Review
fourteen new factions
GAIA Project
A Terra Mystica Spiel
In 2012, Jens Drögemüller and Helge Ostertag created Terra Mystica, a high-grade strategy game and a fantasy topic, featuring 14 unique peoples. Thanks to the expansion that was published two years later, you can today choose from 20 available character boards and there is a rumor that more are in the process of creation. A reason for celebrating for hard-core fans like myself!
Gaia Project presents us with 14 new individuals, who are less affiliated to the Fantasy genre and more to the Science Fiction genre and also otherwise resemble their predecessors only marginally. As we do as players, those individuals have developed in their striving for expansion, progress and victory points. The goal is no longer the settlement of a single world, you need to lay claim to whole planetary systems in this game. You explore every sector of space, regardless of how far away, to outwit busybodies and competitors and to return home at the end of day - six rounds and 120-180 minutes later - as an acclaimed hero of your people. As tradition has taught us, you of course act only with the best and peaceful intentions.
One round in Gaia Project comprises several phases. At the start, we need to produce the maximum possible amount of resources for the expansion of our civilization. Ore supports the terraforming of planets to expand your influence through space and is needed, in combination with Credits, for the construction of new buildings. Acquired knowledge supports technological progress and a continuing power increase provides the basis for alliances.
In the next phase, we can select from eight action options, for all of them we need to consider very carefully not only means and ways, but also the timing. In your turn, you resolve one action only, or pass for the rest of the round. A favorite start is the quick colonization of neighboring planets, as the possible navigation at the start does not allow travelling over big distances. In general, if you want to settle on a home system of your people, you only need to pay the costs for the Mine you have to construct. In all other cases, the planet must be adapted at cost to be habitable for your faction. Depending on the habitability of the planet and the current technology level, you pay additional terraforming stages or Quantum Intelligence Cubes. Despite being exceedingly expensive at the start of the game, the expansion on the board is indispensable for an increase in production and competition for it is always very strong.
Another option to create additional income and an equally important action option is the upgrading of buildings, accomplished by replacing them with buildings of higher value and paying Ore and Credits for this. In this way, you create Trading Stations, Centers, Research Laboratories or Academies; Laboratories and Academies grant instant access to new technologies. Regardless of which building you place, there is always a power gain to all adjacent faction for the highest value building, albeit at the cost of victory points.
The acquisition of power was a core concept in Terra Mystica as it is in Gaia Project, too. Power cannot only be flexibly and by using special actions transformed into other resources, but can also be used to form powerful alliances, which is rewarded with alliance tokens providing once-only bonuses, victory points and the chance to achieve Level 5 in one area of technology which you might not achieve otherwise.
Each of the six research areas - Terraforming, Navigation, Artificial Intelligence, Economy, Gaia Project, and Science - is made up from Levels 0 to 5, which yield various advances and improvements as soon as you achieve a certain level. To advance one level in one of the research areas is paid for with four knowledge points and is considered an action. As already mentioned, for such an advance building upgrades to Research Laboratory or Academy are important, too. With a research action, as enabled by those buildings, you can take one of nine different basic Tech Tiles - which can provide anything from permanent income bonuses to passive game advantages to immediate acquisition. If you have an alliance tile and achieved Level 4 or 5 of a research area, the selection is extended by even stronger upgrades. Contrary to the basic Tech Tiles, those upgrades are not available in greater numbers, but only for the player who arrives there first. And as if that weren’t bad enough, you are granted advance by one level, too! As a small compensation, upgrade Techs, when acquired, replace one of the basic Techs you own, and you must flip your alliance tile to the inactive side.
The action phase ends, when all players have passed their turn, which triggers the end of the round where by all used special actions are unlocked again. The next round can begin.
The game ends after six rounds and the final scorings are computed. There are six final scoring tiles in total, two of them are on display from the start of the game. Each of the final scorings, for instance one for the most buildings in established active alliances, yields eighteen, twelve and six victory points, based on majority comparisons. Research areas give victory points, too - in each research area you score four points for achieved levels Three, Four and Five. Three each of remaining resources yield one victory point. The Faction with most victory points wins.
As an avowed fan of Terra Mystica I have been wondering from the announcement of Gaia Project if it would be simply a reworking of its predecessor, of the team of designers would explore entirely new avenues. The first images of the new character boards didn’t yield much information on new mechanisms and only showed a design suitable to the new Space topic. However, after the first game at the latest, there was no doubt for me that Gaia Project stands on independent legs. The decision, to build on the solid basic mechanics of Terra Mystica, to polish their edges and glitches and to expand them with new aspects, was the entirely right on, in my opinion.
The similarities are obvious, but the flair and feel of the game are entirely different. The tough competition for land is not dominant, because there are ways to avoid other players and to connect buildings by other means. The introduction of the research areas and the Gaia planets has added strategic and tactical option. The modular board, for me, is also an asset.
Gaia Project is a marvelous development of a fantastic game and manages to keep me interested and remain challenging even after more than 20 games and trying out all new factions. For me it was the highlight of new releases in 2017, and will appear on the table in future without any hesitation.
Dennis Rappel
Players: 1-4
Age: 14+
Time: 210+
Designer: Jens Drögemüller, Helge Ostertag
Art: Dennis Lohausen
Price: ca. 60 Euro
Publisher: Feuerland Spiele 2017
Genre: Strategic development
Users: For experts
Special: 1 player
Version: de
Rules: cn de en fr it kr jp nl pl pt ru
In-game text: no
Comments:
High replay value
Various strategies
Good rules
Nice components
Impressive design and graphics
Compares to:
Terra Mystica combined with Fire & Ice
Other editions:
My rating: 7
Dennis Rappel:
A must for all fans of Terra Mystica who are yearning for more diversity and new perspectives, and are not afraid of higher access obstacles and a longer playing time of up to 210 min.
Chance (pink): 1
Tactic (turquoise): 3
Strategy (blue): 3
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 3
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0