As someone who has always been incredibly interested in ancient mythology, from reading all about Greek and Roman mythology in The Iliad, The Odyssey and The Aeneid, to learning all about the different mythological influences on some of my favourite gaming titles like Final Fantasy and 2018s God of War.
So a game that really caught my eye was Osprey Games’ 2025 release Ayar: Children of the Sun, whereby you help tell and live the origin myth of the Incan civilisation, as you seek the favour of the Sun and Moon Gods through directing their children, the Ayar to help build this ancient civilisation.
A piece of mythology I knew very little about, with a box art that draws the eye immediately, Ayar: Children of the Sun really piqued my interest, especially when I read it was a new Eurogame to sink my tactical teeth into.
As someone who has always been incredibly interested in ancient mythology, from reading all about Greek and Roman mythology in The Iliad, The Odyssey and The Aeneid, to learning all about the different mythological influences on some of my favourite gaming titles like Final Fantasy and 2018s God of War.
So a game that really caught my eye was Osprey Games’ 2025 release Ayar: Children of the Sun, whereby you help tell and live the origin myth of the Incan civilisation, as you seek the favour of the Sun and Moon Gods through directing their children, the Ayar to help build this ancient civilisation.
A piece of mythology I knew very little about, with a box art that draws the eye immediately, Ayar: Children of the Sun really piqued my interest, especially when I read it was a new Eurogame to sink my tactical teeth into.
The third and final instalment in a trilogy of historical inspired Euros from Osprey Games, following on from Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road (2020) and Sankore: The Pride of Mansa Musa (2022), games which I haven’t played yet, I was really curious to see what Ayar could offer me and the Eurogame space, a genre that can feel saturated within the board gaming hobby.
But did I go on this journey with my clan across the Andes, or was I left still wanting more from my Incan Gods?
Journey to Tawantinsuyu
Ayar: Children of the Sun does a fantastic job setting the scene for your game. It tells the story of Viracocha bringing forth Inti the Sun God and Mama Quilla, the Moon God, whose union brings forth four sons and four daughters, our titular Ayar.
The Ayar were tasked with guiding the first Incan clans through the land, teaching them the skills necessary to build a civilisation. Slowly each Ayar meets their fates until only two remain to found the first city of the Incan Empire, Tawantinsuyu.
A really beautiful story full of the mythology I have always adored, in the game you will be journeying with the Ayar on this story. The skills you will be learning, Farming, Pottery, Weaving and Reed Bundling, will be the actions you take during your playthrough, all of which help you to appease the Sun and Moon God, as you look to gain their favour. (How do game developers keep coming up with new ways to name Victory points!).
With the setting set, on your turn you will be placing a step marker on your player board, which corresponds to one of the four Ayar on the central board. (You also have a fifth golden step marker which counts as any of the Ayar).
Where you place them on your board indicates how far you can move the Ayar on the central one on this journey, as well as the power you will have to perform an action. Once placed, you will place a Tambo (a little house), on a space which will have one of four icons on it, representing the skills I mentioned earlier.
You could gather some pots, weave a lovely tapestry, move your boat along a track, each skill has its own little mini game that you will perform, dependant as well on the power you have for that turn. The more actions you take and which Tambos you’ve placed will influence the power you’re likely to have at your disposal.
You’re doing all this to slowly build up your favour with the Gods, as the more you perform one action, the more victory points your accruing on that specific skill set, which might win you the favour of Inti, or Mama Quilla.
Because in Ayar: Children of the Sun, a really interesting wrinkle to the game is you have two different score tracks representing the Sun and Moon, and at the end of the game, your score is decided by whichever is the lowest of the two. Meaning, you can’t just go full throttle on appeasing the Sun for instance, as you’re only going to earn the ire of the Moon.
After each round one of the four Ayar retires which will mean you start scoring your points and seeing how you’re playing, until the very last Ayar ends their journey and you see which score you achieved lowest with and work out whose achieved victory.
Sun or Moon?
The run through of some of the rules to Ayar: Children of the Sun might sound fairly complex, and that doesn’t even delve into the some of the deeper complexities of the game.
However, what I found with Ayar is a really detailed game that once you wrap your head it around after a turn or two, was very simple to learn but difficult to master, with a host of options and tactics available to you which really appealed to my strategising mindset which I quickly loved.
The four skills you’re performing all come with their own fun and simple mini game, from collecting pots of the same colour to try and boost your Moon points while trying to just get as many as possible for your Inti dial, to weaving a tapestry along a small square grid, which you want to complete if possible for the massive moon bonus, but need to be tactically placed for the sun points. And like I said, you can’t focus on one God over the other, as you’re lowest of the two is your final score.
I thought this was such a fun rule, and really means you have to pick a strategy early and make sure you’re not stretching yourself too thin, whilst not overly focusing on one skill in particular. It’s unlikely for instance you will be able to do well on all four skills, so maybe you sack off one completely, focus on another, and the other two skills you just chip away at when the time comes, creating a really satisfying gameplay loop as your strategy starts to form each game.
However, especially early game, you might be blocked off from doing certain actions by your opponents, particularly if you’re playing with 3 or 4 players, meaning you might have to quickly adapt and change strategy.
You’re also having to think about which Ayar to move, and how far. After each round an Ayar retires, the one that has moved least among the main central board, but this might be the one you wanted to move most as it was passing Raymi tiles (bonus scoring) which focus on the skills you’ve been hammering from the start.
There are other considerations too regarding which bonuses to score on your player board, what temples to place, which tambos to use, there is simply so much to Ayar: Children of the Sun which isn’t apparent during the rule learn that I loved exploring during my playthroughs, as I got to engage in different skills and try out different ways to play. I can’t go into everything here without making this review obnoxiously long, but suffice to say Ayar is a Eurogame through and through and I enjoyed my time with it immensely.
The Design
Unsurprisingly when it’s a game about the wondrous Incan civilisation, something always associated with stunning architecture and full of vibrant colours, the box art of Ayar: Children of the Sun immediately draws the eye, in the same vein as the other titles in this trilogy from Osprey Games, who have clearly put a lot of love and research into these games.
The game is designed by Mandela Fernandez-Grandon and Fabio Lopano, with art by Ian O’Toole, and there is clearly a lot of love for the history and culture Ayar explores. However it has to be said the game itself, like the genre its in, can feel a little dry.
The game boards and pieces don’t really jump off your table like you would expect when you see the game box, its full of colour with some properly lovely board pieces, but it certainly did put some people off when I showed it to them as it did just give the impression it might be a bit of a slog. Once they got playing though, they certainly realised this wouldn’t be the case.
I think you could certainly make the argument more could be done to make the game pop, but ultimately I still really enjoyed the tactile movement of the Ayar pieces across the board, as well as filling up the various boards with my pieces and actions, especially when you’re weaving and matching up the suns!
It does though lead into my perhaps biggest complain of the game, the dreaded setup. For a fairly quick game (2 hours I would say when learning but an hour once learnt), the setup takes up a huge amount of time and I find extremely fiddly.
There are just so many little pieces and things to setup each game. Every player has a large amount of tambos and little red reed squares to place, bonus markers, step markers, islands, temples, so the more players the more to organise.
Then on the central board you have to organise the Ayar, the sun and moon tokens, your little boat, and worst of all, the different textiles and pots which you need to shuffle and organise which can be infuriating if you're someone as clumsy as me.
It’s difficult, because each piece is important to the game, but it does hamper my experience with it and makes me less likely to play it when I know I’ve got a 15 to 20 minute setup for a mid-weight euro game.
Ultimately, this is a small grumble. I am a man who avoids faff whenever possible, but I do think Ayar: Children of the Sun is worth a bit of setup. It might look a bit of a dry game, but when you’re playing it all moves so smoothly, and its fun watching you and your fellow players make those key decisions.
I would say, while it states it’s a 2-4 player game, you get a lot more out of it with at least 3 players, but ideally 4. Part of the tactics and core offering of the game is not just focusing on what you need to do, but stopping and hampering your opponent’s progress. In a 2 player game you’re basically always free to make any move you want to as the spaces aren’t blocked off and the Ayar you want to move you have free reign on the board.
To get the most out of it, 3 or 4 players means there is an added bit of strategy that is paramount to the quality of the game, and adds a little more spice to a game that you could accuse of needing a little bit of seasoning to give it some flavour, and perhaps even more importantly, so you can split the setup!
Final Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Ayar: Children of the Sun, and would certainly recommend it to anyone like me who likes a bit of mythology, but especially to anyone who loves themselves a Eurogame and a fun new spin on victory points.
Whilst I think the setup is fiddly and the game might be a bit dry for some, I do think Ayar offers enough fun tactics and really smooth, clearly thoroughly play tested gameplay that it’s a welcome new addition to my board game collection, and will remain their for a while yet.
It could probably have done with incorporating it’s really fun theme more into the game, and I think with multiple plays the amount of different tactics you could employ might become a bit limited without any kind of expansion, which knocks it off my favourite games perch.
But Ayar still offers tabletop lovers a really fun addition to the Euro genre, with the four little mini games you engage with a delight, and the unique scoring conditions means every game I have played has been super tight and engaging right until the end. And its always fun moving chunky pieces on a board and turning a fun little dial (The Inti Dial) when you score points. It’s stuff like this that unites all board gamers!
I think Osprey Games achieved their aim as well as playing this makes me want to explore the others in the series to see how they differ and what else they might offer, so maybe there will be a cheeky new purchase on the horizon, as long as Inti and Mama Quilla favour it!
Zatu Review Summary
Score Zatu
80%
