Terra Prime is a recent release by Tasty Minstrel Games. I received my Pre-Order signed by the designer <PERSON> himself. After a couple two player games though, I just don't think the game is for me. Of course, I don't like Agricola nor Battlestar Galactica, so please don't go jumping to conclusions for yourself. I noticed there isn't a lot of information out there for Terra Prime, so I thought I'd give it a good detailed review.
0. Description
In Terra Prime each player takes on the role of a spaceship exploring a swatch of unknown space. You all start on a home base (Terra Prime) and steadily explore unknown sectors. Those sectors get severly more dangerous the deeper you travel into the unknown.
You have a wooden ship marker on the board and a "ship board" in front of you to hold technologies and modules for your ship.
Players take turns in clockwise order. On your turn you get to do a handful of actions such as:
Move
Explore (Flip a new tile)
Load Up Cubes / Deliver Cubes
Augment Your Ship
Fight Aliens
Make Colonies
During the course of the game you score points for things such as:
Making Deliveries
Establishing Colonies
Defeating Aliens
The game has a couple end game triggers like Puerto Rico. At the end you add up your VP and determine the winner.
1. Analysis Paralysis / Downtime
Well, Terra Prime is okay on this front. There really is not much for you to do on an opponent's turn. You can plan your next turn and that's about it. Most of the turns go fairly fast, but some actions take a disproportionate amount of time to resolve.
Fast Actions: Moving, Exploring, Picking Up / Delivering, etc.
Slow Actions:
Settling a Colony - There are a series of steps to complete and points to calculate and collect.
Battle an Alien - Usually involves multiple rounds. Difficult to decide when to retreat. Involved reward process upon completion.
If a player performs a "Slow Action" in the middle of their turn, expect them to forget how many actions they have left and spend time recounting that.
Our first game lasted 2 hours. The second game lasted 1 hour. That seems to mirror others' experience I have read in comments. This game is not entertaining for 2 hours.
2. Frequency of Meaningful Decisions
This is where the game disappoints me. 697
There are meaningful decisions. But most are at the macro level.
"I am going to Load a colony marker & enough cubes to bribe an Alien and go settle a far colony"
That is an important decision. The 5-6 turns it takes to complete that plan don't really have that many important decisions. Sure, there is some small tactical maneuvering on what the optimal route is. To me, it didn't seem that important or interesting. Also, there was very little incentive to deviate from that plan for the next 5-6 turns. Nothing major was going to fluctuate and make you change your mind. Still, you do get to reset your "Mid-Range Plan" every 5 turns or so.
There are some other meaningful choices though:
Orientating a new Sector during an Explore can be interesting.
Determining just what combination of Technologies and Modules to get can be interesting.
Determining when to run away from an Alien can be interesting.
3. Multiplayer Solitaire / Player Interaction / (Competitive / Casual)
You have guns. You cannot shoot the other players. Items are limited. Such as:
Technologies are very limited.
Juicy Colony spots are limited.
A limited number of Demand tiles will be fulfilled.
Demand tiles play out like Cutthroat Caverns. All players contribute to the same Demand tiles. However, the player that completes the demand tile gets an extra reward.
When another player uses your colony for any reason you get a VP.
Overall I don't think Terra Prime has any direct interaction to speak of.
4. Skill / Luck / (Competitive / Casual)
Yes, there are 4 dice. Yes, you will have to roll them. Yea, your rolling can REALLY SUCK.
You mainly roll dice to:
Dodge Asteroids
Resolve Aliens attacking you or you Attacking Aliens
Asteroids and Aliens do damage to your ship. You have shields that will protect you. Unfortunately, those shield modules use the same slots as the weapon modules. Do you want protection or aggression because you can't have both here.
The main luck equalizer would be the ability to "bribe" aliens by tossing cubes their way instead of fighting them. The downside is that those cubes could have generated VP on demand tiles. 403