I hope the BGG community will forgive me the indulgence of choosing, for only my fourth ever review, the same game as I chose for my first. Had it not been for the BGG "voice of experience" contest I would never have considered it - but, when thinking about which game I should choose for my entry, while there were other contenders, I couldn't imagine anything better than the game which I have played at least 40 times in "real life" and now close to 100 times online (a number which is steadily rising). In fact, I have a pleasing feeling of coming full circle, because, not only was my first review of TM - https://boardgamegeek.com/article/11547779 - my first ever review on BGG, it was the product of my initial infatuation with the game, based on perhaps half a dozen plays over a month or so. I am sure we can all think of several games which we have fallen in love with at first but which then faded for us - not that we went on to think they were bad games (although that can happen), but just that the initial enthusiasm faded away and it became a game that is rarely again a first choice. I know there are many games which fit that description for me, ranging from light fare such as Lost Citiesup to deeper and more "gamey" games such as, say, Dungeon Petz. But Terra Mystica has not only kept its hold on me, it if anything pulls me ever deeper under its spell which each new game - something which I think can only be said of the very greatest games. So, while that first review was quite detailed, as is my personal wont when writing, allow me, over 2 years on, to give an even more extended reflection about just what it is that has made this game really stand the test of time (relative to the continual BGG "cult of the new", anyway) - certainly for me, but surely for many others too, because while there are games that arrive with a bang and reach the BGG top 100, sometimes even the top 50, then fade away, no game can get as high as #2 without having a very strong appeal to a pretty wide selection of gamers. I am not promising that the following reflections will explain why so many other gamers are attracted to Terra Mystica - although I expect that at least some of my points will find wider resonance - merely that they will give some insight into why I personally find this to be the one game I keep coming back to again and again. 504
(Actually, there are others of which this is true - most notably Through the Ages and Dominion. But I have no hesitation at all in proclaiming TM my favourite game, above even these.)
Very brief overview
It's hard to give a succinct overview of this game (this is a game which is notoriously tricky to teach, it generally taking me at least half an hour to cover everything for new players, even though it actually feels like a really straightforward game by the time you've played a few turns), but I'm going to try. It's at heart a resource management game in which players will build "dwellings" on a map, upgrade some of these into different buildings (not necessarily "better", although there are plenty of factors in the game which make it necessary to do plenty of upgrading), while also sending priests off to one or more of 4 "cults" for both endgame victory points and important in-game bonuses. Players can also take actions to improve some of their abilities (shipping and terraforming). It is an asymmetric game, where each player controls a different faction with their own unique set of abilities - I will not say anything more about this now, but this is a huge part of the game's appeal and I will return to it in detail later, since TM handles it in a way which is to my knowledge unique. The map is a hex map, consisting of both river hexes (these serve essentially as obstacles, although all factions either have shipping abilities which use the river to be able to get around the map, or have an alternative way to reach further afield than adjacent hexes) and land hexes of 7 different terrain types. These terrains do not lead to any rules differences, in the sense of it being easier to harder to do certain things on certain terrains, yet they are key to the game because each faction has a "home terrain" which is the only one on which it can build, but all factions have the ability to terraform, that is transform one terrain type into another. Terraforming tends to be expensive, but it is vital, and choosing the right way and time to do it is a key part of playing well.
You get victory points for a variety of things - during the game certain actions will always get you points (like increasing your shipping ability), but others will only get you points if you do them at the right time. 366