Tikal on Speed

Background

One of the main criticisms of the game is that it takes long, and that there is too much down time between turns. This has led to the development of a 'si-move' approach where the sequence of play is much more tightly interwoven and players hence have less 'time off'.

I doubt that this will make the game much shorter, but players will 'feel' more involved, and it will add to the 'tough' decisions that they have to make, as they are constantly having to anticipate their opponents' actions.

Requirements

It is suggested that for this variant, each player receives 10 small tokens of some kind (coins, pebbles, beads...).

Revised Rules

The sequence of play takes place in rounds; with three phases making up a round. At the end of some rounds, a scoring will take place.

In the first phase of a round, players bid (as per the professional game) to obtain a tile for the round. Once a player has secured a tile, he does not play it. Once all players have secured a tile, the first phase ends. The order in which tiles were secured becomes the Round Order. If a player secures a Volcano as part of the tile auction, he is automatically "promoted to first" for that round.

In the second phase, players take turns to place their tiles on the board, also in the Round Order. Once all players have placed their tiles, the second phase ends.

In the third phase, players spend their Action Points. These are allocated and used in "Jumps". A "Jump" is played out as follows. Each player secretly takes into his/her hand from 1 to 5 tokens. The numbers chosen are revealed simultaneously, and players now spend their Action Points as per the normal game. The order in which they are spent is from smallest to largest number of points (read 'tokens') chosen. Any ties are broken by the Round Order. "Jumps" continue until all players have spent, or are unable to spend, their tokens, at which point the phase ends, and all players take up all their tokens again.

In playing Jumps, the following should be noted:

1. A player is not required to decided in advance how the points are going to be spent, although the player must have a legal move in mind before choosing the number of tokens. For example, a player that has taken up 3 tokens, or Action Points may, when it is his/her turn, decide to use them for movement, turning over a Treasure, or trading a Treasure.
2. All the points chosen must allocated to one and only action. For example, a player that has taken up 3 tokens, cannot bring one man on, and then use the 2 points remaining to move some pieces. If the player is unable to spend all the points on one action, then any remaining points are lost.
3. A player with no points left to spend will have to sit out the remaining Jumps of the phase.

Scoring takes place at the end of round in which a Volcano was placed. Once scoring has taken place, the player who placed the Volcano has a bonus 10 Action Points to spend, as per a turn in the normal game.