Tips teotihuacan

I did not see a hints page for this game as yet, so I figured I would give a few hints. For starting titles, I like to make sure I get at least 2 to gold and a worker in range of the tech tree set up. The best time to have a tech is before you need to use it, and the sooner you get the tech the more likely others buying after you will give you a few points (while the points are not too much overall, they can edge out a win in a close game).

The technology tiles are very powerful, are getting a few of them on turn one and/or turn two is rather important.

If the level 1 tech that gives one more resource per resource tile is in game, it is almost always a good buy.

Resources are very important, but only up to the amount you need to buy stuff before the end of the game. Ending the game with a ton of extra resources normally means a game lost. I have won many games where I barely got my last "buy" in with other players sitting on 15 resources and just not in position to get to the buy point titles (pyramid, Nobel house, steps) . The temptation to do the 1 then 2 then 3 die on a resource is very strong, but if you do not have the time to spend them, all you have done is waste 3 turns. A lot of the time it is better to get a few resources and spend them right away than try to horde a lot and try to get them all spent. This is of course also based on how many turns are left in the game.

The game will go much faster than expected, and always keep an eye out for other players with the “extra aging” tech or just lots of 4 and 5 dice sitting on the board. With one or two well placed moves they can cut 2 to 3 turns off the eclipse (per player) in one turn. I have seen an eclipse last only 4 turns because of all of the deaths. Never count on having the number of turns shown before scoring. I always assume it will be at least 2 shorter for the first eclipse, and sometimes as many as 4 less for the next two. The “pay all coco free” titles are very powerful and can be used to pay for workers. This lets you have level 4 and 5 workers and pay them all for free (from 3 to 8 coco).

You always (most fo the time) want to kill your 4 and 5 workers before the end of the eclipse for cheaper workers and nice bonuses.

I personally think trying to get masks is a trap. Even with the temple bonus of scoring masks again, I have yet to see anyone win with this strategy. You just do not have the control over which masks you can get with the random factor, and even at max masks, they just are not THAT many points.

The pyramid is worth more on the first eclipse by a rather large amount (4 extra points per buy). If you can get 4 of them on year one, that is 4 * (1 + [0-4]+4) which is an average of 28 points as well as a possible few temple bumps for more resources, coco, or points. I personally feel it is worth at least 40 points with all of the bonuses you get. If you get the tech that gives free temple bumps on pyramid buys, that is a hard tactic to counter (other than doing it better).

By careful of the allure of getting the 4th dice. If you are planning on locking a lot of dice or have need of some really easy to get 3 dice resources, or builds, then it can be worth it. I personally have almost never found a good use for it unless I am locking dice (something I am more likely to do with the expansions, which are not on this site as yet).

I hope these hints have been helpful. They are by no means all of the hints, but for a beginner, I think they are all solid until you get a few games under your belt and can adapt some of the more complex other paths to victory.

Another small hint. It is best to level up your "1" dice on the thing like building (steps, tech, ext), as the number on the dice do not matter. A "1" really hurts any combo of dice on resources, so always try to use "2-5" for those as the rewards are so much better.