Tenochtitlan, a bluffing/resource management/worker placement Euro

Hello BGDF, I am looking for some feedback on these game rules I have put down, as to see what needs to be changed and what is fine? Are the mechanics to clunky? Does it need a retheme? Is it too drawn out? Note that I am not looking to change the whole thing, as I do like the direction it is heading in, but what should be changed? Rules below. They are comprehensive, so it IS a little long. Thanks.

TENOCHTITLAN RULES

Tenochtitlan is a resource management and worker placement game for 2-4 set in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. Players take the role of one of the city’s camimilocatls, or city planners. During the game, players will have to secretly place workers onto their action boards to try and perform that action for free. If there is a conflict, the city planners must trade or come to an agreement, or no one gets the action. Nobles will be played to assist the action, but can reduce the effectiveness of others. City planners will mine for obsidian and jade, trade resources for gold, hire new nobles and workers, perform sacrifices to the gods, and recruit warriors to attack the surrounding cities. As time goes by, new Spanish soldiers start scouting the city, waiting until the great conquistador, Hernan Cortes, arrives before they attack. The player who braves the onslaught and builds his city the best will be the winner!

COMPONENTS
• 4 Player Action Boards
• 1 Special 3-player action board
• 4 player screens with resource trays
• 28 wooden worker figures (7 in each color)
• 4 wooden turn order marker figures
• 40 gold markers
• 20 obsidian markers
• 20 jade markers
• 20 blue victory point chips
• 20 red victory point chips
• 1 main card storage board
• 24 Noble cards
• 30 City Cards
• 30 Warrior cards
• 20 Ball Court cards
• 60 Spanish Soldier cards
• 1 Hernan Cortes card

SETUP
1. Layout the Central board and shuffle the respective decks. Place them on their spaces. Draw cards from each deck equal to the number of players and lay them out on their buying areas next to the deck. Set the Spanish Soldier cards and Hernan Cortes aside.
2. Give each player their color workers and turn markers. Randomly give each player an action board based on the number of players, as well as a player screen. 2 players: 1 Jade Quarry board and 1 Obsidian Quarry Board. 3 players: A Jade Quarry, an Obsidian Quarry, and a special 3 player board, the Gold Mine board. 4 players: 2 Jade Quarries and 2 Obsidian Quarries action boards. The player boards are different based on the Quarry, to improve player interaction (aka: A player with an obsidian quarry will usually have to spend jade for his actions, so he must trade with other players)
3. Each player takes 3 gold, 1obsidian, 1 jade, and 3 of their workers, and places them into their resource tray on the player side of their screen. Set the other 4 workers of each color onto their space on the main board.
4. Each player draws 2 Nobles to put in their hands (behind the screen.)
5. Set the Blue VPs out equal to number of Players; 2: 10 VPs 3: 15 VPS 4:all 20 VPS. Place the Red VPs to the side.(equal to players)

TURN SEQUENCE
Turns are performed simultaneously by all players, unless otherwise specified.
1. PLACE WORKERS AND NOBLES: Each player places workers onto any action spaces behind their screen (Fortress, Warrior Hall, School, Palace, Temple, Ball Court, Market, Quarry) and choose a noble from their hand.
2. REVEAL BOARDS. Set the player screen aside as to keep your resources hidden.
3. RESOLVE ACTION: Simultaneously resolve actions as they are numbered, starting with Fortress. Adjust turn marker as appropriate. (more later)
4. DRAW SOLDIERS: Draw 1 Spanish Soldier for each player if it is the first part of the game, or 2 Spanish Soldiers if it is the second half of the game.
IF ALL VPs are gone in second half:
5. END GAME: Cortes arrives, the Spanish attack, and then the game ends with scoring.

1. PLACE WORKERS AND NOBLES: Simultaneously, each player will take all their workers they have available (starts at 3) and place them in any number or combination on one of the 8 action spaces on their board. This happens behind their screen, so it is secret information. The number of workers you place on the board is important as it determines who takes the action first, and therefore, pays no gold. Also during this phase, players must choose a Noble card from their hand and play it in front of them behind their screen. This gives each action bonuses and detriments based on their abilities. If a player has no Noble cards, a player gets no bonuses or detriments to their actions (All numbers are 0).

2. REVEAL BOARDS: When each player announces they have finished placing their workers, remove your player screen. Set it so other players cannot look into your cards or resource tray.

3. RESOLVE ACTION: When all screens are removed, players simultaneously perform actions in a strict order. Each action space is numbered 1-8, left to right. Starting with the Fortress, players total how many workers they have placed on that space. The player with the most markers places his turn order marker on 1, which indicates he pays no gold to take that action. If here is a tie in number of workers, the players who tie on the space must make a deal to determine who goes 1st or 2nd, and possibly 3rd or 4th. Players may exchange resources (gold, jade, obsidian), cards from their hands (nobles, ball courts, and warriors), and Victory Point chips. Players may not exchange attacked cities and workers. If players on the space cannot come to an agreement, no one on the first space gets the action and they remove their workers and turn marker. Then the second most amount of workers gets to place their marker. If there is a tie, trades are resolved as above. If a trade wasn’t resolved for the first player, they move to the first place and pay no gold. Otherwise, the person taking the action in second place must pay 1 gold to take that action. This continues for the third and fourth amount of workers, with the third place paying 2 gold, and 4th paying 3. A player that cannot pay or does not wish to pay may opt out of the action. Players behind on the turn track move up to fill in.
The possible actions are as follows:

1. FORTRESS- The 1st player chooses a city from the tableau. They must discard Warriors that match the color of the requirements to defeat the city and gain VP tokens and resources. The city is placed in their player screen, but it may not be traded. Then they remove their workers back into the tray. A Noble played must cancel any requirements on the city equal to the number of red glyphs/numbers he has. If he has a negative number, randomly draw warriors from the Warrior deck to add to the cities defense equal to the negative glyph amount. The player must now meet these requirements as well to take the city. If a player cannot take the city, discard the city and workers on the Fortress space. Discard any warriors draw for negative Noble glyphs. Play continues to the person in second place, paying 1gold for the action. After all players are done, replace empty slots with new City cards.

2. WARRIOR HALL- After everyone completes the Fortress action, reorganize the turn order marker, making deals as normal. The 1st player may pay and take one of the Warrior cards in the tableau, paying it’s resource cost as listed under the card: 2 jade, 2 obsidian, or 1 gold+ 2 jade or obsidian. They take this Warrior and add it to their resource tray. Warriors come in Red, Green, and Blue, and are used to attack cities and defend against the Spanish in the End Game. Positive Red glyphs reduce this cost by an equal amount, while negatives glyphs increase it. In the gold+jade/obsidian, you choose what to increase or decrease.

3. SCHOOL – A player pays 3 gold to take a new worker and place it into their tray from the supply. This worker may not be used this round. Green glyphs reduce this cost, while negative green glyphs increase it.

4. PALACE – A player pays 3 Jade or 3 Obsidian, based on what their action board says. If a player started with an Obsidian Quarry, they will pay 3 Jade. They then take a face up Noble card. Green glyphs reduce this cost, while negative green glyphs increase it. Refill Noble card slots after players are done.

5. TEMPLE- A player may trade 1 Obsidian or Jade (based on above rules) for 1 VP token up to the number of workers placed here. So if a player has 3 workers, and they spend 2 Obsidian, they would gain 2 VPs. He could spend another Obsidian, but no more than 3. A player gets free additional Victory Points for the blue glyphs on a noble, and doesn’t get as many for negative blue glyphs. If the starting Blue VPs run out, replace the stash with the Red VPs. If they run out, the game will end at the end of this turn.

6. BALL COURT- A player may pay 3 Jade or Obsidian (same above rules listed on action board) to take a face up Ball Court card. These do a variety of things. Consider them Special Action cards. Reduce or increase cost for Blue Glyphs. Refill the slots after the action.

7. MARKET- A player may sell 1 Jade or Obsidian for 1 gold up to the number of workers here. The type you sell is based on your Quarry. In this case, if you produce Jade, you can sell Jade. A player gains bonus free gold equal to the Yellow glyphs on your Noble, and doesn’t gain as many for negative glyphs.

8. QUARRY – A player gains 1 Jade or Obsidian (based on their type) for each worker placed here. They gain additional for yellow glyphs, and less for negative yellow glyphs. This is the only action space where the order does not matter and you do not have to pay for being in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place. Resources are not supposed to be limited, use a commonly known substitute.

4. DRAW SOLDIERS- At the end of the Resolve Action phase, draw one Spanish soldier for each player if there are still blue VPs in the middle, or 2 Soldiers for each player if there are Red or none left in the middle. Each Soldier has two important bits of information. Their color, and symbol. The color matters because it shows what color Warrior the player owns that can destroy the soldier, and the symbol tells what group to put him in. There are four groups, and the symbols just show what group to put the soldiers in. There is a gold coin, and this is the group that will attack the player with the most resources and gold. There is a VP symbol, and this soldier group will attack the player with the most VPs. There is a card symbol, and this soldier group will attack the player with the most nobles, ball court cards, and warriors (not cities). And there is a no symbol, and these will attack the player with the least amount of previously assigned Spanish soldiers. After drawing the cards, organize them into their four groups. Players may look through the cards in these groups at any time to know what they are up against for the end game.

5. END GAME- After the last red VP leaves the pool, the game will end at the end of the turn. The resources are removed from players trays and placed in front of them along with their cards to determine which groups the Spanish attack. The player with the most gold and resource gets the group with the coin. If there is a tie, split them evenly between the players. The VP leader gets the VP group, splitting ties as before. The card leader gets the card group, and the person who got no group or the fewest soldiers gets the blank group. The player who has the least total Soldier cards also gets Cortes, who must have all 3 colors of Warrior assigned to beat him. If there is a tie, no one gets Cortes. After groups are assigned, the battle goes much like conquering a city. A player as many colors as he can to match the soldiers’ colors. For each Spaniard he defeats, he places it face down in front of him. For each one he cannot defeat, he leaves it face up. Treat Cortes the same by placing him face up or face down depending on loss or victory. After the battle, Victory Points are counted as follows:

• 1 point for each VP chip (red or blue)
• 1 point for each face down Spanish soldier (3 for Cortes)
• 1 point for every remaining Warrior card, Ball Court card, and Noble card
• 1 point for every 3 Gold, Jade, and Obsidian pieces
• -1 point for every face up Spanish Soldier (-3 for Cortes)

The player with the most points at the end is the winner! If there is a tie, the player with the most gold is the winner. If there is still a tie, it goes to resources, then to cards, then to Spanish soldiers, then to who killed Cortes, and if there is for some reason still a tie, Tenochtitlan and the Aztec Empire are forever destroyed and no one wins.