This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames.
Game: Terra Mystica
Designer: Jens Drögemüller & Helge Ostertag
Year: 2012
Country: Germany
Publisher: Feuerland Spiele
There are two types of games, those which incorporate luck and those where the players have access to full information about every aspect at all times. Most hobby games belong to the first category so Terra Mystica presents an interesting exception. There are no dice or card decks contributing a randomizing element so you can theoretically calculate actions in advance as far into the future as you’re able.
In Terra Mystica, different fantasy-ish peoples try to claim territory for themselves on a shared hexagonal map. Playing with the recommended beginner setup, we had the nomads, the alchemists and the witches. The different peoples are asymmetrical in their abilities, so the witches are good at one thing and the alchemists at another. They’re also attuned to different terrain types, and can build their houses, temples and strongholds only on their home terrain.
So what to do if the terrain is not to your liking? You change it! The baseline action of the game is to terraform and build something on the hex you just cleared. For the nomads, this means turning a hex into desert.
Space is limited so its possible to get in each other’s way and even sabotage the plans of your competitors by purposefully building in their way. Interestingly, there are game mechanical benefits to building adjacent to another player on purpose, so instead of huddling in your own corners of the board, there are also reasons to do the opposite.
In addition to the core functionality of terraforming and building, there are also additional subsystems. Each player has their own mini-board and every time you build a structure, a new resource for the income phase of the round is revealed. Thus, by building you make it possible to build more. There are also magic points which cycle in a three-chambered system where you spend points by using them for something, taking them through two recycling chambers before using them again. There’s a cult board on which you can advance tracks to gain stray victory points.
Collecting victory points from different sources is how you win, and they can be gained in a multitude of ways. Building and terraforming only gain you points in terms of how big your settlements are compared to the other players. The goal is to use the game’s central actions to accrue the points from all the smaller sources where they’re available.
Playing Terra Mystica, I felt that there is definitely a type for person for whom this is their favorite game. It’s the player who likes to crunch through all possible options in their head, chess style, before committing to making a move.