A look inside the box for Imperial Settlers: Aztecs which adds new rules, a new resource, and a sixth faction to the engine building card game Imperial Settlers. 

This is the third expansion for Imperial Settlers and is designed to work with or without the previous expansions. 

Disclosure: I picked this up myself so long ago I don’t even remember where I got it from. Links in this post may be affiliate links. As an Amazon associate we earn from qualifying purchases. 

Unboxing  Imperial Settlers: Aztecs

Prayer actions and blessing tokens bring religion to the world, while the Aztecs build temples and organize festivals and ceremonies to gain favors and be blessed! With this expansion, all other factions will also be able to add religion and their own pantheon of gods to their Empires.

This expansion includes a new faction board, the Aztecs faction deck, blessing tokens, and expansion cards for the original factions that complement the Aztecs abilities.

I’ve had the Imperial Settlers Aztecs expansion for a long time and it took forever to even get it unboxed, which is odd as I love Imperial Settlers and think it’s a fantastic game. Now that it’s open I still haven’t played it and I’m not sure when I will. 

My problem with this expansion is that it’s the kind of card game expansion where you need to swap out cards. While this is true for the new cards for the other five factions, it’s also true for the Aztec faction deck as they give you more cards than you use in a single game. 

I would have totally gotten this played if I could have just grabbed the new Aztec deck, board, and new resource, and started playing. Instead, I need to go through all of the cards and make a deck first and that’s more work than I’ve felt like doing. I know deck customization is part of Imperial Settlers and is a part that some people love, but we’ve always just enjoyed playing with the pre-made decks.

The other problem is that this expansion really feels like you need to own the previous expansions. There are cards for factions from the previous expansions and rules that reference rules from the other expansions that I’ve never read as I don’t own them. It really feels like to get the full use out of this you need everything that came before it. 

All that said, I will get this played at some point. Whether that’s just using what I have or after I manage to pick up the other expansions first. When this finally does hit the table I will be sure to talk about it during The Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast, even if I don’t end up doing up a full written review.