Tips & Strategies (15)

Add your own Tips, Strategies, & House Rules! Vote for tips that you think are useful.

Tips & Strategies (15)

Filter by: Order by:
Gamer Avatar
7
Comic Book Fan
Book Lover
Pet Lover
44 of 45 gamers found this helpful
“Basic tips starting out”

1) Good Neighbors – your first placement is very important, choose your neighbors. Building and upgrading next to opponents benefits both players earlier in the game. Be sure to place your first dwellings adjacent to a few opponents in order to gain these benefits and upgrade faster.
2) Choose Wisely – there are a lot of options, try to focus on clear simple objectives to start out. Start by choosing 1 : either a bonus tile or scoring tile that works well with your faction that is achievable first round. Keep in mind your faction’s strongest ability, and how it scores additional points.
3) Remember the Basics – in the end its all about points, and the biggest leads are achieved by building the largest towns and being ahead in the Cult tracks. Controlling one more hex or being ahead on a track by just one is enough to make significant gains at the end of the game.
4) Relax and Have Fun – this game can be a lot of brain burn. You can spend a lot of time worrying about the “what ifs” and totally miss the big picture. Try a strategy and play it to see the outcome. Instead of trying to figure everything out in the first few games, just play as fast as you can to see how the game unfolds. Play more faster games rather than a couple of long intense ones – cause people will burn out and it will be harder to get this to the table. You can’t try everything in one game, so don’t. Pick a path, play it out, and then play another game. Make it fun to explore the game, rather than a burden to win it.

Gamer Avatar
6
Spain
Book Lover
Miniature Painter
44 of 45 gamers found this helpful
“Magic is a great power, so that means great responsibility!”

Magic is by far the more important resource on the game. Not only it allows you to make some very powerful special action (7 coins!, 2 workers!, 2 shovels!), but it is a replacement for any other resource (5 magic = 1 priest, 3 magic = 1 worker, 1 magic = 1 coin)

Of course it depends on the race and strategy you are playing, but in general terms:

– Try to move your magic as quick as possible to make if available every turn, or twice a turn, or even more! So be aware of the options that will allow you to make it every begining of a turn, and more important your position on the temples (that temple could be advanced later, but maybe if you advance NOW you are earning that magic point that will allow you to optimize your next action)

– Consider to burn some magic tokens to reduce your initial 12 to less (i have played with only 5 tokens sometimes), you will move your magic quicker but…

– … do not left your magic unused on your ready box. You will lost the chance of gaining some when somebody builds near you, or another effects that will cause you to move it. If you do not know what to make with it, coins are always needed at least.

Gamer Avatar
4
Smirk and Dagger Games fan
44 of 45 gamers found this helpful
“Start at the Beginning”

I would recommend to anyone playing their first game of Terra Mystica to follow the starting setup as outlined in the rulebook. Regardless of how many games you may have played, there are some things that you’re not going to get and the starting setup is there to ensure a positive and learning first experience.

Gamer Avatar
4
Smirk and Dagger Games fan
44 of 45 gamers found this helpful
“Variable Turn Order”

Although variable turn order was introduced in the expansion, I highly recommend using it in the base game. This means that players act in the next turn based on their passing order, not clockwise from the first person to pass.

It’s not that big of hassle to keep track of and it makes for a better game. If you do get the expansion I recommend using the turn order track right away.

Gamer Avatar
4
Treasure Map
Reporter Intern
43 of 44 gamers found this helpful
“Play to your strength”

it can be hard the first time you play but each race has a play style the goal of your game should be to try and work out what it is … can make a huge difference in how well you play and more importantly how much fun you have

an example build the stronghold for witches turn one and use that ability 🙂

Gamer Avatar
6
Miniature Painter
Novice Reviewer
Knight-errant
44 of 46 gamers found this helpful
“First turn stronghold”

Some races have enough resources to get a stronghold on the first turn. Not all races really benefit from this though. So far, I’ve found that the giants and the witches really pay off if you can do this. Both of them have powers that essentially let you build more dwellings each round for free (or close to free) with the stronghold. Doing it in the first round gives you 6 turns of that, which might be better than aiming for the VP bonus round for a stronghold.

Gamer Avatar
6
Canada
I play red
43 of 45 gamers found this helpful
“Determining first player”

In order to determine first player we place a priest of each colour in a closed bag and blindly draw the first player from the bag. This alleviates ties in the classic rock-paper-scissors.

Gamer Avatar
10
Critic - Level 5
Professional Advisor
Expert Reviewer
Marquis / Marchioness
36 of 39 gamers found this helpful
“Playing Terra Mystica Online”

Copies of Terra Mystica are currently in short supply for many. If you can’t wait to give it a try (or have played it and want more!) there are a couple of options for online play.

Play against AI opponents

If you’re looking to try your hand (keyboard) against some AI opponents, venture over to:

http://lodev.org/tmai/

I don’t believe the AI is overly strong, but you can still give the game a try, or work out your strategies against opponents that won’t make fun of you.

Play against others – no AI

If you want to play against other people (e-mail style), take a look at:

http://terra.snellman.net/

There is no AI here, but when you want the personal touch (or what approximates the personal touch online these days), this link is the one for you.

Gamer Avatar
3
Critic - Level 2
44 of 48 gamers found this helpful
“Replace the power pieces”

This is mostly to help organize the game. The base box doesn’t come with enough power tokens to give each race (pair) it’s own set and thus I found it frustrating to work with. I have player bags and each bag has everything a player needs no matter what race they get. So I ended up going to michaels and finding a set of beads that I liked to replace them. I think it works great. Another upside, they aren’t cylinders anymore which I find helpful for picking said pieces up.

Gamer Avatar
4
I play green
Pick a Favorite LGS
44 of 49 gamers found this helpful
“Less a tip, more a review...”

Here is a tip…Its Awesome! Since this game is currently being re-printed (I lucked out and was able to get a copy through amazon this last mini reprint) the site wont let me give an actual review.

I’ve only had one play and I am hooked. I would definitely class this game as a casual to power gamer game. Since everyone I played with, myself included, was new to the game I would recommend having some seasoned gamers playing it. This is mainly because there is a lot going on from the start. The set up is pretty intense, though once you understand what everything is and where it goes things should set up significantly quicker.

One of the draws are the races available. There are 7 race boards with each being two-sided. This means there are 14 playable races, 2 for each color and land type. Each race has different staring abilities and special abilities that occur as the game progresses. Since this was the first time playing we have only really seen four of them in action, but after playing my friends and I looked at the other races and saw some really cool ways that each race can be played.

There is a lot going on as far as game play and actions available to the player and this makes for a really intense and changing game. The whole point of the game is to terraform non-home terrain into home terrain so you can build on it. Changing other lands to your home terrain is a challenge because some change harder than others and there is always the threat that an opponent could get terraform a land you had your sights set on.

In addition to this mechanic there is the magic power mechanic that really stands out for me. You have a three tiered pool of magic. Lets say a level I, II, and III. Form the start of a game your magic is spread out between levels I and II and you can only use magic that is in level III. There are various ways for your magic power to move as the game progresses. The thing about it is that when your magic moves it always moves from the lowest level first. SO if I have a 7 magic in level II and 5 magic in level I, and have an overall magic gain of 4, that means 4 magic move from my level I to my level II. That leaves me with 11 magic in level III and 1 in level I. I still have no magic in my level III, which is the only place I can use it without the risk of loosing some. This mechanic really make the want to build up magic so you can spend a couple turns doing a lot more.

Through my first play I never felt like I was over powered and everything I did in the game had a cost that can be felt with a fair amount of significance. The mechanics of the game really add a sense of urgency and foster a mindset of getting the most out of a turn as possible.

There is actually so much going on in this game I just can’t get into about this game it is that deep in play value and strategy. Once you play it though you will understand what everything means for most casual, avid, and power gamers this game will open up in ways you might not expect.

Overall this game is great. Find it! Play it! There is a reason this game is so hard to find.

Gamer Avatar
44 of 49 gamers found this helpful
“A set of spade maps to help you choose your starting locations”

Nice color maps with numbers which help you to place your first houses. Each map shows the home location with an H. All other fields are shown with a number from 1 to 3, indicating the number of spades you need to transform the field to your home color. The file is in pdf format and contains four pages, ready to print. See the link below.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/101034/a-set-of-spade-maps-to-help-you-choose-your-starti

Gamer Avatar
4
Smirk and Dagger Games fan
44 of 49 gamers found this helpful
“Focus on Scoring”

In Terra Mystica you must always be looking for the best way to score points. That starts with faction selection. Make sure the faction you select will work well with the bonus tiles and scoring tiles that are out.

Earth 1 is the best favor in the game. Build a temple early and make sure you get this as it will net you more points than just about anything else in the game. This is especially true if you have 2 rounds of dwelling scoring.

Gamer Avatar
4
Smirk and Dagger Games fan
43 of 48 gamers found this helpful
“Darklings in the East”

Darklings do well in the East with or without neighbors. If you play them you should start on the right side of the board. They are one of the stronger factions.

Gamer Avatar
4
Smirk and Dagger Games fan
43 of 48 gamers found this helpful
“Burn Baby Burn”

Burning power to get your economy going early game is generally a good move. You want to leech as much power as you can from your opponents so that you can take advantage of the relatively cheap power actions.

Gamer Avatar
3
43 of 59 gamers found this helpful
“Picking your races”

Nothing is more important than picking a race that matches up well with the in-round bonus’.

Add your own Tip, Strategy, or House Rule

You must be to add a comment.

× Visit Your Profile