Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun | Rahdo's Final Thoughts 

Yes the bot works in 3p too. None of our testers said they *needed* it, but if you want to add it, go ahead. :)

Rahdo, if you ever stop doing RRT, please get some publishers to pay you to help them make the 2-player experience better.

Great Final Thoughts! I absolutely see your point with regard to the two-player game and the tension deficiency, but I so loved all of the things that you can do, ala Trajan, that I'll forgive that oversight. We will, however, incorporate your idea of the the second player receiving the Faith Ankh card.

Tekhenu is egyptian for "Obelisk" literally :)

The tekenu is a mysterious figure often depicted in burial scenes. Scenes from tombs dating to the early New Kingdom, for example Reneni in Elkab, depict the tekenu as a man wearing an animal skin or sack, seated on a sledge being drawn by cattle as part of a burial ritual. The interpretation is problematic. It has been suggested that the sack contains body parts of the deceased that did not fit into the canopic jars, but were still needed for life in the hereafter. It is also possible that we are dealing here with what was originally a 'Hockerleiche' (squatting body) wrapped in an animal skin, which continued to be involved in the rituals in a symbolic way even after burial practices had long since changed. It is most unlikely that we are dealing here with a human sacrifice. It is possible that the figure is related to the symbolism of regeneration, or that it is a sem-priest in a trance, even though this cannot be proved from the accompanying texts.

At the end of your video, you asked how you would rank the *"Testini [sic] (Tascini) triple three trilogy"* (lmao, BTW!) if you were asked, but you never answered. So according to your BGG ratings, and to help anyone who may be interested in knowing the answer to that "question," here you go: 1) Tzolk'in: 8.695 2) Teotihuacan: 8.51623 3) Tekhenu: 8.4465

I need more Uwe-level information in my rules books for sure.

this is by far my favorite of 2020. Keep up the good work D.T. and keep them coming.

Doesn't trismegistus make it 4? Also, from the same designer and starts with "T"; what prevents it from being included in the series?

Would you not count Trismegistus among those "T" games from Daniele Tascini? Yes, I know he co-designed it with Federico Pierlorenzi, but he also co-designed 2 of the other 3 "T" games that you referenced with another designer each as well. Or since those other 3 (Tek, Tzol, and Teo) all have a similar theme (having to do with ancient America), Tris doesn't fit with the theme and that's why?

Tekhenu is the Egyptian word for Obelisk.

Awesome! You are Agricola I am Caverna, this seems more for the Caverna folks for two players. The bot would be a good addition to tighten it up? Really excited for this. Thanks for the detailed rundown!

"tainted six" to the tune of "Tainted Love" - hilarious!

Great comments!!!! I like your final thoughts.

I would gladly buy an expansion with Nile flooding and building monuments and pyramids. Just to add to the theme.

So based on this I have actually cancelled my pre-order. I wasn’t sure to begin with but I really hoped for a good 2p game. As it stands I have so many more games of Teotihuacan ahead of me (haven’t even touched the expansions).

Excellent Video again, it looks like another solid game in the T series!

"Turn order here is more important than almost in any other game" - Tom Vasel on Tekhenu

Already put a preorder. That game looks fantastic!

Since Ive been playing with my friend, we both thought that going firrst had a huge advantage

I was waiting for you to rank each game in the series towards the end there. Did I miss it? Thanks Rahdo!

"If you don't mind running the bot, I wholeheartedly support using the bot at 2p," said David Turczi in the BGG forum :) So would like to hear Your thought on playing with bot as a 2 player game :)

Ai, in the end it was shipped to the DT West library?

Trismegistus is another recent Tascini "T" game (although its theme doesn't belong with the others).

Sry to hear your 2 player complaints. Luckily for me, I almost never play 2 player and this game looks awesome!

There was a fourth game announced a week or two ago, another T-game in Ancient Ur called Tabanussi I believe!

Take a drink every time he says the word "time."

I just think that games like Teotihuacan, Abyss, Tekhenu, Blood Rage and so on are meant to be played as 3-4 players or even 5 or more if game allows. Of course some games may be better in some specific player number but still I think games would need extra rulebooks for each player number to balance everything out. That contains setup, rules, actions, resources etc. I think it just would take too much time. I played Teotihuacan as 2, 3 and 4 players and of course 4 players gameplay was the best, this game has "bot" which takes some spaces to imitate increased cost of locations but it has only tiny effect on other players altho I enjoyed even 3 and 2 player game but I could feel significally difference in gameplay. Abyss and Blood Rage in the other hand are one of my favourite games and yet I cant stand them as 2 player game because...they just don't work! Both game just shine as 4 or 5 players, but 2 or 3 are meh, maybe Abyss (just base game) is fine as 3 players. I played tons of Abyss and Blood Rage matches and I lately got to know Teotihuacan, gosh that game is epic. The only thing that saddens me is actions balance, I can't figure out how could designers leave the game as it is! I mean unfortunately there's only one way to win the game, by building pyramid that's on the middle of the board. You can't go Worship strategy because it's not worth, also you must then unlock workers or count that other players will bump them but it's not going to happen propably, masks are so weak that we didn't ever picked them unless it was literally last action and we were like "oh I take that mask, better 1 point than nothing", we decided to reduce the costs of masks by 1 resource of your choice, which means the level 1 masks are free now so now it makes sense for people to get them, and also it encourages to go further into that strategy. I get it that designers wanted players to build that pyramid as a main goal to win but the difference between actions I mean the efficiency is just too high. There's one specific technology that allow you to build first pyramid tile 1 cheaper resource and treat that location as you have there additional worker is just too strong and it's must have. Teotihuacan could be so much better in terms of balance, so sad testers missed it or for some other reasons designers decided to keep it. I have two expansions, didn't play them that much but still mask strategy even as a minor bonus way of scoring is not worth, even with those things expansion added. We're about to test our house rule with 1 resource cheaper masks and see how it goes because right now everyone just skip them which is sad, they have potential.

Wouldn’t the passage of time theme be the cyclical nature of society from a day/season/year changing and making items that were once forbidden become prized possessions by the masses only to then fall out of favor again? The game warrants you to manage let’s say, the value of building a statue, at the right historical moment or be caste down and out of favor (ie losing).

Are you gonna propose your variants to the designers (balance rewards + bot in 2pl games). I am Interested in there reaction and they sound great implementations to me...

Just noticed that if i was sitting where the camera is, i would be blocked the whole game from those dice! Kind of a bummer. Im sure there could have been another solution for the obelisk.

Odd question, is that a copy of the updated Project Elite behind you? Have you put any updated thoughts out anywhere, podcast etc? Would love to hear what you think!

We've only played this a couple of times, and we think it's got a chance, but it's going to need a house rule (we'll probably only ever play it with the two of us, we wouldn't impose our house rules on others). Our main complaint is the "Decrees," which are an example of something very tiresome (ymmv) and typical these days--secret end-of-game bombshells that vary wildly from spectacular to blah, and come to you as a matter of blind luck. We think we're going to just take the damn things out of the game entirely on our next play and see how that goes, just give a fixed points reward in those spaces instead. Our other complaint--the player aid is laughably stupid, and a good one was needed. Ah well, you can't have everything--once we're done wrangling this game into something we can like, I think we're actually going to love it. We house-ruled the crap out of Teotihuacan and now we enjoy it very much quite often, and this one is on the same track because the gameplay is really fun.

Best comments, to the point as always! Just to tease you, is this the label of a new t-shirt on your right sleeve??

Top 5 for me👍

I 100% agree with Rahdo's complaints regarding the 2 player experience. I am far less forgiving of Tekhenu's 2 player shortcomings however. Tekhenu is one of the most player count driven games I've ever played. 2 Player - 4.5/10 3 Player - 7.5/10 I haven't played with four players yet, but based on my experience, it's easy to see that Tekhenu would be an even more constricting experience than with three players. Three players was already unbelievably tight. 2 players was oddly loose and felt poorly designed in comparison.

I have Teotihuacan and love it, I play it with my wife and yes and I can't win her. Should I buy this or the first one?

I think this biggest statement is “it is what it is”. Not the most resounding endorsement for the game.

This is actually the fourth game in his "T" series so far, with Trismegistus being the third.

After 3 plays, I still am wondering why, besides opening up the tech track, does population not have more of an impact. Happiness seems to have gotten the better attention while population is just saying, well I opened up access to more ways for you happy people to trounce me. Population seems like a loss leader. Am I missing something? I know population feeds the need bread for scoring mechanism, but I just feel it should do more.

Cursory, doing a thing, goodness boring as all get out. Chasing a balance of what exactly?