Nahua (2010)

Nahua is an solo dice game of the Aztec civilization.

In this game you take on the role of head priest of Tenochtitlan, jewel of the cities of the Nahua. You must appease the god of the darkness with sacrifices while making sure that your civilization grows and flourishes. There are 20 rounds to the game representing the daynames of the Aztec calendar cycle, and to win you must offer up 26 sacrificial hearts or the sun will not rise again and the world will end.

You begin the game with 3 harvest dice (white) and 2 city dice (yellow). Later you will have access to four additional expansion dice. These dice show a variety of resource icons:

corn, useful to harvest to feed your people, extra corn can be stored from one round to the next

black corn, which you may not harvest, and can mean famine and death if have 3 or more ears of it

peasants, who can multiply your harvest yield with their hard work

priests, who can cause your civilization to expand

hearts, with which you must to appease Tezacatipoca

warriors, who can gain you captured slaves for your sacrifices

gods, which come with expansion dice, who can give you divine bonus resources

During the game you must keep track of corn and hearts as well as rounds.

Play:
There are 3 rolls allowed per round, and you must lock a die each roll, re-rolling any others you choose; with the exception of black corn which is always automatically locked on a roll (i.e. you are not allowed to re-roll a die showing the black corn icon, unless there is divine intervention). Some dice have 2 icons on a face; in this case both roll resources showing can be used. You must harvest enough corn in each round to feed all city and expansion dice being rolled (i.e. ears of corn=number of city and expansion dice rolled). At the start of the game this means you must harvest 2 ears of corn for each round, one for each of the city dice. As your civilization grows and you gain expansion dice, the number of ears of corn required will grow as well. If you do not have enough ears of corn to equal your rolled city and expansion dice (and you must use any stored corn you have as part of this), you must subtract 1 heart from your total (corn harvest may be saved from round to round).

During the game you may gain additional expansion dice. These dice are a darker orange and have a set of black dots (1 to 4 dots) on one face and the great jaguar god is displayed in white. You gain these expansion dice in numerical order and they will give you extra peasants, priests, corn to harvest, warriors and hearts as well as gods to pray to.

Game End:
If after 20 rounds you have offered up 26 sacrificial hearts you have won and the world is safe for another calendar cycle.