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Terra Mystica: Merchants of the Seas
Large rivers traverse the country – one might almost think that this could be somewhere in the Amazon
region. The most diverse factions settle along these rivers and
develop skills in seafaring.
But nobody has yet seen
a boat, and nobody has set sail in order to explore the remote corners of this world. Instead, they all live in close proximity to one another or – thanks to the seafaring – also in indirect neighborhood.
This is similar to is how I
felt during the explanation
of the Terra Mystica rules.
The thematically consis-
tent elements of a complex
game are shattered by the
abstract understanding of neighborhood. And this
fracture is – at least partially – remedied by the Merchants of the Seas expansion.
Each faction can place up to three ships on the board at the same time. The ships start from docks that have already been placed during the initial placement phase. Shipyards follow later in the game; they produce one new ship every round and enable you to carry out a special action that allows you to build additional ships for the price of a dwelling. Other than that, you can acquire ships through new Power actions, Bonus cards or Favor tiles, or Cult bonuses. These elements fit quite naturally in Terra Mystica, in terms of the material as well as the symbols. What’s particularly well done are the per- sonal Shipyard boards; they are placed to the left of the players’ Faction boards and enable you to upgrade a trading house to a shipyard. Additionally, they show spe- cial faction abilities.
Once ships have been launched, they can be moved along the rivers. To this end, you can take one special action per round that allows you to move all your ships according to your advancement on the Shipping track. If you spend 1 power, you may even move one ship one more space forward. Depending on the board, one or more canals connect different river courses in order to shorten the distance.
Spaces that are adjacent to one of your own ships can be used for transforming
and building; for the latter, you can alter- natively remove the ship from the board instead of paying building costs for the dwelling. This mechanism actually makes
and, in my opinion, it changes the feel of Terra Mystica so much that there is not enough focus on your own development. With a view on trading, you can place the
first two dwellings on spaces that can be reached by as many neighbors as possible after short boat trips, instead of expe- diting your own expansion.
regions accessible that would otherwise be out of reach. But just for settling down somewhere, the act of acquiring ships and traveling to far-away spaces is often too expensive and time-consuming. As in the basic game, only indirectly adja- cent buildings count during final scoring. So, in most cases, it makes more sense to expand in the conventional manner, while you are keeping an eye on your opponents’ interests in relevant spaces.
Sailing ships to opposing buildings is pretty rewarding, since this enables you to trade. After that, you have to return the ship to your supply, but depending on the type of building you trade with, you can receive lucrative rewards: such as workers, priests, power, advancement on a Cult track, or even an additional transform- &-build action with one cost-free spade; plus, depending on the building type, one or two victory points, which shouldn’t be underestimated either. The trading part- ner receives power in abundance.
Herein lies the problem that I have with this expansion. It actually is a merchant expansion rather than a seafarer expan- sion. There are two new Favor tiles per player that reward you for trading. One of these doubles the victory points for each trade, and the other one gives you up to five points if you pass, depending on the number of buildings with which you have interacted. This strategy can be dominant
already erected which
difficult to handle. And if there are even dwarves or fakirs involved (factions that don’t move by ship but use merchants to travel over land), you can easily lose track of your own or your opponents’ capabilities.
Merchants of the Seas comes with lavish equipment. Besides a double-sided board with two new topographies, it con- tains wooden components and individual boards for each faction, including those from the first expansion, Fire & Ice. A pos- itive feature of the instructions is an over- view of the starting victory points for each of the game boards. In addition, the idea of using ships has been implemented in a consistent manner. This makes the expan- sion definitely worth trying out, especially for veterans of Terra Mystica, of course. Nevertheless, my impression remains that the trading is too lucrative and changes the original too much. And that is some- thing I don’t like in most cases, including here. Holger Traczinski/sbw
Furthermore, the game with four or five players can now become confusing. Several ships can jostle on one river space. And numerous Trade markers in- dicate who has building(s). That is
Terra Mystica: Merchants
of the Seas (Feuerland)
by James Ataei, Eduardo
Andrade, Jens Drögemüller and Helge Ostertag; for 2–5 players, about 12+ years; duration: about 120–150 minutes; price: about 30 €.
MUST
COULD
RATHER NOT
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