it gets a bit thinky. There is a universal rule-of-three for transportation at play: from resources to craftsmen; from craftsmen to monuments. This includes diagonals, however, and the extremely handy water: no matter how big the water, it counts as a single space. Even if you're further away than you'd like from a craftsman, you can use another monument as a transport 'hub', paying a cow for the privilege, as everyone combines their monuments into a kind of proto-post office, powered by cattle and reluctance.

But each available resource can only be used once per round, which is why turn order can be so important. Having a barn full of cows is no good if you're not using them to score points. 

Taking a God doesn't cost an action: you can do it on any turn you like but, as mentioned above, you're stuck with that God for the rest of the game. Similarly there are a few Specialist cards you can take for their abilities, but each one pushes up your victory point requirement: some rather considerably. 

After everyone's had a turn, players collect all payments to their craftsmen and income equal to their tallest monument, and then bidding begins again for the next round. 

three craftsmen, a specialist and a God (walk into a bar)

The rules aren't complicated: I'd say we've all played games of a similar weight (or heavier) but Zimbabwe's dense thicket of thinking is more about how everything interconnects on the board, with transportation being as critical as income being (almost) as critical as point-scoring. Both Adam and I went an expansionist route, worshipping our Gods and building multiple craftsmen, getting cows galore from Joe who was comparatively reserved on his spending. We should have spotted that we were basically - rules fudge notwithstanding - carving out a path for his easy victory, as I foolishly built the fourth distinct craftsman he needed to put the maximum-height fifth level on his monument for a win. If we'd played correctly he wouldn't have had the cows to do so, but if we'd strategised better we could have forced him to start a new monument (1 point!) instead. 

I wouldn't argue it's a breezy game, and heavy ponderers might find it too thinky thanks to how things overlap on the board. But I certainly feel it's worthy of prolonged investigation, and will continue bringing in the hope that might happen!*

*no pressure obvs x