Pyramid Review
Tikal
Published by Ravensburger, Distributed in US by Rio Grande Games
Designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling
$44.95
Tikal is the name of a Mayan city in northeastern Guatemala, near the Belize border peninsula. Although now in ruins in a dense jungle, it was a large and prosperous city for 1,500 years before falling into decay.Tikal is also the name of a game that deals with the archaeological excavation of those ruins. It's an interesting departure for Ravensburger, long well known for producing excellent games for younger children. Tikal is not for younger children, but is aimed smack dab at Pyramid's readership.
It is, in short, a very good game that most board gamers will enjoy playing. Although the English edition isn't out yet (Rio Grande Games lists it as a May release, so check your local store -- it might be here by the time you read this), that's not really a problem - the only German-language component is the rules set, and there is a translation on the web.
The game comes with very handsome components: a board depicting lush tropical jungle, with a base camp and a couple of temple ruins in one corner. The rest of the board is attractive and inviting jungle, with a hexgrid overlay. The playing surface is actually built up during play from 2" hexes, which are only revealed one at a time. In addition to the board and hexes, there are wooden pieces representing archaeologists and their camps, cardboard chits for treasure counters, other cardboard . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: May 14, 1999
Copyright © 1999 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.