One mistake for final scoring. According to the rulebook: [[Determine the number of your Structures DIRECTLY or INDIRECTLY adjacent to one another. With the proper Shipping value, scattered areas may be indirectly adjacent to one another (and, thus, considered connected).]]
I'm looking forward to playing this. Z-Man games has picked this up in the states. It's set to come out at the end of this month and I've pre ordered it from my local game shop. However the release date may be pushed to a later date( I HOPE NOT!).
think the most important thing i would like to know about board games (because now there are thousands of them!) is how much replayability each game has. This looks like it has a lot, however, I enjoy the 4x games like eclipse but i heard theat eclips tapers off after 5-10 games. So now I dont know what to do, buy this or eclipse, or wait for another 4x game that has more replayability.
I can think of two aspects of a game that make it replayable, which appeal to two different preferences or goals. One is depth, or time to mastery. This is the thing you want if you want to replay a game over and over again and deepen your understanding of it, hoping to one day master it. On this dimension, Go > Chess > Checkers > Tic-Tac-Toe. I have not played Terra Mystica enough to assess where it belongs on this scale, but I guess Go > Terra Mystica > Checkers seems highly likely. Also, probably Chess > Hive > Checkers. I guess this dimension is more or less equivalent to the game's range of skill. The second is repeatable novelty, variation from game to game. If you want each game to pose a new challenge, different from the last game (or all previous games), this is the property you're looking for. The bonus powers (the oblong tiles) are chosen randomly each game, as are the per-round scoring tiles, i.e. in each game you have a randomly chosen way of scoring points each round (known ahead of time), which requires you to reassess the value of your actions. I think Dominion is the king on this axis, with Go, Chess, Checkers and Tic-Tac-Toe all being at the bottom for having a fixed starting position and Terra Mystica in between. Probably Magic: The Gathering drafting > Terraforming Mars >~= Great Western Trail >~= Terra Mystica =? Fischer Chess > Twilight Struggle > Power Grid > Puerto Rico, where "x >~= y" means "x has more of this quality than y, or maybe the same, and in any case they're close". The latter three games have fixed win conditions and/or point-scoring opportunities, the variation is mainly in what resources you have when, i.e. what means you have available for engaging in point-scoring, now how points are scored. (Fischer chess is where you randomly shuffle the bottom rank, i.e. white's major pieces, and apply the same permutation to black's pieces so they're still opposite one another.) The two flavors of replayability are in tension with one another: if each game is very different from previous games, is there still a shared core that you can master through repeated play? I'm sure there are common elements, but the more things are different from game to game, the narrower the common core is. I guess. So... does Terra Mystica offer high replayability? I think so. But I've only played it twice, IIRC, so take that with a grain of salt. My main justification is that I recognize a variation-creating mechanic; I don't know from experience how impactful it is. The Fire & Ice expansion comes with a set of tiles, where a random one replaces the "built-in" 18/12/6-point end-of-game scoring; randomly choosing the criterion based on which the largest chunk of points is dealt out is likely to have higher impact that randomly choosing a bunch of minor bonuses. So replayability goes up when you get the expansion. I can't say anything meaningful about how much.
I missed this game at BGG.Con because I heard it took 4 hours to play. A lot of people were raving about it though. After watching your video I'll definitely have to try it. Before I buy it that is. ;o]
dear The Dice Tower I dont know what you're doing to your videos, but it wont load most of the times. Every other video starts right away, yours I need to reload a couple of times to watch.
This is the next game i'm gonna buy. Anyone in the Hertfordshire area, i run a board games club every fortnight. have a look on facebook /groups/StABoardgamesclub/
It only takes 30 minutes per player, and that is even with new players. Of course it will take at least 30 minutes to explain the game to new players, but once you have experienced players, I don't see it taking more than 2 hours for a 5 player.
One mistake for final scoring. According to the rulebook:
[[Determine the number of your Structures DIRECTLY or INDIRECTLY adjacent to one another. With the proper Shipping value, scattered areas may be indirectly adjacent to one another (and, thus, considered connected).]]
9th-most-watched Dice Tower video by a non-primary reviewer (as of November 28, 2016).
It must've herculean effort to review this game in such a short video- nice job, Ryan.
at the end game, does the shipping count towards the longest chain? Or does it only work with bridges?
Shipping does count for longest chain for end game scoring. There is an illustration of this on page 16 of the rule book.
Thank you for explaining it so quickly! :]
I'm looking forward to playing this. Z-Man games has picked this up in the states. It's set to come out at the end of this month and I've pre ordered it from my local game shop. However the release date may be pushed to a later date( I HOPE NOT!).
hey ryan, is there a story behind you "paddy" shirt?
think the most important thing i would like to know about board games (because now there are thousands of them!) is how much replayability each game has. This looks like it has a lot, however, I enjoy the 4x games like eclipse but i heard theat eclips tapers off after 5-10 games. So now I dont know what to do, buy this or eclipse, or wait for another 4x game that has more replayability.
I can think of two aspects of a game that make it replayable, which appeal to two different preferences or goals.
One is depth, or time to mastery. This is the thing you want if you want to replay a game over and over again and deepen your understanding of it, hoping to one day master it.
On this dimension, Go > Chess > Checkers > Tic-Tac-Toe. I have not played Terra Mystica enough to assess where it belongs on this scale, but I guess Go > Terra Mystica > Checkers seems highly likely. Also, probably Chess > Hive > Checkers. I guess this dimension is more or less equivalent to the game's range of skill.
The second is repeatable novelty, variation from game to game. If you want each game to pose a new challenge, different from the last game (or all previous games), this is the property you're looking for. The bonus powers (the oblong tiles) are chosen randomly each game, as are the per-round scoring tiles, i.e. in each game you have a randomly chosen way of scoring points each round (known ahead of time), which requires you to reassess the value of your actions.
I think Dominion is the king on this axis, with Go, Chess, Checkers and Tic-Tac-Toe all being at the bottom for having a fixed starting position and Terra Mystica in between. Probably Magic: The Gathering drafting > Terraforming Mars >~= Great Western Trail >~= Terra Mystica =? Fischer Chess > Twilight Struggle > Power Grid > Puerto Rico, where "x >~= y" means "x has more of this quality than y, or maybe the same, and in any case they're close". The latter three games have fixed win conditions and/or point-scoring opportunities, the variation is mainly in what resources you have when, i.e. what means you have available for engaging in point-scoring, now how points are scored. (Fischer chess is where you randomly shuffle the bottom rank, i.e. white's major pieces, and apply the same permutation to black's pieces so they're still opposite one another.)
The two flavors of replayability are in tension with one another: if each game is very different from previous games, is there still a shared core that you can master through repeated play? I'm sure there are common elements, but the more things are different from game to game, the narrower the common core is. I guess.
So... does Terra Mystica offer high replayability? I think so. But I've only played it twice, IIRC, so take that with a grain of salt. My main justification is that I recognize a variation-creating mechanic; I don't know from experience how impactful it is. The Fire & Ice expansion comes with a set of tiles, where a random one replaces the "built-in" 18/12/6-point end-of-game scoring; randomly choosing the criterion based on which the largest chunk of points is dealt out is likely to have higher impact that randomly choosing a bunch of minor bonuses. So replayability goes up when you get the expansion. I can't say anything meaningful about how much.
...I paid 5 dollars cover charge, it's highway robbery. Love the Pat shirt, it's always good to see a fellow PatHead.
Thanks for the great review.
Is there a game more complicated than this? If so I'd like to see it.
I missed this game at BGG.Con because I heard it took 4 hours to play. A lot of people were raving about it though. After watching your video I'll definitely have to try it. Before I buy it that is. ;o]
Holy crap this complex game just blew my mind ...
This game is awesome - a friend of mine got it for christmas and we play a lot :D
Shipping is already enought. Bridges are only need to build a city
I like the game mainly because of game length. Only 30 minutes per player!
dear The Dice Tower
I dont know what you're doing to your videos, but it wont load most of the times. Every other video starts right away, yours I need to reload a couple of times to watch.
Damn, this is very complicated! I need to play it.
This is the next game i'm gonna buy. Anyone in the Hertfordshire area, i run a board games club every fortnight. have a look on facebook /groups/StABoardgamesclub/
I so want this game. :)
It only takes 30 minutes per player, and that is even with new players. Of course it will take at least 30 minutes to explain the game to new players, but once you have experienced players, I don't see it taking more than 2 hours for a 5 player.
Wow, I am confused. Nothing you did Ryan. Too many rules and variants.
magic realm.
this is more like a "learn how to play" than a review! ..
It is for a local-ish comedy singer...no real story.