Age of Innovation vs Terra Mystica - Board Game Review & Comparison 

This is the best game I’ve played this year. Excellent changes and giving more customization and choice throughout the experience.

Great video, really looking forward to my pre-order for Age of Innovation arriving!

Brilliant! Have it in pre order, can't wait to try it out!

Great energy/flow between the two of you

My wife and I played Terra Mystica for the first time at Gen Con. We really liked it. Then we saw that Age of Innovation exists! It looks like we will like this even more!

Hopefully you are covering the Gaia Project expansion soon! 🤞🏻

Cant wait for Age of innovation!

I have Terra Mystica with all expansions and love it, though I've yet to try the expansion content. I also acquired Gaia Project fairly recently. I too have "too many games" and would love to get Age of Innovation, but it's difficult to justify when I have so much very similar content to explore already. To me, this is a game for hard-core TM fans who want more or for heavier Euro gamers who don't have TM yet. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on AoI!

This is a 10 for me too. The draft is just so good. If it weren't for 1822PNW coming out later this year, I think think AoI would be my game of the year (Hegemony is right there too - really a great year so far). I do love Terra Mystica, but this has just killed it... Now the question is, will I be able to get rid of all of my Terra Mystica stuff??

Thanks for the review it really helped. I own TM and GP (prefer TM), and I think this will replace them both for me.

I am very excited for this, a must buy for me ! I wonder if AoI given enough time is going to surpass Terra Mystica (like Brass Birmingham did with the og/Lancashire game) or if Terra Mystica will remain on top. Thank you for the great video !

Got an opportunity to try this yesterday and really did enjoy, however a friend of mine who owns TM with all it's expansions says that TM with expansions is still different and better than this......I was very surprised! Personally haven't played the expansions, so wondering what your thoughts are....

I've got it pre-ordered just waiting patiently

13:54 Yes, you are correct! Technically, there is no “two player variant” for Terra Mystica, because according to the rulebook (and on the box), it is a 2-5 player game - so a “variant” would not be needed. However, most people do not find the 2-player experience to be that great - because there is just too much open space and it is just not tight enough. Then Gaia Project came out - and added a modular board which scales with player count, so it tightens the board when only playing with 2 players.

Great video, so excited about this. Is it already available in Norway? I can't seem to find it anywhere :)

15:28 That was actually added in the 1st expansion of Terra Mystica - Fire & Ice - and has been used in all future Terra Mystica systems (except I am not sure about Terra Nova), like Gaia Project and now Age of Innovation.

...and I really loved them!

You guys are incredible

So jealous. Can’t wait to get this. Haha

On a second thought, I like TM over this. Here is 5 reasons why: 1. This version has production issues. The wooden pieces and faction boards are in worse quality than a copy of TM. Imagine Barrage quality. Boards are crumbling along the sides. 2. This one is much less competitive than TM. Resources are everywhere. At the end of round 5 we had all our buildings out. And nothing to strive for during round 6. 3. I once bought TM becouse i wanted an elite game, with a lot of mean take that gameplay. This version is only for Casual players and noobs. Competitive players have nothing to gain here. 4. It's fun in TM to master the different factions. It's not possible in this one with random factions all the time. 5. This board is much uglier than the TM one. I love that the TM one looks like 90's rpg pc games. The new one look so glossy. I will sell this one. I only need TM and GP for different themes.

Is there an automa for this game already? I got the automa box for Terra Mystica and used it in a 2p game to simulate a 3rd player. It worked pretty well and provided a really nice experience.

I'm the guy that like GWT argentina, but hate normal GWT (the change of the end of the path did for me a lot). I've always prefered terra mystica because of the tight space and more interaction, but I have instead gaia project because I bought it very cheap. I'm tempted to get this because I don't have to get a lot of expansions and bring new strategies to play terra mystica as the divine token have changed. But it's difficult for me to justify having the two in my humble collection. 😩

Looks cool 👍 maybe a 2 player playthrough? Pretty please 🙏😅

Thank you for the comparison. I am looking to save shelf space by replacing multiple boxes with one and this game is one of the candidates. I played TM again not long ago. It’s a very good game. However, and, I know tastes are personal, to me at least, when it comes to board, TM has to be one of the ugliest games I have in my collection 😂 It has these garish Settler of Catan-ish, German euro games from the 90’s colors, which I find difficult to look at for several hours in a row 🤪 Luckily the look improves as the map gets populated with buildings 🎉 But, it doesn’t look like AoI greatly improves the starting point for me… Happy New Year !!

Great video. I don't know if you guys had the chance to play Terra Nova in the meantime, but if you didn't, and since you brought it up, I strongly recommend it. Like...strongly. It is such a good implementation, it's what every "streamlined version of X" wishes it could be. And I'm confident that it is absolutely worth it to have both Terra Nova and this one in a collection. Terra Nova manages to scratch that itch in half the time or less, and with a fifth of the brain melting. So it is perfect for those days when you're not quite feeling the idea of beating your brain to a pulp in a 3+ hours game. I always manage to play 2 consecutive games of Terra Nova with my wife, since the setup is so easy and it plays so quickly. You end up having spent the same time, and even after 2 games, you feel absolutely fine mentally, whereas the big brothers makes you feel absolutely drained. Plus there are some nuanced benefits of playing two 1,5h games VS one 3h game, like, you can pay different faction between games, you can lose one and win the other, etc, so the variety within a play session is also a less talked about benefit in those regards. Another amazing thing Terra Nova does for you, is you can use it as a tool to ease people into its bigger brothers. Play a couple of games of Terra Nova with someone, then the next get together, try this one. They will feel way less intimitaded and much more confident that they can tackle this big heavy game now. It's perfect.

Would you recommend it at mostly 2 player count? Is there an autonoma? Great content as always!

22:54 So if we already have Terra Mystica, is there a place for this one, also? Or are they both just too similar? And if we were to only keep one - either Age of Innovation or Terra Mystica, is there any reason NOT to keep Age of Innovation (for its more variable experience) and get rid of Terra Mystica [asking this way, since I know you guys are not keeping Terra Mystica of the two]? Thanks.

How did you know? I've just discovered AoI and now I'm in trouble should I buy good ole' TM published in my home country language or should I wait until AoI will (perhaps) be published in my language (maybe in the unclear future)? Can you help?

i love you guys

So is this a mix between OG Terra Mystica and Gaia Project?

Would you recommend this for players that never played TM or GP?

I bought the Terra Mystica Big Box last year so there is no way that I can get this one as well!

18:53 I thought about getting Terra Nova to try to teach and get “muggles” to play a game like Terra Mystica, which I can’t get them to play. However, I feel that Terra Nova would STILL be too heavy for them - and I would therefore be stuck with a game that everytime I look at it on my shelf, I would give it the stinky eye and think to myself that I would so much more just rather play Terra Mystica. So it would waste a spot on my shelf and I would never play it.

They should put flamingos in the lakes so they are easy to point out.

is there a reason you uncritically report playtime the publisher says , i've never felt that publisher reported playtimes were accurate

I prefer Terra Mystica over Gaia Project. This game looks great. Terra Mystica has a very good Automa expansion that can augment the 2 player game.

thought it was a smaller faster version (and a bit easier) of terramystica, but now I dont think that any more (yes you say its easier but still ) lol

Just got rid of Gaia project AND Terra mystica big box 😊

Why is the new box so much bigger than the old?

The factions in TM are wildly imbalanced, especially when you pair with the round bonuses. I am hoping that the ability drafting in AoI will improve on that.

I'm a shallow gamer, if Age of Innovation had the looks of modern ameri-trash i would be tempted.

Looks like a better game with possibly the most uninspiring and boring theme. Terra Mystica was fantasy, Gaia was space but what in the hell is even this?