It also had the side effect of adding 30 minutes to the setup of the game as people were staring at everything before making their determination of how many extra points a race would score. These rules were used to get people outside of their comfort zones – to get races to the table that people undervalue/don’t usually play with, forcing improvisation and rewarding overall mastery of the game. Nowhere in the rules does it suggest this as the way to set up the game. There was a small bit of grumbling, as people weren’t used to playing in this manner. Once a seat was picked, a faction was chosen, and bidding would continue to the next seat in order.
Boards were set up randomly, factions were selected randomly (4 total factions, 3 player games), and then the players would bid end game victory points to pick a seat. The semifinals had people talking, as it was a format almost none of the competitors were used to.
Each of the double winners had their own table, along with Daniel Farrow IV, who had a win and the closest second. The semifinals, which ran at the same time as the Terraforming Mars semifinals, only saw 12 winners (out of 20) show up, so the tables were set up as four 3 player tables. Sceadeau D’Tela, David Cederquist, and Sam Wolff. Hallas was also good for second most of the time. Good faction if you wanted to come in second, though. They were picked 12 times and had a record of 1-6-3-2. Terrans, which was picked the most, only had a win percentage of 9%. The only other faction to pull down a 50% win rate were Nevlas, but they were only played 4 times. Taklons had a slightly higher win rate (50%) vs Ambas (45%). You see, players were asked to record scores, seating order, and factions down on a score sheet, and one person recorded their name in the name spot and in the faction spot, so my stats will be a bit off.īrown factions were taken 91% of the time, split between Ambas (50%) and Taklon (41%). Also, you may notice a faction that isn’t included in your game. These numbers reflect games being played on the base map only. I was able to compile stats about the factions at this tournament, and for the heats, some interesting numbers emerged. We went over that time slot on roughly half the tables, so will have to increase the time slot to 4 hours next year. We had exactly 64 unique entrants, over two heats, in a “3” hour time slot.
These are the ramblings of a game master who ran Gaia Project as a trial event. Nevlas, Ivits, and Ambas are so high because they're known to do well in almost any map setup.Space. keep in mind that depending on map setup, any single race may find itself at the top of that setup's "tier list" which is what makes this game so varied and great. While I personally find gleens a bit better, and HH a bit lower, this is generally the accepted tier list. SS Tier: Nevlas, Ivits, Ambas S Tier: Itars, Hadsch Hallas, Top Tier: Bescodes, Geodens, Bel'taks, Taklons Mid Tier: Gleens, Terrans Low Tier: Firaks, Xenos What game is this again: Lantids narrow down any variable and the tier list may change. keep in mind this has to do with a variance of map and tech board setups. Here are the current tier lists for the races. The issue with terrans is they are very one demential, typically only one way to play them, and that strategy can easily be disrupted. It mostly had to do with Gaia Projects being under valued and Terrans not having much competition. The idea that Terrans are "strong" is something that was held closer to the release of the game, but is no longer a popular belief. I've had alot of experience with this and I'm one of the more regular posters on BGG. Tl dr Bescods are the best race because they're robots. What I have noticed is that sometimes you end up in situations where you think one race will do really well because of the board set up, and then end up realizing that just because you picked a race that fits certain end game scoring really well that you just wind up fighting everyone else for the same thing, and potentially even get boxed in.
If every race was as clunky as the Bescods then it would deter new players. Some races seem to be slightly more consistent, but I think that's a positive as well. But I can say that in my ~20 plays that I've seen most races win and lose in grandiose fashion. Having a modular board with randomized special technologies and then randomized end game goals in addition to the randomized round goals makes it very difficult for any race to stand out the way that Halflings/Darklings do in TM.Ĭan I prove that? No. I think that the nature of the game does a lot to naturally dispel the problems that Terra Mystica has with racial imbalance.