Starting Tile Draft Variant

Once you have played Teotihuacan a few times, you may want to use an alternative method of receiving your Starting tiles.

Please note, however, that this variant is recommended only for players with both a solid grasp of the rules and enough experience to be able to form a strategy from the first moments of the game.

Instead of dealing each player 4 Starting tiles, place a number of face-up Starting tiles in the middle of the table. The number depends on the number of players:

• For 2 players: place 6 Starting tiles
• For 3 players: place 8 Starting tiles
• For 4 players: place 10 Starting tiles

For each Starting tile that allows a player to receive a Discovery tile, draw one Discovery tile, and place it next to the Starting tile it was drawn for.

Starting with the first player, each player drafts one Starting tile (possibly with the Discovery tile it is linked to). After each player has drafted 1 Starting tile, each player drafts another Starting tile, this time in reverse player order.

This means that the last player will draft 2 Starting tiles in succession. After each player has drafted their Starting tiles, proceed with setup normally.

Dark Eclipse: Sudden Death Variant

In a regular game of Teotihuacan, players should always have ample time to prepare for an Eclipse. However, if you wish to play a more cutthroat version of the game, you may use the alternate rules below.

• An Eclipse (scoring) happens immediately after the turn of the player who has caused the light disc to reach the space occupied by the dark disc. No extra turns are performed, players simply score and prepare further play (or finish the game) normally, proceeding with the next player.

• The same rules apply for finishing the game: it may end abruptly in the middle of a round if the third Eclipse is triggered, or if an Eclipse was triggered by finishing the Pyramid.

• If players are tied for both Victory Points and cocoa at the end of the game, the player with the highest number on the Player Order token wins the game (instead of the player with the lower number).

Note: We do not recommend this variant to any but the most competitive gaming groups who also favour negative interaction.

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