Make Make

About this board game

Make Make is a strategy game for 3–4 players that plays in about 30 minutes. Each player leads a clan on Rapa Nui, competing to control territories, perform ceremonial rites, and become the island’s new Ariki.

The board features a trapezoidal hex grid, with the intersections of three hexes marked as ceremonial grounds. At the center stands Make Make, surrounded by six sacred territories. Each player begins with a chief, five Tangata Manu tokens, and eleven dominance tokens, while twelve Moai tokens wait beside the board.

Every turn is divided into a dominance phase and a ceremonial phase. During dominance, you can claim a neutral territory, take over an opponent’s territory by committing greater dominance, or withdraw most of your tokens while leaving one behind. Your chief is worth three dominance tokens, making its position especially important.

• Gain control of Make Make by controlling at least three sacred territories and more than any other player.
• Raise a Moai when you control a territory and all the territories surrounding it, with your chief and a Tangata Manu present as required.
• Place a Tangata Manu on a ceremonial ground when you control its three surrounding territories.

A Moai replaces the tokens on its territory and cannot be removed. That territory is then considered controlled by all clans, while a Tangata Manu is removed if you lose control of one of the territories supporting its ceremonial ground.

In Make Make, territorial control can shift quickly as clans contest valuable spaces. If all five of your Tangata Manu tokens are on the board while Make Make is in front of you, you win instantly.