Dave, just like Matt, is a great addition to the channel! Really enjoyed this playthrough. Thanks to both of you!! One thing I noticed is at 1:09:44 Dave got 14 points (9 for bonus token & 5 for building a town) and you gave him 15 points.
I'm really glad you've enjoyed having Dave join in, we had a lot of fun with this one (and Rise, which we filmed right before Terra Nova). Good catch with that mistake, I've added corrections.
Excellent video. I love that you talk your strategy out loud and explain all costs and actions. I watched the whole video front to back and finally am ready to play. Well done
Corrections: 8:57 - Jonathan forgot to reset his power bowls after the overview. At this point he should have 2 power in bowls #1 & #2, and 4 power in bowl #3. Essentially, he started with a -1 power handicap accidentally. 36:29 - Jonathan forgot to gain 2 power charges from his faction bonus. 1:09:44 - Dave was given 15 points on accident instead of the 14 points he actually scored. 1:12:06 - ERRATA: The designer said on BGG that players are not supposed to take a bonus tile after dropping out in the final round.
Close one! Love how streamlined this version is, so much more accessible. I played the older brother version a few times through the app but never picked it up for fear of not getting it played. This one seems like a much easier version to get other people into. And it's a nice stepping stone
At the end of round 1, I wanted either of you to choose the bonus tile that rewarded trading houses. That seemed like an excellent combo with the round scoring bonus for trading posts. That really could have worked for Jon, as you placed a neutral house next to 3 of your houses. I really like the simplification of the resource system (no workers, no priests), but one thing you lose with that is that hard choice on upgrading your buildings. In Terra Mystica, building a trading post meant gaining power and coin income, but losing worker income. In Terra Nova, returning a house doesn't really lose you any income. But overall this seems like a smarter-than-expected streamlining.
Also impressive that the gameplay part of this video is right around 1 hour. That's fast considering you are verbalizing your thoughts with every action. I'm sure a fair amount of thinking time was edited out, but still, that's a fast-moving game.
Yeah, that bonus tile in round 1 would likely have been a good pick for either of us. I'm not sure why I didn't go for it. I agree that this is an impressively quick game, I've played 6 times now and none have been longer than 90m even with 4 players. The game does lack the strategic depth of it's siblings with the loss of the worker income, but I think it succeeds at being a great introduction point for people who are intimidated by that extra complexity the other games have.
Funny how games have changed. I started gaming in the 1970's, when most games were conflict focused and battle strategy. Now most games seem like multiplayer solitaire with little conflict.
Within the euro-gaming space I don't feel like the conflict types have changed. I think the bigger change is that euro style games have become far more popular than more conflict focused styles of games over the past decade. That, or this is just showing a bias I have towards euro style games with the game I show on the channel :)
@@JonGetsGames No doubt euros ate more popular than conflict games. Used to be that conflict games were for hobbyists, and everything else was "family" fare. Now euros are what most hobbyists play, and conflict games are for "wargamers". I like euros that have conflict integrated into them. If I play a game with others, and I have zero influence on their game, why am I not just playing a solo game?
Good game guys. I love your dynamic as players and sportsmanship. Also I highly appreciate that both of you not only teach the rules of the game, but also walk us through your strategy while playing. The gameplay is super fun, though I dislike how the map looks. It's super colorful. Especially for a 2022 game. I also kind if dislike the power mechanic - a player can move a disk in the mid section but cannot use it. IMO it would be better if there are only two pools (charged and not charged) and just the price of power actions is increased. Anyway. Thanks for the lovely playthrough and Happy holidays :)
Ah, what the workers did in terra mystica is make the upgrade from house to trading post a decision point. You had to plan, prepare, balance your income. Seems to be less the case here.
Wow really cranking out these Capstone Games :D This was the game I primarily demoed at PAX Philly 2022. A few convenient things I found to make the game flow a bit better is give every player a stack of tiles in their color. Also, any bonus actions (Bonus Tiles / Player Mats) I would keep an X-Token with. I'm unsure if you mentioned it but if you do the Double Shovel Power Action and place two tiles down, then you can only build 1 house. 13:34 - You got a typo. play -> pay 42:50 - Unsure why you made this play unless you were figuring you were going to have an excess of 2 power going into next round? 1:13:28 - I believe the rules state that any remaining Level 3 power gets automatically converted into money at the end of the game. I don't remember taking a Bonus Tile at the end of the last round from the rules (unless if that's a 2P variant). Would Dave have won if he built one more house or would Jon have still been able to get the largest settlement bonus regardless? Another good playthrough as always. Would be nice to see more 3P matchups for that third player dynamic.
I did that change at 42:50 because I wanted a good target to make habitable with my palace ability. Regarding taking bonus tiles, the rulebook does not tell you NOT to take one in the 5th round so we played it like all other rounds. The designer has subsequently posted on BGG stating that they forgot to put in the rules that you aren't supposed to take a bonus tile when dropping out in the 5th round. Regarding Dave catching up with the large settlements, in retrospect I think he might have been able to tie if he'd kept building. I'm glad you've enjoyed these playthrus, I do hope to try filming a 3p game of something at some point. i bought an extra camera mount and microphone for a 3rd player, but the logistics of getting even 1 person here to record have been hard enough, let alone getting 2 people here. Some day I'm sure it'll happen :)
Played this with a couple of my Euro Gamer friends and while I quite enjoyed it they didn't like it as much. They are fairly conflict adverse and mostly tried to stay out of eachothers way and I think that had a big factor in their enjoyment. Looking forward to playing it again though!
Yeah, there are some real benefits to getting in close, though the benefits do go both ways so I could see some gamers feeling like they should stay away.
What a wonderful playthrough. Thanks for this. I have played a little bit of Terra Mystica on one or another of the digital implementations and I was overwhelmed. Having both the white cubes (workers?) and money made it too much for me. This looks much better and more interesting for me to want to play. I know you are both experienced, but even with explanations you were able to do a f ll game well under 90min. That is a big upside for it for me. Though I know enough AP people in our group, a 3-4p game would still take the evening. I am interested in your opinion about the lack of the temple tracks. I know in Gaia Project they streamlined that a bit, but here they took it out completely. Although I haven't really gotten my mind around it in GP either, the tracks felt like they were part of the core of TM. So I'm curious if you missed them?
Honestly, I never enjoyed the temple tracks in Terra Mystica. I was very happy to see them turn into vastly more interesting technology tracks in Gaia Project. Sure, part of me misses having something like the tech tracks in Terra Nova, but if they were here then it'd drag the game's weight towards heavier as well as making it feel maybe more redundant when compared to the other two games. That's a long way of saying, I love the tech tracks in Gaia but I've been fine not having them in my 3 plays of Terra Nova so far.
Hmm, a streamlined version of Terra Mystica eh? As someone who prefers Gaia Project precisely because it's just that little bit meatier (but also more thematically interesting e.g. technology is more intuitive than temple tracks), this is the opposite direction of my preferences. Still, I can see the appeal.
Yeah, this seems like a game that was made not necessarily for gamers like you. We talk about it a bunch in an upcoming Friendly Ties episode, but there is certainly fun to be had here even for people who prefer the heavier versions.
Yeah, ever since I bougth Gaia project I just cant get Terra Mystica on the table. I keep threatening to get the expansion but I fear it wont be enough. Gaia is just so robust. I wouldn't mind seeing an expansion for that tho.
From my limited experience, in terra mystica, getting the magic from other people building next to you is extremely important. As are the magic for shovel actions. The 16 gold for 4 points and a shot at 4 more points seemed a bit wasteful in the penultimate turn. But not sure what else there was to do. The sea dogs faction seemed very weak compared to the fairies. Just less income on all buildings and almost no magic. Did you calculate if you could get a third city in the last turn? That would have been a massive win. Seems like there is not a lot of points to score once you have a good income, build 2 cities and then go for the small points?
You asked if I calculated if I could have gotten a 3rd town on the last turn, and I didn't do this while playing because it seemed like it was just too far away. Subsequently, while editing it, I realized there WAS a way I could have created that 3rd town but I just didn't crunch through and see it while playing.
I've played Terra Nova 6 times now, which is the same amount of times I've played Gaia and twice as many times as Terra Mystica. After playing Terra Nova so much in just a few weeks I now very much want to revisit the other two. I honestly can't say what my favorite is in this moment because of recency bias and not playing the other two for years.
Question about the 5th income phase... Jon got 16 power upgrades but only used 14 of them. Could he have gotten a coin for 1 power and then continued boosting it with the remaining 2 upgrades?
You can only spend 1power for 1 money during your turn in the action phase, or during the third phase of a round where you reset. Since I was in the income phase, neither of those applied and I simply didn't have the ability to use all the power income I had.
Good catch! I indeed started with essentially -1 power charges because I forgot to reset after doing an example in the overview. I've added corrections for this, thanks for pointing it out.
Nice streamlined version. No workers, temples or sanctuaries. I like it. Oh and no priests and faith track either. This is a much compact game, mid weight game.
