Yaxha

About this board game

Yaxha is a 20-minute board game for 2–4 players in which you recreate a Mayan pyramid by collecting and placing colorful blocks over ten rounds.

At the start of each round, market tiles are filled with three blocks at a time drawn from a bag. All players simultaneously choose and reveal a card showing a market tile. When everyone selects a different tile, each player takes the blocks from their chosen market. If players tie, the tied player with the lowest turn order card chooses first, while the other tied players select from the remaining unclaimed blocks. Turn order cards are then exchanged.

Every block you collect can help shape your pyramid, but placement is carefully restricted. Blocks must touch one another, and the bottom layer is four blocks wide and long. Once four blocks form a 2×2 arrangement, another block can be placed above them only when it touches a block of the same color, either below or beside it. Blocks that cannot be placed must be discarded.

• Ten rounds of simultaneous market selection
• Five block colors to collect and arrange
• A pyramid-building system based on adjacency and matching colors
• Bonus cards that reward specific achievements

At the end of the game, score the largest visible group of each color in your pyramid. Hidden blocks do not score. You can also earn 5 points for every bonus card you satisfy, such as having the most yellow blocks, showing all five colors on the second layer, or creating the second-largest group regardless of color.

With limited blocks, contested markets, and changing turn order, Yaxha combines simultaneous choices with spatial construction. The player with the highest score wins.