TZOLK’IN

SOLO VARIANTS
©2020 Cherey Neriknet – Versión 5.3

SOLO VARIANT 1
Mode without virtual player

Setup
Game setup is carried out the same as for the case of 2 players. However, once all the cylinders have been
placed in the gears with two of the colours, it is necessary to continue filling holes with another colour more
(the one not used by the player), but now taking into account not to occupy gears that have 4 or more
cylinders placed. Therefore, we continue to take starting wealth tiles that indicate where to place the 6
cylinders of another colour in gaps. When a tile forces cylinders into a gear with 4 or more cylinders, that
tile will be ignored and another one will be taken.
Then place 3 small disks of any colour unused by the player and place them in the temples at the 4th position
of the brown temple, at the 2nd position of the yellow temple and at the 3rd position of the green temple.

Turn of game
The player will be playing consecutive turns without worrying about anything other than following the
general guidelines of the game: place or withdraw workers.
The initial player box no longer makes sense as such and the player no longer has to put a coin after each
turn on the teeth of the central gear. Each time the player decides to place a worker in the starting player
space, he will receive 5 coins from the reserve, but to have this right he must have placed at least 1 crystal
skull in the gear of Chichen Itza. The worker placed in the starting player space is picked up within the same
turn he has been placed, as usual.
On food days, at the end of his turn and after having satisfied the feeding of his workers, the player must
check if his discs of the temples have been able to reach or surpass the level of the fixed disks of another
color that were placed at the beginning of the game, so that:
* If he reached or exceeded the level of a fixed disc, the player has the right to take the printed
resources at the corresponding temple levels if the food day is brown (middle of age), or add the points
that correspond to him if the food day is turquoise blue (end of age). Therefore, in this case, the general
rule is followed. Once this is done, the fixed disk is raised upwards one position.
* If you could not reach the level of a fixed disk, the player does not receive resources or punctuation,
and must pay 1 coin for each level of difference from the fixed disk. For each coin you cannot afford,
you have to lower your disc level in the temple where you have not got it. If he had to descend below
the lower level, he will remain there. Once this is done, the fixed disk is raised one position.
Each time the player invests in the first level of a technology, he can lower a fixed disc of the temple he
wants. If you do it on the second level of a technology, you can lower a fixed disk 2 positions. If you do this
on the third level of a technology, you can lower a fixed disk 3 positions. Each time after the third level that
the player invests, he will be entitled to withdraw the desired fixed disc from any of temples. If the
investment is in Theology, the player also gains 1 coin for the first level, 2 coins for the second level, 3 coins
for the third level and 1 piece of gold each time he does it after the third level. All this is independent of
what the player corresponds to him for the action he has taken in the technologies.

Goal
The end of game is reached in the usual way, at the end of the second day of food turquoise blue (end of
second age).
The objective of the solo game is to reach a number of points to achieve a social position, according to the
following table:

Less than 25 points  Convicted

From 25 points  Apprentice
From 40 points  Master
From 60 points  Sorcerer
From 75 points  Head of tribe
From 100 points  Temple God
 SOLO VARIANT 2
Mode with virtual player

Virtual player management

The virtual player does not have to feed his workers, nor does he administer corn coins or resources (wood,
stone and gold), although he does raise positions in temples and technologies, collects skulls that he can
place, collects harvest tiles (both corn as wood), acquires buildings and monuments and accumulates
victory points.

Preparation
1. An ordinary 6-sided die is required as an additional element to the base game.
2. Reserve a small space on the table for the game elements of the virtual player, which will be the colour
help card, 1 worker and the possible buildings that will be acquired during the game.
3. Assemble the board and assign a colour for the workers and tokens of the virtual player and another for
the real player. The arrangement on the board of the large disk (for the score) and the small disk (for
temples and technologies) is the same as in the general rules.
4. Virtual player will always have on the board a worker in each gear and will not be moved from place at
any time. Therefore, he will play from the start with 5 active workers, keeping the sixth in his playing
area with the exclusive purpose of eventually being placed in the initial player zone when appropriate
(see Initial player change later).
5. To place the 5 workers of the virtual player in the gears, the die is rolled once for each gear, starting with
Palenque and following the clockwise direction until finishing at Chichen Itza. According to the result of
the die, the worker is placed in the space corresponding to the number obtained.
6. Both the real and virtual player receive 4 starting wealth tiles. Human player follows the general rules,
choosing 2 and discarding the other 2. Virtual player is assigned the bonuses of all 4 tiles that he can
directly manage: technologies, temples and skulls. If the bonus consists of an additional worker or a free
feed, he wins 1 skull instead. Afterwards, the 2 tiles with the most resources are taken and the other 2
are discarded. The resources of these 2 tiles are added and 1 skull is assigned for each 2 resources plus
1 VP in case the sum is odd.
7. The real player will be the initial player.
8. We proceed to place the workers of the 2 colours left over according to the general rules, placing them
in the positions indicated in the tiles of initial wealth left over and their opposite gap, except Chichen
Itza, where there are no opposite positions.
9. Place 6 tiles of buildings in the row of the board reserved for them, following the general rules.
10. Place 6 monument tiles in the row of the board reserved for them. In this case, the general rule is
followed for 4 players and not for 2.

Development of a round
The game round is played according to general rules, with the exceptions inherent to the actions of the
virtual player, which are detailed later in the Virtual player's turn section. Turns are consecutive and only
the real player will have to feed workers when necessary. After each turn without there being a new starting
player a corn coin will accumulate in the main gear, as reflected in the general rules.
As a difference from the general rules, both buildings and monuments are replaced. As usual, at the
beginning of Era II the buildings of Era I were replaced by those of Era II.

Initial player change

Virtual player may place his sixth worker in initial player zone when a double circumstance happens:
1. At that moment, virtual player is not an initial player.
2. The amount of coins accumulated in the teeth of the main gear is at least 5, in which case the initial
player token is moved to virtual player and corn coins accumulated in the big gear are returned to the
reserve.
Another alternative way in which the virtual player can cause the initial player change is to get a ‘6’ as die
value in his turn, as will be seen later in the Virtual player's turn section.
When virtual player acquires the status of initial player, his help card is flipped over to show the dark side
of his colour and the main gear is advanced twice, except in the case of a worker of the real player stay in a
space of expulsion of some gear, in which case it would only advance once. As long as the help card remains
on the dark side, the main gear can’t move twice consecutively. The clear side of the help card is recovered
when the virtual player ascends to the top level of any of the temples.
Regarding the condition of the initial player, the behaviour of the real player does not vary in any respect
to the general rules.

Virtual player's turn

In each turn of virtual player, the die is rolled and he will receive the bonus from his worker in the gear
space corresponding to the result of the die by means of the correspondence detailed below, taking into
account that if his worker is in an exclusion space or in a “0” space, see later the section Exclusion zones
and spaces "0" in the gears will be followed, as shown below:

1: Palenque
Action 1: He does not win anything and simply ends the turn, unless he has acquired the 2nd level of
Agriculture technology, in which case he would get 1 VP.
Action 2: He wins 1 corn tile plus 1 VP. If there were not, he wins nothing. In any case, if he has advanced
in Agriculture technology, he gets 1 VP for each level reached.
Actions 3/4/5: He wins 1 wood tile plus 1 VP. If there are no wood tiles left, he gets 1 corn tile plus 1 VP. If
there are no tiles left, he wins nothing. In any case, if he has advanced in Agriculture technology, in which
case he also gets 1 VP for each level reached.
Actions 6/7: If there are any corn tiles in any of the previous actions, he wins the one located in the action
with the highest number plus 2 VPs. If there are no corn tiles, he will win the wooden tile located in the
highest number action plus 2 VP. If no tiles of any kind remain, he gains nothing, though if he has advanced
in Agriculture technology, he will gain 1 VP for each level reached.
In Palenque, when there are no tiles (corn or wood) left, virtual player doesn’t win anything, except if he
has a token in some level of Agriculture technology, in which case he wins 1 VP for the first level, 2 VP for
the second and 3 VP for the third.

2: Yaxchilan
Actions 1/2/3: He wins 1 VP plus an additional VP for each reached in Resource Extraction technology.
Action 2: He wins 1 VP plus 1 additional VP for each level reached in Resource Extraction technology.
Action 3: He wins 2 VP plus 1 additional VP for each level reached in Resource Extraction technology.
Actions 4/5/6/7: He wins 1 skull plus 1 additional skull if he has reached the third level of Theology
technology.

3: Tikal
Action 1: He advances a position in one of the technologies. To do this, the die is rolled twice and only if
results are even or odd, as follows:

1st time 2nd time Technology to advance

Odd Odd 1st (Agriculture)

Odd Even 3rd (Architecture)

Even Odd 2nd (Resources extraction)

Even Even 4th (Theology)

In cases where the first 3 technologies (Agriculture, Resources Extraction and Architecture) provide
additional resources or corn coins, virtual player will receive victory points instead. In case of the third level
of Architecture, the discount of a resource is applied as it earns 1 VP.
In the case of the second level of Theology, the virtual player loses 1 VP before going up in one of the
temples. The temple to be considered will be determined as it is done in action 1 of Uxmal.
Action 2: He earns 1 building. To know which one to choose, the die is rolled and the virtual player wins the
building that corresponds to the value obtained in the die, counting from 1 to 6 from left to right in the row
of buildings. Once caught a building, it is immediately restored. Virtual player immediately wins the building
bonuses. In case of a "farm" type building, virtual player advances as many VPs as wooden resources cost
(1, 2 or 4). In addition, he wins 1 PV for each level acquired in Architecture technology.
Action 3: He advances 2 times in a technology or once in 2 technologies applying 2 consecutive times the
same procedure described for action 1.
Action 4: He wins 2 buildings or 1 monument. To decide, the die is rolled again. If the result is odd, win two
buildings. If it is even, he wins a monument. In the case of winning two buildings, the value obtained on the
die indicates the first building to choose by counting from 1 to 6 from left to right in the row of buildings
and also the next building wins (if a 6 has been obtained, the first building is taken as following). Virtual
player immediately wins the bonuses from both buildings. If a "farm" type building is chosen, virtual player
advances as many VPs as wooden resources cost (1, 2 or 4). In case of winning a monument, roll the die
again and the new value obtained indicates the monument to choose by counting from 1 to 6 from left to
right in the row of monuments. The monument bonus is checked at the end of the game. In addition, he
wins 1 PV for each level acquired in Architecture technology.
Action 5: He advances in 2 different temples. To do this, the die is rolled and virtual player advances a level
in a temple as same mode as action 1 of Uxmal. The second temple to which a level ascends will be the next
one. If the first one turned out to be the green temple, the brown one is considered as the next.
Actions 6/7: The die is rolled and the value obtained indicates which action of Tikal takes place. In case of
leaving a 6, the dice is re-rolled until its value is less than 6.

4: Uxmal
Action 1: The die is rolled and virtual player ascends a level in the temple that results from the following
procedure:
Values 1/2: Brown temple (temple of the god Chaac on the left).
Values 3/4: Yellow temple (temple of the god Quetzalcoatl in the central part).
Values 5/6: Green temple (temple of the god Kukulcán on the right).
If the virtual player has reached the highest level in one of the temples, next die rolls only apply to the other
two temples as follows:
Odd value: Temple further to the left.
Even value: Temple to the right.
If virtual player has reached the highest level of 2 temples, it is no longer necessary to roll a die, ascending
directly in the only temple available.
If virtual player has reached the highest level of all the temples, each time he has to ascend again he gets 5
VP instead.
Action 2: Virtual player loses 1 VP and performs action 1.
Action 3: Virtual player loses 2 VP and perform action 1.
Action 4: He earns 1 building. To know which one to choose, the die is thrown and the virtual player wins
the building that corresponds to the value obtained in the die, counting from 1 to 6 from left to right in the
row of buildings. Once caught a building, it’s immediately restored.
Actions 5/6/7: Die is rolled and the following procedure is applied:
Value 1: He advances a level in a temple by performing action 1 of Uxmal.
Value 2: He earns 1 building doing action 2 of Tikal.
Value 3: He advances 2 levels in technology performing action 3 of Tikal.
Value 4: He earns 1 skull performing action 4 of Yaxchilan.
Value 5: He advances 2 levels in temples performing action 5 of Tikal.
Value 6: He earns 1 monument by performing action 4 of Tikal.

5: Chichen Itza
Proceed according to the general rules regarding the placement of skulls, taking into account the following
details:
a) Cases in which the virtual player should receive a resource, it will be ignored.
 b) If the virtual player is in action space 10, he will perform the free action with the highest score.
c) If virtual player worker is located on a space occupied with a skull, he will perform the action on the
immediately previous free space. If all previous spaces were occupied, he loses his turn.
d) The position in Theology technology is taken into account due to its possible bonuses.
e) If he does not have skulls to place, he loses his turn.

6: Initial player zone

Virtual player places his sixth worker in the initial player zone, and one of the following two situations may
occur:
a) If he was already an initial player, he will lose that condition, passing the indicator token to the human
player and returning to the reserve all corn coins accumulated in the main gear.
b) If he was not an initial player, he becomes starting player, he receives the starting indicator token and
the corn coins accumulated in the main gear are returned to the reserve. In addition, the main gear will
advance 2 consecutive times, unless any worker of the real player was left in the exclusion zone due to
the second advance. If the advance is double, virtual player will turn over his help card showing his dark-
colored side and follows the general regulations, not being able to move the gear twice again until he
reaches the highest position of one of the temples, at which point the card will be turned back to the
light colored side.
c) If the initial player square is already occupied by a worker from the real player, roll the die again until
other value than 6 is obtained.

Exclusion zones and “0” spaces in the gears

a) When the virtual player worker is located in one of the two gear exclusion zones, all the coins
accumulated in the teeth of the main gear are removed, without thereby becoming the initial player.
b) When the virtual player worker is in a space number "0", he will get nothing and the turn will pass.

Moments of middle of Era and end of Era

 Middle of Era:
The acquisition of resources by the levels reached in temples are granted to the human player according to
the general rules. As virtual player does not manage resources, he will win 1 skull for each 2 resources he is
entitled to receive for the levels reached in the temples plus 1 VP for each resource that does not form a
pair to grant a skull. For example, if the virtual player had to receive 2 stones, 1 gold and 2 woods (5
resources in total), he would win 2 skulls (for 2 pairs of resources) plus 1 VP (for the fifth resource that did
not form a pair).
 End of Era:
The scores due to the level reached in each of the temples is made following the general rules for both
players.

Final scores
Following the general rule, the game ends at the end of Era II, proceeding to the assessment of the scoring
elements of each player. The real player does it following the general rules. For virtual player, possible
leftover skulls plus points due to buildings and monuments are scored. The corn and wood tiles collected
during the game are valid for possible scores of buildings and monuments.
The real player will win the game when he has been able to overcome the virtual player's score.

Optional increase in difficulty

The most expert players or who wants to participate in a more difficult challenge, can apply any of the
following rules:
• On virtual player's starting wealth tiles, take into consideration the 4 tiles to assign the virtual player the
initial skulls by resources instead of taking only 2 tiles.
• When virtual player's worker is located in a gear exclusion zone, jump to the next gear clockwise to
perform the action until you find one with a worker in a numbered zone.
• When virtual player performs a Chichen Itza action that provides a resource, assign 1 additional VP to it.