Cóatl Review: become the new Aztec High Priest

Cóatl is heavily inspired by Aztec mythology, incorporating real elements such as the feathered serpent figure and the importance of priests in the religion, who were responsible for rituals, sacrifices, and the maintenance of temples.

The serpent symbolizes the union between heaven (feathers, birds) and earth (serpent), representing balance, wisdom, fertility, and creation. The feathered serpent was considered the god of wind, wisdom, and life, and was also associated with the invention of agriculture and the arts.

The title of High Priest used in the game is a simplification, but it reflects the existence of religious leaders who held both great political and spiritual power.

In Cóatl, the appointment of the new High Priest is the background for the competition between players, who will have to create the feathered serpent, one of the most important deities in Mesoamerican mythology.

Let's get to know Cóatl!

Coatl is a 1-to-4 players game, age 10+, by designers Etienne Dubois-Roy and Pascale Brassar. Art by Silly Jellie.

Cóatl was released in 2020 by Synapses Games. The main mechanics are: collecting sets, building from models, and hand management.

Since its release in 2020, Cóatl has gathered nominations and an award:

- In 2020, it was nominated for Best International Artwork, Best International Family Game, and Best International Solo Game, all by 5 Seasons;

- In 2021, it was nominated for International Game of the Year by the Bulgarian Board Game Awards;

- Also in 2021, it was nominated for Festive and Family Game of the Year by GEEKS d'OURO;

- Finally, also in 2021, it won the Palme d'Argent as the Best Game Developed in Quebec.

Let's play!

Playing the Game

The appointment of a new Aztec High Priest is imminent. To prove their merit, contenders for the position engage in a prestigious tournament to impress the gods. Carve the most intricate and elegant Coatl sculptures (a Coatl is a feathered snake) to emerge victorious and gain the coveted title of Aztec High Priest.

The tournament will be neither easy nor friendly; after all, the pieces to create your feathered serpent will be contested by all participants. Only the most astute will be able to fulfill the requirements and conquer the title of Aztec High Priest. So, are you prepared?

This is the setting of Cóatl!

Before the setup, let's understand some of the game's components that will show up throughout this Review, namely:

- Prophecy cards;

- Temple cards;

- Coatl Pieces;

- Sacrifice tokens.

Prophecy cards are the main way to score points: simply fulfill their requirements. Some Prophecy cards have requirements that can be fulfilled multiple times. In this case, a Cóatl scores according to the number of times it satisfies these requirements, up to the maximum allowed by the card.

Each Coatl piece can only be used once per Prophecy card. However, the same piece can be used to fulfill more than one Prophecy card. A very important detail: the body parts shown in a card's requirements can be fulfilled by any type of piece, including head or tail.

The Temple cards include other requirements that you can fulfill. Players start with 1 Temple card in hand, and 2 Temple cards are revealed and placed face-up on the table (I'll talk more about this in the setup section).

Once you finish a Cóatl, you can fulfill a Temple card in hand, or one of the face-up cards on the table. If you fulfill one of these cards, you place it next to your completed Cóatl.

The Coatl pieces are not composed only of parts of the serpent's body. During the game, whenever we refer to a "piece," that piece can be the head, the tail, or the body.

Lastly, the Sacrifice tokens:

- Perfect Pick: Draw 1 head, 1 tail, or 2 body segments of your choice from the corresponding bag, then refill all empty spaces of the Supply board;

- See the Future: Discard all Prophecy cards in the face-up supply, then refill it. Discard any number of cards from your hand, then perform a Choose Prophecy cards' action;

- Priest's Commitment: Take one of the faceup Temple card and add it to your hand. When completing a Cóatl, you can fulfill this personal Temple card instead of a common Temple card.

Now that we know all this important information, it's time for the setup, which has 7 steps. After the description, there is an image below to illustrate, using the same order that will be shown next:

- 1) Place the Supply Board in the middle of the table;

- 2) Each player takes their Individual Player Board and the Sacrifice tokens of their color;

- 3) Fill the spaces on the Supply Board by drawing random pieces from the corresponding Supply bags;

- 4) Choose a starting player randomly and give them the First Player Marker;

- 5) Shuffle the Temple cards and deal one card to each player, to keep in their hand. Divide the remaining cards into two face-up piles near the Supply Board;

- 6) Shuffle and place the Prophecy cards near the Supply Board. Draw and reveal 6 Prophecy cards to form a face-up Prophecy supply;

- 7) Deal 3/4/5/6 Prophecy cards to the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th player, respectively. Each player chooses up to 3 Prophecy cards to keep in their hand and discards the rest.

A turn in Cóatl begins with the first player and proceeds clockwise. Each player chooses one, and only one, of the following 3 actions to perform on their turn:

- Action 1: take Cóatl pieces;

- Action 2: choose Prophecy cards;

- Action 3: assemble your Cóatl.

Action 1, taking Cóatl pieces, allows you to choose from the supply board between 1 head, 1 tail, or 2 body pieces, and place these pieces on your Individual Player Board.

The Player's Individual Board holds up to 8 pieces, and when picking up pieces, pay attention to these two rules:

- if you choose a space with body segments, you must pick up the two that are together;

- you must have space on your Player's Individual Board for the piece(s) you wish to pick up.

During the game, you may need to replenish the supply board. This will be necessary when:

- all supply spaces for body segments are empty;

- all supply spaces for heads and tails are empty.

When this happens, fill all empty spaces (body, head, and tail) on the Supply board with parts randomly drawn from the corresponding bags.

If your supply of body segments has run out and you have no more body segments in your stock bag, go to the End of Game.

If you choose Action 2, which is to select Prophecy cards, choose one or more Prophecy cards from the 6 face-up cards in your supply and/or from the top of the Prophecy deck, and add those cards to your hand. You can take multiple cards with this action, but you cannot exceed the hand limit of 5 cards.

At the end of your turn, if you chose this action, reveal Prophecy cards from the top of the deck until you have a supply of 6 face-up cards.

Finally, Action 3, to assemble your Cóatl: use the pieces from your Individual Board to create a new Cóatl and/or add pieces to existing Coameh. At this point, you can use your Coameh to fulfill Prophecy cards.

While assembling your Cóatl, you can perform the following Assembly actions in any order, as many times as you want:

- start a new Cóatl: take any piece from your Individual Board and place it on the table in front of you. An important detail: you cannot perform this action if you already have 2 incomplete Coameh;

- add pieces to an existing Cóatl: take a piece from your Individual Board and connect it to one of your incomplete Coameh. Note that a Cóatl can have as many body parts as you want, but can only have 1 head and 1 tail;

- fulfill a Prophecy card: place a Prophecy card from your hand next to one of your incomplete Coameh whose pieces meet the card's requirements. Fulfilling a Prophecy card means meeting at least the minimum level requirement, but the card is only scored at the end of the game. This means you can still add pieces to your Cóatl and increase the point value that card gives.

Here are some Coatl Assembly Rules:

- You can only have up to 2 incomplete Coameh;

- To complete a Coatl, it needs 1 head, 1 tail, and at least 1 body piece;

- You need to have 1 to 4 fulfilled Prophecy cards to complete a Coatl;

- A Coatl can never be used to fulfill identical Prophecy cards;

- Once placed, the pieces of a Coatl cannot be moved or removed;

- You are not allowed to combine 2 Coatls into one;

- You don't need to use all the Coatl pieces on your player board;

- Your Individual Board doesn't need to be full to choose the action of assembling your Coatl.

When you successfully complete one of your Coameh, perform the following steps before continuing your turn:

- fulfill as many Prophecy cards as you want with your newly completed Cóatl, from one up to a maximum of four Prophecy cards per Cóatl. This is mandatory;

- if your newly completed Cóatl does not yet have a Prophecy card fulfilled, it must fulfill at least one during this step;

- if possible, you may fulfill one of the Temple cards from your hand or common piles with your newly completed Cóatl;

- turn face down all the cards fulfilled by the now complete Cóatl.

Completing a Cóatl is your last chance to fulfill Prophecy cards with that Cóatl; that is, new Prophecy cards cannot be added to a Cóatl that was completed in a previous turn. If a player has completed their 3rd Cóatl, go to the End of the Game.

You can use one of your Sacrifice tokens on your turn instead of one of the 3 possible actions on your turn, and, obviously, the token is discarded afterwards. Each of them allows you to perform its special action, explained in detail below:

- Priest's Commitment: take one of the face-up Temple cards and add it to your hand. When completing a Cóatl, you can fulfill this personal Temple card instead of a regular Temple card;

- Perfect Pick: draw 1 head piece, 1 tail piece, or 2 body pieces of your choice from the corresponding bag, and then fill all the empty spaces on the Stock board; E

- See the Future: Discard all Prophecy cards in the face-up card stock, then refill the 6-card stock using the top cards of the deck. Discard any number of cards from your hand, then take the action of choosing Prophecy cards.

This is a turn in Cóatl! Play continues to the next player to the left.

Ending the Game

The game ends when one of the following events occurs:

- Event 1: one of the players completes their 3rd Cóatl;

- Event 2: there are no more body segments in supply (neither on the board nor in the bag).

When this happens, the final turns of the game will be played differently, depending on how the end of the game was triggered, if Event 1 or 2:

In Event 1, if the end of the game is triggered because a player completed their 3rd Cóatl, each other player will have a final turn. Continuing clockwise:

- if you play after the player who triggered the end of the game in turn order (note who has the First Player marker), you can perform up to two actions on your final turn;

- if your turn comes before the player who triggered the end of the game, you perform only one action on your final turn.

Event 2 will be triggered if the end of the game is activated because the body segments have run out:

- continue playing until everyone has had the same number of turns. Pay attention to the First Player marker;

- each player takes a final turn.

Once all players have played their final turn, it's time for Scoring.

Each player earns prestige points for their completed Coameh according to the requirements each Cóatl fulfills in their Temple and Prophecy cards.

In the previous image, Cóatl scores 17 points, as it fulfilled 3 Prophecy cards and one Temple card:

- 4 points: the last 4 pieces (8-11) fulfill the requirement of the first card;

- 5 points: although the 3 isolated pairs of blue pieces (1-2, 4-5, 8-9) fulfill the requirement of the second card 3 times, the card only awards points for the first pair;

- 5 points: the blue pieces (pieces 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9) fulfill the requirement of the third card 6 times;

- 3 points: the absence of green pieces fulfills the first requirement of the Temple card, but there are too many pieces to fulfill its second requirement (which would be to have exactly 9 pieces).

The player who has accumulated the most prestige points receives the title of Aztec High Priest and wins the game!

In case of a tie, among those tied, the player with the most Prophecy and Temple cards alongside their complete Coameh will be the winner. If the game is still tied, among those tied, the player with the most valuable Cóatl (more points earned by their corresponding cards) wins.

Coatl is definitely a game where you can't take your eyes off the board, as the scenario changes constantly, and your strategy has to keep up with that. The amazing thing is that the game manages to be light-headed at the same time; it's not a dense strategy game that leaves you exhausted.

Coatl is a game that demands logic in just the right measure, making us feel satisfied with what we've done strategically without "consuming" us with mental fatigue.

The strategy begins in the game's setup, when we receive our Prophecy cards. With the exception of the 1st player (who already receives their 3 cards), all other players have options to choose from, keeping 3 cards. Everyone has at least one extra card, up to 3 extra cards in the case of the 4th player.

For this decision about what to keep in your hand of Prophecy cards, I recommend analyzing the Supply Board in the center of the table, as it already has the colors of the body, head, and tail pieces available there. In fact, make your choice based on your Temple card as well. So, in reality, the strategy starts right away in the game's setup.

One of the most strategic actions is Action 1, after all, we have to go after the "raw material," that is, collect Cóatl pieces, and this action will be done with several objectives, namely:

- to assemble our Cóatl;

- to hinder the opponent, taking a piece of a color that you noticed they are looking for more often.

Is this mean? No! It's strategy. The game sometimes leads us to this - it's part of it.

Remember your limit of 8 pieces on your Individual Board. I recommend never using all the spaces, and I say this because sometimes we wait so long for one or more pieces of a certain color and it may appear precisely when our Individual Board is full, and we'll lose that opportunity. Based on this, I recommend always using a maximum of 6 spaces, that is, always having 2 available, so you can collect that last body, head, or tail pieces.

Action 2, which involves choosing Prophecy cards, is extremely important because it's one of the best ways to score points. So, focus on working towards fulfilling its requirements. Always remember the maximum of 5 Prophecy cards in your hand.

Try to pick Prophecy cards that score well, always analyzing the types of requirements, namely:

- Unique Requirements: earn the indicated number of points if you have fulfilled the requirements of the card's Code at least once;

- Multiple Requirements: score points depending on how many different requirements of the same card the Code fulfills;

- Repeated Requirement: earn the number of points corresponding to the number of times the Coatl fulfills the card's requirements, up to the maximum listed.

Sometimes, strategically, we can also pick a Prophecy card that we notice our opponent's Cóatl would score a lot if it had it. So, it's better to have it with us, thus ensuring that the opponent doesn't score as much. Again, the strategy of "blocking" the opponent comes into play. As already mentioned: it's part of the game.

Action 3 is no less important; after all, building your Cóatl is imperative, for several reasons:

- to effectively initiate the possibilities of scoring with Prophecy and Temple cards;

- to free up space on our Individual Board;

- to force the end of the game, completing our 3rd Cóatl.

When we start building any Cóatl, we have the opportunity to play Prophecy cards, but the big question is: what is the best time to play our Prophecy cards and "reveal" our scoring method and, with that, "show off" our strategy? The answer is simple: to free up space in our hand so we can have more Prophecy cards at our disposal. Of course, everything has its pros and cons. I've already mentioned that we'll be exposed by playing our cards early, but sometimes, strategically, it's necessary.

Finally, Sacrifice Tokens are truly very strategic and surgical if used at the right time, namely:

- Priest's Commitment: guarantee that Temple card that scores well and that you absolutely don't want to end up in an opponent's hand;

- Perfect Pick: use to complete that Coatl that's proving difficult to get the piece you want;

- See the Future: exchange all Prophecy cards in your stock, discard any number of Prophecy cards from your hand, and choose new Prophecy cards for your hand, respecting the limit of 5 cards.

Sacrifice Tokens, if used at the right time, can be the difference between victory and defeat. Remember that Sacrifice Tokens are discarded when used, meaning they are for single use only.

Furthermore, pay attention to the opportunities the game presents, devise your best strategy, keep an eye on the game's changing board, watch out for your opponents' Prophecy cards, and win in Cóatl.

Unboxing:

Rules:

Gameplay:

If you're looking for a game that will dazzle children with its snake pieces, colorful cards, and easy-to-explain and playable cards, and that's totally iconic—meaning zero language requirements—Cóatl is the game for you!

The game is fun, and children will see their Cóatl's progress in real time, which is fantastic; they "feel" that their evolution in the game is real, and even more so when they manage to meet, or respect, the requirements of the Prophecy cards. That's when they really start to get excited about their strategy.

It's a game that conveys that good feeling of constantly evolving, of having to look "ahead," aiming at a specific piece and knowing that it will be used in another Cóatl they are yet to assemble. This teaches children a lot about anticipating things, knowing how to wait, and using strategy and tactical moves.

Furthermore, the great feeling they get when they complete a Cóatl is amazing; they will be thrilled and "play" with their snakes, as the pieces allow for this, the characteristic "lateral undulation" movement of snakes.

As a bonus, the game also provides important stimuli for children, namely:

- resource management: to manage the pieces, Sacrifice tokens, and Prophecy cards;

- strategy: to plan what to do with the resources;

- decision-making: choosing what and when to use a piece or Prophecy card; And

- logical-mathematical reasoning: to calculate the points gained from assembling the Coameh.

Pedagogically, Cóatl addresses resource management, stimulates strategy, decision-making, logical-mathematical reasoning, and on top of that, it's fun!

I recommend Cóatl for your collection!