How to Play The Great Zimbabwe: Craftsmen, Resources & Monuments
The Great Zimbabwe is an economic network game where players build monuments and craftsmen on a shared map. Powerful Gods and specialists help your plan but increase your personal Victory Requirement.
Turn order is an economic choice
Players resolve the game’s turn-order mechanism before taking actions, balancing acting early against the cattle/economic consequences of that position.
Build or improve craftsmen
Craftsmen convert map resources into ritual goods. Advanced craftsmen can depend on goods produced by other craftsmen, creating layered production chains.
Logistics determines what you can buy
To use a craftsman, your monument must be able to trace the legal network distance through connected map spaces. Logistics therefore determines which resource sites and craftsmen can supply each monument.
Raise monuments with ritual goods
Spend the required combinations of ritual goods to increase a monument’s height. Taller monuments advance you toward your personal victory target.
Gods and specialists change both power and target
Recruiting a God or specialist grants a special ability, but most also increase the Victory Requirement you must reach. The power is useful only if it improves your scoring faster than the target rises.
Shared craftsmen create payments
Players can often use craftsmen owned by rivals if logistics and prices permit. Cattle payments make productive infrastructure valuable even on other players’ turns.
Reach your personal Victory Requirement
The first player who satisfies the game’s victory procedure by reaching their personal target wins, subject to the exact end-of-round/check timing in the rules.