Terra Mystica is a civilization building game for 2 to 5 players, where players choose a faction and advance on various tracks. Scoring tiles are placed on the board, and the game end token is placed on the 6th space. Players can collect bonuses at the end of the round for the number of spaces they have advanced on. Scoring tiles are represented by two different icons, and players can take scoring bonus tiles instead of resource bonus tiles whenever possible.
Special actions can be taken from two of the Bonus Tiles (“Spade and 2 Coins”, “Cult step and 4 Coins”), one of the Favor Tiles (“2 Water”), and the Strongholds of some factions. Cult bonuses are awarded when players with enough progress in depicted Cults receive the reward, multiple times if needed. Favor tiles can be identified by their corresponding icon.
The best bonus tile at the start of the game is the “Transform + 2 Coin” tile, worth 3 workers and 2 coins. Free spades awarded during the current round from the cult bonus of a scoring tile are usable on the next round. Favor tiles give special bonuses when building religious structures (temples or sanctuary).
Founding a Town tile is required for each top space on a Cult track. If a Priest is sent to an order of a Town, the key is immediately given and can be used to reach 10 on the Fire Cult with the 2 Fire influence. When taking this Town tile, players get 2 Victory points and move 2 spaces forward on each of the 4 Cult tracks.
Shapeshifters can also receive Spades via Cult bonuses. If all opponents refuse to take Power, players should not advance on a Cult track but gain exactly one Power.
📹 Terra Mystica – Bonus Card Strategies
In this video, I discuss each bonus card available in Terra Mystica, when to choose them and how to play them.
Is 7 Wonders language-dependent?
The game is independent of language, and the names printed on the cards are inconsequential to gameplay.
What is the best bonus tile in Terra Mystica?
The “Transform + 2 Coin” tile is the most valuable at the start of the game, as it allows for the most efficient transformation of workers and coins. The “+3 Power, +1 Worker” tile is also the best, as it allows for the burning of power and the acquisition of a 4-Power “Transform” Action square. The “2-worker” tile is the third best, as it allows for the use of workers in Round one.
Point tiles become more important later in the game, as the economy is already strong enough to support building and upgrading. Favor tiles are a nice addition, but only Chaos Magicians can invest in them. For other races, they are a small part of their strategy.
Is Terra Mystica language dependent?
Terra Mystica is a strategy game where players govern one of 14 factions to transform the landscape on the board in their favor. The game’s appeal lies in the conflict between players and the environment. Players can upgrade structures to gain resources like workers, priests, money, and power. They can build temples to gain influence in the four cults of fire, earth, water, and air, build strongholds to activate their group’s special ability, expand and build new dwellings to have more workers, or build trading houses to ensure a constant flow of money. Purchases from these retailers support Shut Up and Sit Down.
What language is Terra written in?
Terra, a low-level language, has replaced C/C++’s meta-language with Lua, a high-level programming language. This combination allows for unique behaviors, such as JIT-compiling and runtime evaluation, making it easier to write software libraries relying on runtime code generation. Terra code can be JIT-compiled and run alongside Lua evaluation, allowing for the creation of software libraries that depend on runtime code generation. However, features like conditional compilation and templating fall out of the combination of using Lua to meta-program Terra.
Terra expressions, types, and functions are first-class Lua values, enabling the generation of arbitrary programs at runtime. This enables the compiling of domain-specific languages (DSLs) written in Lua into high-performance Terra code. Terra is built on the Lua ecosystem, making it easy to embed Terra-Lua programs in other software as a library.
How do you get tech tiles in Gaia project?
Upgrade to an academy or research lab to gain a tech tile and advance your lowest-level token in a research area without paying knowledge. Use passive action – charging power to spend VP as needed. Drafting factions involves auctions where players submit their maximum bids for each faction. A round-robin auction is conducted in turn until each player has the top bid on one faction. During the round-robin, each player bids on the faction with the greatest difference between the faction’s current bid and their maximum possible bid.
What is the action token in Terra Mystica?
A distinctive action token is bestowed upon nomads, enabling them to transform a terrain space contiguous with their structures into their home terrain. This allows them to construct a dwelling by paying the requisite cost.
What is the ability of fakirs in Terra Mystica?
The Fakirs Faction has a unique ability called “Transform and Build”, which allows players to skip one Terrain or River space by paying one more Priest for Carpet Flight. This action earns 4 Victory points each time, and any structures reached via Carpet Flight are considered connected. After building a Stronghold, players can skip 2 Terrain or 2 River spaces or one each when doing a Carpet Flight, which affects the final Area scoring. Despite being underpowered, the Carpet Flight is a decent strategy for Fakirs.
What is the shipping bonus card in Terra Mystica?
The bonus card for shipping value rewards navigation is awarded at the conclusion of the round. It provides three power during income and grants a number of victory points equal to the shipping value multiplied by three.
What age range is Terra Mystica?
Terra Mystica is a Euro-style board game designed by Helge Ostertag and Jens Drögemüller, aimed at two to five players. Published by Feuerland Spiele in Germany in 2012, it was later translated into English and French by Zman Games and Filosofia Édition in 2013. The game involves players choosing from fourteen fantasy factions with unique abilities and costs. Each faction is limited to building on one of seven terrain types on the game board, making terraforming spaces crucial.
The game is divided into six rounds, where players take actions to improve their society, such as settling new spaces, upgrading buildings, improving infrastructure, or increasing the faction’s status in an elemental cult. If a player cannot perform any more actions or chooses not to, they must pass, and a round ends when all players pass.
Is Gaia Project the same as Terra Mystica?
The Gaia Project represents a novel addition to the Terra Mystica series of games.
How long does a game of Terra Mystica take?
Terra Mystica is a Euro-style board game designed by Helge Ostertag and Jens Drögemüller, aimed at two to five players. Published by Feuerland Spiele in Germany in 2012, it was later translated into English and French by Zman Games and Filosofia Édition in 2013. The game involves players choosing from fourteen fantasy factions with unique abilities and costs. Each faction is limited to building on one of seven terrain types on the game board, making terraforming spaces crucial.
The game is divided into six rounds, where players take actions to improve their society, such as settling new spaces, upgrading buildings, improving infrastructure, or increasing the faction’s status in an elemental cult. If a player cannot perform any more actions or chooses not to, they must pass, and a round ends when all players pass.
Geat article, thank you for the effort and some VERY good advice! — BON2 can also be used to pass before the other players do, as you say, including the reasoning you mention, but also because of this: the anticipation of the opponents. They’ll be expecting you’ll take the cult action, but then you don’t… So it’s a tactical option, of course only to be made after considering the other bonus tiles, but the option exists. This is also valid for BON1, but, of course, not using the SPADE action would be very expensive. — In a way, this is the same reasoning as with BON10 and the mermaids possible scoring via BON10 🙂