The Great Zimbabwe FAQ
113 questions players ask · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and components
- How many players does The Great Zimbabwe support?
- Is the starting tile placed in a random orientation during setup?
- Can you build craftsmen, water or resources over a starting space after the first monuments are placed?
- Are the game's components limited, such as craftsman tiles, resource tiles and monument discs?
- How many technology cards and craftsman pieces are there for each craftsman type?
- Are the specialist cards unique, with only one copy of each?
Cattle and payments
- Where does the cattle go when you pay to use a hub?
- Where do cattle go when you buy a ritual good from a craftsman, including your own craftsman?
- Where do cattle go when you pay to build a craftsman?
- Is the cattle each player holds open information?
- Is there a limit on the cattle supply, or can cattle run out?
- Can you give another player cattle as part of a deal, such as for using their shaman or craftsman?
Water and resources
- Do water areas that touch only diagonally form one body of water?
- Does crossing a body of water add to transport range?
- Can a rain-ceremony water tile let a craftsman reach a resource no other craftsman can reach?
- If a water tile brings one clay resource into range of two players' craftsmen, who gets paid for it?
- Are ritual goods counted as resources when placing a secondary craftsman?
- Can two craftsmen reach the same resource, and who gets it when both want it?
- Who chooses which resource a craftsman uses when its good is bought?
- Can you build a monument on a resource space that has a used marker on it?
Transport range and hubs
- Can hubs be used to reach resources, or to carry them?
- How many hubs can a ritual good travel through, and what does each hub cost?
- When buying from a distant craftsman, do you pay hub costs for the trip there and back?
- If the route to a craftsman passes through a monument, must you use that monument as a hub and pay for it?
- Does a monument on a resource's path count as a hub, or cost cattle?
- Can hubs be chained, and does each hub extend the range?
- Must you use a hub when a route without one exists, and can you choose the route?
- Can you route a ritual good through a hub and pay for it even when you do not need to?
- Do craftsmen, resources or craftsman tiles block or lengthen transport range?
- What counts as a building in the range and victory point rules?
- Can you use another player's monument as a hub, and who gets the cattle?
Turn order and the Generosity of the Kings
- Is there an auction in The Great Zimbabwe?
- Is the Generosity of the Kings bidding played normally on the first turn, and how does a player who passes finish?
- Must a player keep bidding in the Generosity of the Kings if they have enough cattle?
- In Generosity of the Kings bidding, must each bid exceed the previous bid, or your running total?
- In turn-order bidding, can you skip numbers?
- In the Generosity of the Kings, where does distribution of a paid gift begin around the plaques?
- In a two-player game, does the turn-order bidding work, or is the first bidder always favoured?
- Can you bid a gold cattle (worth three) as a single bid?
- When a VR marker moves onto a space holding other players' markers, does it go on top?
Taking your turn
Technology cards and victory requirement
- When do you acquire a technology card?
- Can you take more than one technology card in a turn, and must you build a craftsman for each?
- What does taking a technology card cost in VR, and can it take you over 40?
- Do you pay the technology card's VR increase every time you build a craftsman of that type?
- How many players can hold a technology card of the same type, and can a second player take the other card?
- Can you raise technology prices without placing any craftsman, and does it cost anything?
- Who sets the price of a craftsman, and can the price be lowered?
- Can a price marker go above three cattle, or can cattle on a technology card add up to a higher price?
- Can you take a secondary craftsman's technology card without owning the primary's card?
Placing craftsmen
- When placing a craftsman, what resource must it be able to reach?
- Does a craftsman of one type block a craftsman of a different type that uses the same resource?
- Does a resource with a used marker still count when placing a new craftsman?
- Can you place several craftsmen of one type in a single turn, up to three?
- Can you build craftsmen of two different types in one turn, or more than one primary of the same type?
- Must a new primary craftsman be placed within range of one of your monuments?
- If you place two craftsmen in one turn, does the first one block the second one's resource?
- If a potter and a vessel maker share the only clay, how can you unlock the clay craftsmen?
- Does a craftsman tile's size show whether it is primary or secondary?
Secondary craftsmen
- Can you build a secondary craftsman before its primary craftsman is on the board?
- Can you build a primary craftsman and its secondary craftsman in the same turn?
- Must a secondary craftsman be within one hub of its primary, and can the link chain through several hubs?
- Can a secondary craftsman use the same resource as its primary, or reach only resources its primary already uses?
- Do you pay hub cattle when you place a secondary craftsman, or only when you use it?
- Can one primary craftsman support two secondary craftsmen?
- Which resource does the Throne Maker need, and what is its primary craftsman?
- When a secondary craftsman supplies a monument upgrade, which craftsmen must be in range of the monument?
- When a ritual good is carried to a monument through a secondary craftsman, which way does it move and how is the route traced?
- When a secondary craftsman is used, how many payments and resources does it take?
- Once a secondary craftsman exists, can a player ignore it by using the primary's goods?
- Is the rulebook picture for placing a secondary craftsman missing a hub?
Specialists
- How much do you pay to take a specialist or a god?
- Must you pay for and use a specialist on the turn you take it, even if its effect does nothing?
- Can you take the Builder or Nomads, pay for them, and skip their benefit that turn?
- Can you pay for the Shaman and skip placing a new resource?
- How many times per turn can a specialist be used, and can you use several specialists in one turn?
- Do you keep an acquired specialist for the rest of the game, and can an opponent use it?
- How do cattle payments work for the Builder when you place several craftsmen in one turn?
- Does the Builder let you place a craftsman without a technology card?
- If you pay the Nomads once, can Obatala's two monuments both use the zoning exception?
- Where does the cattle paid to a specialist go, and is it lost?
- How does the Herd work, and how many cattle can you put on it?
- Is there a limit on how many resource tiles the Shaman can add to the board?
- Can you take a specialist or technology card you cannot pay for?
Ritual goods and raising monuments
- Can one monument use two ritual goods of the same type in one raise?
- Does the craftsman's resource type matter when raising monuments?
- Are ritual goods physical tokens, and can they be saved for a later turn?
- Can you use the same craftsman more than once in a turn, and is it permanent?
- Does a throne from the Throne Maker count as ivory or as wood when raising a monument?
- What is the total cattle cost to raise a monument with a Sculptor?
Monuments and victory points
- Is there a limit to how many monuments a player can build in a game?
- How many new monuments can a player build in one turn?
- Does victory point (VP) total stop at 40 the way VR does?
- What do the numbers 1, 3, 7, 13 and 21 on the scoring table mean?
- Do you score VP for each craftsman you place, and how much is each worth?
- What does order of play decide as a tiebreaker at game end?
- When several players reach their VR in the same round, who wins?
The Gods
- How does Xango break a victory requirement tie?
- Does Eshu's range of 6 stop other players from placing craftsmen?
- During an Eshu player's turn, does range 6 apply when checking whether a new craftsman reaches a resource no same-type craftsman can reach?
- Does Eshu's range of 6 also apply to hubs and monument-to-craftsman legs?
- Can Atete let you use a resource that another player already used this turn?
- Can you change craftsman prices on the turn you take Dziva?
- Can a Dziva owner change technology prices at the start of a turn without placing craftsmen?
- How does the God of Drunks (Shadipinyi) work in the Generosity of the Kings?
- Does Elegua's help still work when the other players pass in the first round?
- How does the god Gu change the VR cost of technology cards?
- How does Anansi's cattle payment work?
- Can Tsui-Goab use the same ritual good type twice for one monument?
- What does the god Qamata change?
- Do you have to choose a god to win?