Mexica

About this board game

Mexica is a 2002 board game for 2–4 players, with a playing time of approximately 90 minutes. Set on an island in Lake Texcoco, it challenges players to shape the developing city of Tenochtitlan by creating districts, placing buildings, and constructing canals.

Players form districts by completely surrounding sections of the island with water. Once an area is enclosed, a player places a District marker and immediately scores points for founding it. This creates a direct connection between developing the city and claiming valuable areas for later scoring.

Canals and Lake Texcoco provide routes through the city. Players can erect bridges and move from one bridge to another for 1 action point, regardless of the distance between them. They must also construct buildings, with the action-point cost determined by each building’s size.

• Partition the island into districts by surrounding areas with water.
• Build bridges and use canals and the lake to move around the city.
• Place buildings, with costs based on their size.
• Compete for building dominance during two scoring phases.

Scoring takes place in two distinct stages. In the first scoring round, only districts are scored. Players earn points according to their dominance within each district; in a four-player game, the players with the first-, second-, and third-most buildings receive decreasing numbers of points.

At the end of the game, the second scoring round expands the contest: all land areas are scored, not only the districts. The player with the most points wins. Mexica is the third game in the Mask Trilogy.