Mystic smeg?

Terra Mystica, the board game that this somewhat unsavoury title lends itself to, was again brought to the fore under heavy influence from myself and the promise that it won't be long until it is returned to it's owner (Sam). There hadn't been a clamour for its return however we felt that we owned it another chance after all the time that had been invested it so far.

James selected the Auren race which strangely didn't have a special ability, although did have a powerful stronghold ability being able to move twice up any cult track per round. I chose the Swarmlings. These guys get a lot of starting resources and income but everything is that little more expensive. Their special ability (Which I have just realised I didn't take advantage of) was extra workers on a completion of a town. Paul stuck with Nomads and their extra starting settlement and terraforming stronghold as he did last game.

The way that the round tiles came out meant that it was going to be tough to score additional points although the round bonus tiles meant that money wouldn't be a problem this game. To try and get with the intended flavour of the game we all placed our initial settlements in close proximity to each other, but then spent the rest of the game spreading out in opposite directions. To us, the feature of the game where you gain power from your neighbour as they build or upgrade, seems a little tacked on. Early in the game it is difficult to get your power moving round so that you can use it so having this available helps. However to use the power you have to lose victory points, something which none of us where particularly happy to do. Unless there is some compelling reason to do so that, we are missing, the cost of this function seems too high.

Pretty quickly each player adapted into a strategy, with James climbing the cult track, Paul building an expanding empire and me scratching my head and realising all my swamps were surrounded with hard to terraform areas!

The game does not play quick. There are lots of angles to consider and it still does become a bit mathsy, if that is a word. I even remarked at one point that my favourite part of the game was where we collected our income at the start of each round. The final scoring actually came out closer than it was expected with Paul winning the big points for territory and James cleaning up with the cults.

James - 95
Chris - 91
Paul - 77

We finished at 10.30 so not enough time to squeeze in anything else. Paul stated that he enjoyed it more now that he had got to grips with the rules but we all felt that it's still a game we would all play again but probably not suggest. A bit like how Taj Mahal gets treated I suppose.

Mystic Rhythms

So Wednesday rolled round again and with it a chance to play Terra Mystica as a three player. Not wanting to eat into the playing time by going over the rules I unboxed the game and went through the copious rules with Paul hoping that his eyes wouldn't glaze over too quickly. To his credit he lasted to the end of my detailed run through.

Despite this, the evening was understandably punctuated by rule book clarifications, if only to back up my answers. The 30 minutes per person playing time stretched to a 2 and a half hour game as a consequence. The factions selected were Mermaids for James, Nomads for Paul and Witches for me, again, each taken without any real idea as to how to play them. Inevitable as we are in that initial phase of a game where strategy is being discovered through play. Context of moves and impact of accruing scores are only realised at the end when you are staring at the board wondering where it all went wrong.

In direct opposition to the games intended design each of us placed our initial dwellings well away from our opponents. This allowed for some easy growth in various directions but did mean that gathering power (One of the games currencies) was a little restricted. James again had a nice handle on preparing his moves to coincide with collecting the round bonuses whilst I concentrated on the cult track and Paul on building dwellings everywhere.

The first 4 rounds skipped by fairly quickly with James keeping his nose in front but as we started to ramp up the workers and power the final two rounds started to drag on as each player tried to squeeze as many moves in as they could. Your options are plenty and as I found out in my final round there is a preferred order to your moves if you can see it. If this game is any indication money seems to be the most sought after resource. By going out first in the last two rounds James was able to select the money option and leave it tight for the rest of us, additionally his clever manipulation of his resources and spotting of scoring opportunities allowed him to gain victory points on both the cult track and the main scoring. Enough to claim a win even after coming 3rd in the largest territory competition.

James - 98
Chris - 94
Paul - 77

Staring at the board afterwards there was a feeling that although it was epic, was it enjoyable? Nobody was indicating that they were looking forward to the next instalment. As an experience, it certainly feels like the game is playing you rather than the other way around. The jury is still out on this one.

Terra Mystica - Not terror forming!

After spending the week learning the rules to Terra Mystica, including a three way game against myself, I was pleased that James allowed himself to be talked into trying it out.

I won't bore everyone by explaining all the rules. I'll do it by explaining some of them instead. The game pits different mystical factions against each other in bid to create the biggest settlement and the most influence on the cult track consisting of the elements earth, wind, fire and water. It's played on a regular board covered with hexes and different terrain types. There are 6 randomised rounds in a game which have differing scoring conditions and each round is made up of three phases.

Phase one players choose their bonus tile for the round and collect income, in the form of workers, money and power. You then get to spend those resources in phase two by alternately taking one of 8 different options from terraforming and building (Changing hexes to your factions territory so you can place dwellings on), Upgrading your buildings, Upgrading your terraforming ability, Upgrading your shipping, selecting power options, selecting special actions, using a priest to improve your standing on the cult tracks and ending your go. You can perform as many of these options, in any order as long as you have resources to perform them. Passing order determines turn order for the next round.

Phase three is tidy up time, scoring bonuses and selecting new bonus tiles for the round.

And around you go, 6 times, until you can do no more and then the end of the game is triggered and final scoring takes place. There is a bit more to it than this of course but this is the essence of the game which appears to be complicated but really isn't!

So to our inaugural game. We chose the two recommended starting factions, James - Witches, me - Alchemists and set up our boards, gathered starting resources, placed our starting dwellings and dived straight in with no appreciation of any strategy. Only James cottoned on to a very effective strategy early on, being, to score points from the round bonus each turn. I busied myself with developing the cult tracks thinking that the 8 point bonuses for being first in each at the end of the game would make up for it. However, this thinking was a bit fuzzy as second place in the tracks scored 4 points. In a similar vein the scoring for largest settlement was 18 points but then second place was 12. I wasn't scoring heavily enough and James was racing round the track. After the first turn, James had built his stronghold (The biggest piece) and had a bonus each turn of placing a dwelling in one of his territories. As his influence on the board grew so did his ability to gather resources from his factions board.

Our end game board

I did rally later on by taking a few bonuses but James was just far enough ahead to not suffer any reverse at the final scoring.

James - 107
Chris - 87

Our verdict on it was mixed. Certainly we didn't feel that it was particularly suited to two players. Too much space and not enough interaction. Once you got going it was simple enough, without the need to much rule reviews. The symbols on the board and faction boards become quite explanatory fairly quickly. We both felt that as the game was building to a final climax, it sort of petered out as we both realised, slowly, that we were out of actions and the game had actually finished. Also, in our game, it didn't take much mental arithmetic to realise who had won.... Having said that, it's just the sort of game I like. Loads of scoring opportunities, lots of options per turn and a feeling that you are building something! James may reserve judgement until our next three player night.