Just got these two games, the first of the new Nurnburg batch, in; my wife played Tikal once, and we both have played TAMSK a number of times. Tikal got mixed reviews from the folks who played it. They said that while the systems were all very interesting, it had what I think of as the "Eurorails" syndrome; that being, that the other player's turns can take a long time as there is a lot of stuff to do on your turn; when combined with the fact that the board state changes so much between turns, this means it's very hard to any planning between turns and you spend a lot of time with absolutely nothing game-related to do. While I think people liked Tikal in principle, and it was very visually impressive, nobody had any desire to play it again with 4 people (although they were game to try with 3). We all mused that we had been spoiled my such modern classics as Modern Art and Die Siedler which keep everyone constantly engaged.

Tamsk, on the other hand, I liked a lot. It's quite short, amazingly innovative, and really keeps your brain working on multiple problems simultaneously. Plus it's impressive looking :) The general idea is that it's played on essentially the same type of board as GIPF with 3 hourglass-timers as pieces per player. Each turn, you move a timer one space and flip it, and you're trying to both isolate your opponent's timers so they can't move and keep yours from running out. Each space can only be passed through a certain number of times (outer ring is once, second ring twice, and so on to the center spot which is 5 times I think). It's impossible to be bored playing this game. I dunno if I will ever play it in combination with GIPF, but as it's own game I was really very impressed. It's rediculously simple to explain yet extremely challenging to play. I think it's the best new game I've played in the last year - with the proviso that it's only for two players. It's a bit pricey at about $50, but the components are fabulous and the game is worth it IMHO. In general, I'm not a big fan of purely abstract games, and while I enjoy GIPF it doesn't get that much play. Tamsk should see plenty of play.