OUR REVIEW

TRANSFORM MOUNTAIN TO LAKE

Terra Mystica

SETTLE A FANTASY WORLD

Terra Mystica ... a synonym for 20 pages of rules that need to be read. You read about terraforming and game preparation and sometime, somehow all of it suddenly makes sense. What do I want say? Well, you must invest quite a bit of time to familiarize yourself with the rules and the incredible amount of wooden playing pieces and of cardboard tiles is very nearly frightening.

So, if you get the chance you should let somebody explain the game, which in itself will surely take at least half an hour as well, albeit the rules being in reality exceedingly well-written. I have no idea how I could do a better job on them. You even find the correct paragraph rather quickly, should you be searching for something or want to look something up. Really remarkable when you know that with publisher Feuerland Spiele a newcomer is responsible for the rules and the game. But you also note that experienced people are in background somewhere, among them Uwe Rosenberg. But he is not the designer, those are Helge Ostertag and Jens Drögemüller, whom I esteem for being the designer of Zepter von Zavandor, which is one of my absolutely favorite games.

In Terra Mystica each of 2-5 players governs the fate of a fantasy people. All in all there are 14 peoples which lure with special abilities to try them. Those peoples must be developed during the course of the game, by expansion, city construction or culture.

Each people has a home terrain and only on areas of home terrain you can build new dwellings. As those terrains are in limited supply or cannot always be reached it is necessary to change other terrains into your own. This can be achieved by different means and is, in relation to the “closeness” of terrain types, of varying complexity. For instance, it is cheaper to change desert to waste land instead of into a lake. Which gives us one of the central and name-giving elements of the game. This changing of terrain (=Terraforming) and the respective possibilities to spread out on the board are the core of the game.

The basic mechanics of the game are pretty simple:

You play six rounds. In each round all peoples are given resources for buildings they constructed. Then players in turn implement actions until all pass. The first player to pass will be the starting player for the next round.

You choose your action from:

- Transforming and Building

Areas that are adjacent to your own areas may be transformed by discarding workers and, if this resulted in creating your home terrain, be settled with one of your dwellings, which comes at a cost of resources (money and workers). Settled areas are property of the respective player and cannot be reformed or settled by other players.

- Shipping Improvement

In order to expand across rivers a people must have knowledge in shipping. By spending resources (money and priests) you can acquire or improve this knowledge.

- Transforming Improvement

Improvements in transforming allow a people to transform terrain from now on for lower costs. The ability can be improved by spending resources (money, workers and priests).

- Upgrading a building

By spending resources (money and workers) you can upgrade buildings into better ones.

- Place a priest into the order of a cult

Priests can be placed for advancement in one of the four cults. For this advancement you can earn different rewards in the course of the game, but mainly victory points at the end of the game-

- Power actions

Power is the fourth resource in the game (besides money, workers and priests). Power can be used to transform terrain, to build bridges across rivers or can be changed into other resources. This changing into other resources can be done anytime with

- Special actions

In the course of the game you can acquire special actions in different ways, which enable you to do different things, for instance terraforming, free construction or upgrading of buildings or advancement in a cult.

- Pass
If you pass you finish your round. When passing you choose a role. Those roles results in additional resources, special actions or victory points for the next round.

Besides the roles there are also scoring tiles in each round, which reward you for respective actions with victory points and also reward you for advancement in certain cults with additional actions or resources.

After the sixth round there is a final scoring for the largest connected area, each of the four cults and for consolation points for left-over resources. If you then have achieved the highest score you win the game.

In your first game you will be overwhelmed by the plethora of possibilities and do not really know what to do. But after a few games you acquire a certain routine and you know what you want. The question is only, when do you want what, which also depends on your fellow players and the variable additional points from scoring tiles. Those considerations are more tactical than strategic. You must react to actions of other players and take care not to be gridlocked on the board.

Terra Mystica easily fills up a games evening, you should calculate a minimum of half an hour per player, and there are no rules changes in relation to the number of players in a game.

The graphics of the game are pretty and professional creations by Dennis Lohausen, the components are, as mentioned at the beginning, absolutely opulent.

All in all I would call Terra Mystica a very good and well-made game for expert players which is definitely worth a close look. For a place in the absolute game heaven for me it lacks some little bits, especially some strategic possibilities, as your strategy is more or less pre-set by your chosen people.

The replay value for me is definitely in the different peoples. Those people, fortunately, play in very different ways and make the game really interesting.

Markus Wawra

Players: 2-5

Age: 12+

Time: 150+

Designer: Helge Ostertag, Jens Drögemüller

Art: Dennis Lohausen

Price: ca. 60 Euro

Publisher: Feuerland Spiele 2012

Web: www.feuerland-spiele.de

Genre: Development game

Users: For experts

Version: de

Rules: de en

In-game text: no

Comments:

Professional design

Opulent components

14 different peoples

Lots of interaction on the board

Good but very extensive rules

Compares to:

Catan, Zepter von Zavandor

Other editions:

Several foreign-language-editions are announced

My rating: 5

Markus Wawra:

14 different people, very many possibilities, I am nearly disappointed that a certain routine establishes itself after a few games, yet this is a very felicitous game that I like to see on my table.

Chance (pink): 0

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0