Game Preview: The Princes of Machu Picchu

By W. Eric Martin
September 24, 2008

Publishers: PD-Games / Rio Grande Games
Designer: Mac Gerdts
Players: 2-5
Playing Time: 90 minutes
Release Date: Spiel 08
Languages: German & English
Links:

Boardgame News has already published a preview of The Princes of Machu Picchu by Paolo Soledade, who was involved with playtesting the game, but I had the chance to ask designer Mac Gerdts questions about the game’s origins and development, so here’s another look at it, starting with an overview of the game play for those missed it.

The Princes of Machu Picchu is set during the end of the Incan Empire, when the Spanish have wiped out most of the population. A number of princes have escaped with their families, however, to Machu Picchu, which stands hidden in the mountains, a place of refuge from the Spaniards, to live in safety and show their piety to the gods.

Sacrificing to the gods is one way to victory, and players take actions by wandering around the hidden city. “For example,” says Gerdts, “if a player’s game piece enters the goldsmith’s quarter, players can produce gold; if it enters the Central Plaza, the player can trade goods; if the game stone enters the Temple of the Sun, virgins may be sacrificed to the sun god Tayta Inti, and so on. So the choice of actions does not depend on the position on a rondel” – a game design element that organizes player choices in Gerdts’ three previous releases: Antike, Imperial and Hamburgum – “but on the position of your game piece in the city. Llamas will help you to move further, if you want to reach a more distant place (similar to paying resources/points for progressing further on the rondel).”

“A central feature of the game will be the sun clock Intihuatana,” Gerdts continues. “With sacrificing, time is added on the clock automatically. The player who enters the sun clock gets the amount of hours collected so far as his bonus points, and at the same time triggers an auction among all players. The winners of the auction will move their traitors towards Cuzco, where the Spanish reside.” Being a traitor to your people and providing the secret of Machu Picchu to the Spanish is the other way to win the game, and the twin forces of the game pull you in both directions. “Auctions and blind bidding add some uncertainty to the game,” says Gerdts. “You never can be sure about a traitor!”

The gameboard is double-sided, with English text on one side and German on the other. “As in Imperial, there exists only one geographical setting,” says Gerdts. “Nonetheless, although the rules of the game are not too complicated, they offer quite challenging decisions, which sometimes have a huge impact on the game. Therefore I think there is a lot of replayability in the box, so that players should not miss another map.”

Reliving History

In comments on Soledade’s preview, Patrick Korner, sometime BGN columnist and another Princes playtester, mentioned that the game keeps getting more polished and balanced with each iteration, something Gerdts says is essential given the dual victory conditions. “Both the Incans and the Spaniards should have a good chance of winning. This target is very challenging in terms of game design because the outcome always depends on play style and group think, and experienced players will play differently than newbies. In this context, the number of players is very important as well. Some of the latest changes: We experimented with different sets of offertory cards, cut the maximum playtime by one day, slightly changed the market mechanism, and finally decided against sacrificing human beings at the sun clock!”

Unlike previous Gerdts’ games, The Princes of Machu Picchu does not give the players perfect information about the game state in order to preserve the tension over the endgame and create uncertainty over who is working toward which goal. Players accumulate gold secretly, drawing three offertory cards at a time (and choosing one) from a deck of 28, so luck does become a factor. “As in other games, one has to make the best out of it,” says Gerdts. “Older cards can be returned to the stack, which allows players to adjust their strategy even later in the game if necessary. Other than that, there is no luck involved, and the way to aquire those offertory cards requires the usual tactical, strategic and diplomatic skills as known from my other games.”

Finding the Game

Gerdts has been fascinated by ancient American civilizations since he was a teenager, and with his wife Kathia being Peruvian, it was natural for him to want to explore the land in more detail. “For a long time, I wanted to design a game which features the history of her country,” he says. “We visited Machu Picchu together in 2004, and I think that no one who has been there can ever escape the fascination of the lost city high in the Peruvian mountains!”

While visiting Peru and exploring its history gave Gerdts plenty to think about in terms of what to incorporate into a game, he recognizes that not everyone shares the same interests as him. “Originally I wanted to include other old Peruvian civilizations like Chimu, Moche, Nazca, Tihuanaku, Huari, Naymlap, Chachapoya and the like,” he says. “There are so many interesting things to learn and to discover!”

Gerdts continues, “But after a while I had to realize that people here in Europe have never heard about any of those, as if my game would be about any science fiction galactic Empires. The setting had to be made with a prominent place most people know, and I decided to choose the lost city of Machu Picchu.”

Drawing on his personal travels along with additional research, Gerdts recreated the world of the Incans in ludic form: the resources (corn, coca, llama, pottery, and cloth) are the same, the lack of money mirrors the absence of an Incan currency, gold holds a special role ("There was no private ownership as all gold was regarded as ‘tears of the sun god’ and therefore belonged to the Incan king,” says Gerdts), the sacrificing of llamas, the presence of virgins of the sun. “The game board tries to represent the city of Machu Picchu as we know it today,” he says, “and only minor changes were necessary, such as renaming the Sacred Rock ‘Temple of the Puma’ in order to have four temples. Of course a board game always has to make restrictions about historical facts and data, but this is really a game about Incan history and not a mechanism with a tacked on theme!”

Being a Prince

To create the right level of tension when playing The Princes of Machu Picchu, the number of workers you have available, as well as the time available to keep the Spaniards out, is based on the number of players. Says Gerdts, “These adjustments are necessary because the goal remains the same: Engaging all 15 priests and virgins for an Incan victory. Of course with the maximum number of five players there is more competition, but regardless of the number of players, one is always free to choose the profession for his workers as to his liking. Compared to Hamburgum, where only five brewers could come into the game, in this game you are free to engage as many coca planters as you like and as you can afford, restricted only by the total number of workers in your personal supply.”

As with other worker placement games such as Agricola and Caylus, the game starts slowly, then increases pace step by step until the end nearly washes you away with its suddenness. “When players set up their first workers and begin to produce, they might wonder how on earth all 15 of these priests and virgins can ever come into the game?” says Gerdts. “But as production rises, the game speeds up, and suddenly priests and virgins are getting more and more prevalent. Will it be enough to prevent the Spaniards from discovering the city? The last rounds can create huge swings of momentum because they decide which side will win, and therefore which victory conditions are applied for everyone to score his results!”

Note: The Princes of Machu Picchu was still undergoing final development when I interviewed Gerdts, so some changes to the game might have occurred prior to publication.

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