Terramara Review - The Broken Meeple

Terramara is the name of the villages founded around 1500 B.C., mid- to late Bronze Age, in Northern Italy. People lived, travelled, and traded between the Alps mountain range and the river Po. The main occupations of the Terramara people were hunting, farming and metallurgy, casting bronze tools like axe heads in stone molds. The houses in the villages were built on piles, meaning each house is built above the ground, supported by wooden stakes.
In Terramara, you play as the chief of a clan living in one of these villages. Your goal is to develop your clan, exploring lands farther away to trade with other villages, and reach sacred places. You improve your battle strength and discover new technologies to create useful artefacts. The player who develops the best clan by gaining more development points becomes leader of all of Terramara and wins the game!
I love a good twist on worker placement and anything that Michael Menzel touches in terms of board art is beauty to my eyes. The first ever QUINED GAMES title to hit my blog, can they debut on this channel with a bang?
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[@MhorGonzales]

Just bought this game (and Vindication), BECAUSE OF YOU LUKE! Because of your top 10 mid weight games. You’re taste in board games kinda hits my spot. Liking your content and I think it’s time to subscribe to your channel now 😊

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

Only just now?! :P Ha ha thanks for doing so! And yes you'll be in good hands with these games!

[@MhorGonzales]

@@TheBrokenMeeple I just recently checked out Pulsar and I also want it. Please keep this stuff coming.

[@DreadSkavos]

Do you find military power too strong/influential (especially the artifact card that allows you to avoid paying 1 military when you bully in a space)? A player in a 3 player game was hamstrung for the entire game as he had to play into the future so often due to low military, yet the player with the highest military never played in the future, which meant he could play about double the number of explorers over the course of the game. The other broken card is the artifact that gives you a discount on all resources for all future artifacts created. The player who built that card made ~50 points of artifacts with it in the last round. It makes me wonder if I am playing the game correctly because these seem to be glaring issues.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

I've won the game with low military, you have to pick your battles though. And there are plenty of artifacts that boost your military up significantly if you are behind. And you always have your big worker that doesn't care about military. I'm not aware of the discount artifact, I know there are ones that discount a specific type by one but not on all of them from memory.

[@DreadSkavos]

@@TheBrokenMeeple Interesting you were able to win. "picking your battles" is an interesting choice of words, as having the lowest military prevents you from doing so. The player started last in turn order and also had the lowest military to begin with. I think that is what crippled him - he had almost nowhere to play on the board from the beginning , except for his big worker. This limited his resource acquisition and he was vulnerable to raids later in the game as well. He had few opportunities to increase his military and couldn't catch up to the other players (including the neutral player). His score was 47 - less than a third of the winning score. I will have to give the game another go, but military seems crucial - being last forces you to play into the future which penalises you twice: 1. It reduces the number of workers you get next turn, and ... 2. It reduces the number of spaces you can place your workers next turn as you already occupy some spaces, forcing you to play in the future again. It is a vicious cycle. I am interested in a strategy that ignores the military track, as it necessarily involves gathering the fewest resources throughout the game.

[@stevenamamoto585]

Thanks, Luke, this one hasn't been on my radar. I'll be on the lookout for an opportunity to play it.

[@bushibayushi]

Played it yesterday with 3 players and what a generic resource conversion grind this was... It takes an hour to explain, takes 2 hours to play and all it is is advance some tracks, grab resources, convert them and buy stuff that gives you VPs. If you played two or three games by those italian designers you've seen it all. I thought Reavers of Midgard was "okay-ish" at best, but it's way more fun than this.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

Ewww Reavers had nothing unique in its body.

[@bushibayushi]

​@@TheBrokenMeeple Reavers is generic as well, but it had some fun in it (it's probably a 6-7/10 for me). I really can't see the fun in Terramara - "collect, collect, collect ---> spend for VPs". And ocassionally your stuff gets stolen. ;) This is the very definition of the worst kind of modern euro game - advancing on tracks and conversing resources for 2 hours. If this game lasted an hour, it would be fine I guess. But 2 hours of this? Please ;). You could explain Vinhos or Gallerist in the same amount of time, and I think those are miles better. I don't know, I'm probably a little too sour on this game, but it gets high praise from you and I really don't get why - there've been tons of games like this in the past. ;)

[@akalkendi]

I played it 3-4 times 3p. Really loved it and oh God I hate it when I'm aiming for a card and it gets snatched 😆 I'm hoping they'd make a solo variant for it, they said they're working on it. I also hope for expansions 😁

[@daviddigby6978]

Tried so hard to like this but sold it (at a loss). Superb art, great design ideas, nice twist on WP, plenty of replayabillity, well produced. But... it should only be played at 4 players with the advanced rules. 2 player is terrible. Overall I just found it too frustrating too often, perhaps it’s just too tight for my taste. It’s a good game, I just didn’t enjoy it so it doesn’t keep a place in my collection they’ll always be half a dozen games I’ll play before it. Each to their own!

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

That's a shame but I'll admit it's better with 3 and best at 4. And that's the count I tend to play most games anyway.

[@Puzzu]

This looks cool, too bad it’s not available in the US! :(

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

That sucks, maybe in the future it will release there.

[@J-Wheeler-G]

I am very excited for this game. I find interesting that you would rather play at 4 which you almost never do. I also love the art except for some of the kids side of the characters that look a little creepy.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

Yeah one of those few occasions where 4 is probably the best way to play. But frankly all counts work.