Hello, this is a video review of Gaia
Project a two to four player game by Jens
Drögemüller and Helge Ostertag.
It's a spinoff of the highly acclaimed
Terra Mystica but instead of a fantasy
realm it's set in the depths of space. As
a representative of one of the fourteen
available spacefaring races each player
builds up their space empire in the
course of six rounds. Gaia Project shares
many of its core mechanisms with Terra
Mystica however it's by no means a mere
spin-off but rather game in its own
right with a number of new and
innovative improvements. Gaia project is to
Terra Mystica something like Caverna is
to Agricola so instead of sticking a
space helmet onto a priest's head mainly
because in space no one can hear you WOLOLO!
The authors does a very thorough job of
reworking the game and creating an even
tighter and smoother experience but
first a disclaimer all the components
shown in this review are of PROTOTYPE
quality or have been cannibalized from
other board games and do not represent
the final production components so don't
get your knickers in a twist. The play
area consists of four parts: The scoring
board which shows the six randomly
selected round scoring tiles for example
two victory points for each colony built
this round, the two randomly selected
final scoring tiles for example who has
the most buildings on Gaias, two
counting tracks showing each player's
progress in the final scoring categories
the familiar terraforming cycle of
planets similar to the one in Terra
Mystica,
and finally the various final scoring
reminders. The modular map consists of
ten hexagonal space sector tiles or
seven for two-player games which can be
placed and rotated anywhere you wish. The
development board, one of the most
interesting segments of the game where
you have: the scoring track, six research
areas or tracks, from left to right
Terraforming, Navigation, Artificial
Intelligence, Gaia Project, Economy and
Science with five steps in each,
representing different stages of
research. By the way only one
player can reach step 5 in each track. Nine
randomly distributed standard technology
tiles and six randomly selected advanced
technology tiles. And at the bottom we
have miscellaneous power and Q.I.C. actions, which I shall discuss at a later time.
The faction boards, one for each player,
which contain your as yet on constructed
buildings in three different tiers, 1 2 &
3-power value buildings. As you can see I
used the wooden pieces from Terra Mystica here to represent these buildings, but
Gaia project will have plastic ones. They
can currently be seen on BoardGameGeek.
At one power we have the basic buildings -
colonies, Terra Mystica dwellings. When
you settle a new planets, you can only
construct a colony on it. All other
buildings are constructed by upgrading
some of your existing buildings. Colonies
bring you an income of ore, represented
by white cubes on an open hand, one of
the resources in Gaia Project, equivalent
to workers in Terra Mystica. Dwellings
can be upgraded into two-power buildings
called trade centers, Terra Mystica
trading houses. They bring you an income
of credits represented by yellow disks
on an open hand, equivalent to coins in
Terra Mystica, and can be further
upgraded into research labs or the
government building. The government
building is a three power building the
equivalent of the Terra Mystica
stronghold and it gives you an income of
power tokens represented by purple disks,
the same as in Terra Mystica,
and unlocks your faction's special
ability in addition to those that you
have by default. Government buildings
cannot be upgraded any further. About the
two different power symbols shown here:
There are two types of power income in
Gaia Project cycling represented by a
clockwise-pointing arrow above the
purple disk and gaining new power tokens,
represented by the Roman numeral one
above the disk. Research labs are two-
power buildings, equivalent to Terra
Mystica temples. In addition to bringing
you an income of knowledge, represented
by blue octagons, a new resource in Gaia
Project with no Terra Mystica equivalent, they also grant you a
one-time bonus of a technology tile. When
selected, a standard technology tile from
the upper-row allows you to advance
immediately on the research track above
the tile by one step. You cannot select
the same tile twice. A lower-row standard
technology allows you to advance on any
research track by one step. There are
also advanced technology tiles and
they're incredibly difficult to get. You
need: 1) to gain a technology tile, 2)
to be either on step four or five of a
research track, 3) to flip over an
unused alliance tile and, ... wait for it!
4) to place the newly-acquired
advanced technology tile on top of a
standard technology tile already in your
possession, thus losing all of the
standard technology tile's ongoing
benefits (one time bonuses are not lost).
That's complicated! All technology tiles
grant you additional benefits such as:
income indicated by the open hand symbol,
actions indicated by an orange octagon, a
one-time bonus of resources or points,
indicated by the white star, a permanent
bonus, for example turning 3-power
buildings into 4-power ones, bonus
points for placing buildings or having
buildings of a certain type already on
the board after passing. Research labs
can be upgraded into an academy a three-
power building equivalent to the Terra
Mystica sanctuary. The academy also
grants you a technology tile.
*This is a mistake: you can actually build both academies by upgrading research labs.*
*This is a mistake: you can actually build both academies by upgrading research labs.*
The left one usually brings you an income of 2 knowledge but the right one unlocks an
action that gives you a mysterious and
powerful new resource called a Q.I.C.,
represented by these high-tech
looking green cubes, which stands for
Quantum Intelligence Cube, but we just
call it quickie for short! Above the
buildings you can find the power cycle,
which consists of three main power cycle
areas bearing the Roman numerals I, II and  III and the separate Gaia area,
which is one of the new features in
Gaia Project and which will be
explained at a later time. On the top of
each faction board you have your
resource track. Instead of having
physical resource tokens, you simply
slide your all knowledge and credit
markers up and down your resource track
you can have up to 15 ore and knowledge
but up to 30 credits, hence the two yellow
markers. On the right you have the
faction bonuses which can be unique
abilities or simply a head start on one
of the research tracks the Bal' Tak, for
example, start at step one of the Gaia
Project research track and may place
each of their gaiaformer units, represented by Terra Mystica priests
here into the Gaia power area once each
round to gain one quickie, but may NOT
advance on the navigation science track
until they have constructed their
government building. The three spaces for
up to three gaiaforming units gained
upon reaching steps one, three and four
on the Gaia Project research track. Below
that is a graphical representation of the
conversions you can perform at any time
during your turn and which don't count
as a turn, for example one ore into one
credit or four power into one knowledge
or one quickie or using up one quickie
for a one-time +2 range boost.
Finally each faction board shows the
color of your home planet and the
graphical representation of your species,
i.e. a picture of your ugly, *ahem!* uniquely
beautiful mug and the terraforming costs
for your race depending on the color of
planet being terraformed. When the play
area has been set up, gameplay can begin.
Players decide on the starting player,
select their factions and take turns in
placing two colonies on their home color
planets, the first one in player order
and the second one in reverse player
order. Two notable exceptions to this are
Der Schwarm or The Hive, which starts with
their government building but no
colonies and the Xenos, who start with
three colonies. After that the players
select their round booster tiles in
reverse order. These grant players
additional income, actions, and all
scoring bonuses. The game then proceeds
in six rounds and ends in the final
scoring.
Each round begins with the income phase
when players gain resources depicted on
top of open hand symbols printed and/or
revealed on their faction boards from
Bruce to tiles technology tiles and
certain research tracks
the second phase is the gaia phase
during this phase power tokens allocated
to guy forming are returned for the
first area in the player's power cycle
except for the Terrans moon returns
aspire to the second area and another
thing that happens is that purple
transdimensional planets which have a
gaia form a unit placed on them in the
previous round turn into gaia planets
the third phase is the action phase
where players take turns playing actions
until all of them have passed each
action involves spending resources or
taking once per turn actions so players
can take only so many of them before
passing
the first action is founding a colony
this involves finding a suitable planet
within the players range each player
starts out with a range of only one hex
which can be improved by upgrading the
navigation technology track by spending
quickies to temporarily boost the
players range by +2 or by using an
action or a certain round booster tile
then if the planet is not of the players
own color it needs to be made habitable
through the process of terraforming or
Gaia forming and finally the player then
spends one or and two credits to place a
colony on the newly habitable planet
gyres are habitable to all races but
require one quickie to colonize unless
it is a Gaia of the players own making
terraforming mostly involves spending
300 for each required terraforming step
which can be reduced by upgrading the
terraforming technology other ways
include power actions which grant
players a certain number of terraforming
steps or using the action on a
particular round booster tile once
placed on the board the colony will
provide an income of one or except the
third colleague from left which provides
all the main difference between
terraforming and gaia project and Terra
Mystica
is that you may not partially terraform
any planners nor can you transform any
planet and leave it uncolonized nor do
you in fact change its color you merely
plop a colony on the planet in fact
there are certain actions final scoring
tools and technologies and branching
points or resources depending on how
many different colored tiles you have
buildings on
the second action is Gaia forming
transdimensional verbal planets in order
to perform this action you need to have
unlocked at least the first step of the
Gaia project research track this grants
you a Gaia former unit represented by a
Terra Mystica priest here to guy form a
transdimensional planet within your
range you need to move a certain number
of particles from areas one two or three
ideally one to the Gaia area on the left
then place a Gaia former unit onto the
transdimensional planet and wait until
the Gaia phase of the next turn will
transformation to take place and to
regain your power points on skya form
such a guy is reserved for you and you
alone and you don't even need to pay the
usual cost of one quickie to colonize it
as long as you keep your guy former unit
on the Gaia
once you have colonized this Gaia you
regain the guy former unit and can use
it again
the third action allows you to upgrade
existing buildings using this diagram by
paying the cost depicted next to that
building for example a colony may be
upgraded into a trade center by paying
two or and three or six credits the
lower price applies that there is an
opponent building in a radius of two
hexes in Terra Mystica this was only
limited to Jason Texas but this is space
after all and very few planets are
adjacent to one another and if you have
no such neighbors you need to pay the
higher cost another thing I need to
mention is that whenever you found a
colony or upgrade the building all
opponents who have their own buildings
in this 2x radius may receive power
equal to the power rating of their
highest power building within this area
Vince's antara Mystikal you receive
power for all of Jason buildings not
just the highest value one and only for
adjacent X's this power comes at a cost
however a player may accept or decline
this bar if he or she accepts the player
must lose one victory point less than
the power he or she gate for example one
Parris three with gaining three power
costs you two victory points this leads
us to the cycle of power those who have
played Terra Mystica will be familiar
with this mechanism there are three main
power areas one two and three and the
Gaia area which is not involved in the
main cycle each time a player gains
power either through income actions or
other player's actions he or she moves
that many particles first from area one
to area two and if no part opens remain
in area one from area two to area three
only power in area three may be spent
and this is done by rotating the
required number of part opens back into
area one and thus the power cycle is
complete there is also the option of
burning power a player may sacrifice any
number of particles from area two to
move the same number of particles from
area two to area three the sacrifice
power is lost for good
in Terra Mystica this meant you have to
be very careful about burning power but
in Gaia project you may actually
replenish your part open supply in a
variety of ways
the fourth action is forging an alliance
which is analogous to farm in a city in
Terra Mystica a group of buildings with
a turtle power value of seven or more
can be joined into the Alliance through
this action in Terra Mystica this
required a minimum of four separate
buildings three with a sanctuary
but in Gaia projects there's no such
limit and in Terra Mystica this was
automatic once this threshold was
crossed but in Gaia project forging
alliances a separate action once a
player forges an alliance here she
connects the buildings within the
Alliance by placing satellites on the
empty spaces connecting these buildings
the satellites need to connect the
buildings into continuous whole and this
must be done using the shortest route
and the minimum necessary number of
satellites for each satellite placed in
this way the player needs to sacrifice a
Power token if the player is unable to
do so the Alliance cannot be forged
once the alliance is forged the player
places an alliance record tile on or
next to one of the buildings and takes
an alliance tile Alliance tiles are very
powerful as they give players victory
points in most cases some resources as
well once gained all Alliance tiles
apart from the 12 victory point one can
be flipped over to their use side to
allow a player to reach top position on
a single research track or to gain an
advanced technology since only one
player can occupy the top position of
any single research track and since
getting there conveys significant
bonuses as well as victory points in the
final scoring this is an incredibly
powerful benefit that you gain
the fifth action is the research action
by paying for knowledge
a player may advance by one step in any
research area this may result in
improved abilities such as cheaper Tarot
Gaia forming or a greater range a
one-time resource bonus indicated by the
twinkling star or increased income per
round indicated by the open hand symbol
also as I have mentioned earlier if a
player manages to reach the exclusive
top level of a research track there are
significant bonuses to be had upon
reaching the top of the terraforming
track for example the player gains an
alliance style which was randomly
selected during setup with all its
benefits the top of the navigation track
conveys a stunning range of four hexes
and the mysterious black planet which
counts as a colony on a uniquely colored
planet etc the six action is actually a
blanket turn for all the special actions
provided by unique faction abilities
round booster tiles and power and
quickie actions sounds dirty but it
isn't really the faction and round
booster actions can be used once per
round and do not cost resources the
power actions require the player to
spend a certain number of particles from
area three to area one and gain the
resources depicted the quickie actions
require the player to spend a certain
number of quickie tokens and gain the
benefit for example for quickies to gain
a technology tile 3 to gain the victory
point and resource bonuses of an
alliance token already in the player's
possession and two quickies to gain
three victory points plus one point for
each different color of planet on which
a player has at least one building gyres
and a black planet counter separate
colors all these actions can be taken
only once per round and once taken by a
player cannot be taken by anyone else
until the next round
this is marred by placing an action
token on the action space the seventh
and final action is passing players who
pass returned their round booster tile
gain points if the tile was such that it
routed points say for each colony that a
player has on the board and select a new
round booster tile for the next round
except in the last round then they
placed a newly selected booster tile
facedown to
other players know that they have past
and play proceeds until all players have
passed then the old round scoring tile
is turned face down and the new round
can begin the player who passed first
becomes the first player for the next
round if players wish they can agree on
a variable turn order mainly the order
in which they passed or play can proceed
in clockwise order from the new starting
player
after six rounds the players proceed
with the final scoring each step on
every single research track above step
to Kansas for victory points the to
final scoring tiles are scored the
player who had the most of what's
required by scoring tile say buildings
on Gaia's gains 18 victory points second
one 12 and the third one gained six this
is repeated for the second final scoring
time finally players gain points for
their remaining resources every set of
three remaining resources of any kind
counts as one victory point so if you
have won all three credits to knowledge
and one quickie left that's total of
seven which divided by three and rounded
down gives two victory points when there
of course is the player with the highest
number of victory points
I hope this description gave you at
least a little bit of insight into what
Gaea project is like however says
describing the individual mechanisms
does not really tell you what the game
feels like I'm going to try to convey my
impressions of the game after about 22
plays and made the inevitable comparison
with Terra Mystica the game is a heavy
euro which shares many mechanisms with
its predecessor Terra Mystica
and yet it is a different game for one
it feels slightly heavier than Terra
Mystica
but this does not come at the cost of
clunkiness in fact the mechanisms seem
to interlock much more seamlessly in
Gaia project the research track is much
better integrated into the game than the
cult racketeer Mystica was each
different track brings tangibly
different benefits which are in keeping
with the theme of the track the science
and economy tracks boost your income of
knowledge and all / credits / par
respectively the navigation and
terraforming tracks improve your
abilities in these areas etc the points
gained from these tracks also make more
sense to me in Gaea project to gain full
victory points for each step above step
2 on each research track rather than
points for being 1st 2nd and 3rd
like in Terra Mystica another
improvement in my opinion is the
what one it's modular so you can combine
it in any way you wish also it's not so
easy to become boxed in
as in Terra Mystica as your range of
effectiveness is much longer though you
still benefit from building closer
together as it's cheaper to forge an
alliance that way
a further plus is the maker area of
infecting power game from an opponent's
building and affecting the cost of
upgrading to a trade center in Gard
project this neighboring areas up to two
hexes away rather than just being
directly adjacent like in Terra Mystica
this provides a much more dynamic
interaction between the players then
there is the ability to replenish our
tokens which in here Mistico were
irretrievably lost once sacrificed or
burned
finally in guide project there are two
randomly chosen final scoring tiles
which can bring a significant boost to
your points so ignore them at your peril
the fundamentally different nature of
these tiles makes the scoring conditions
very different so you have to take this
into consideration as well where when
planning your strategy also in two
player games the developers have
introduced a very clever mechanism
namely that of the neutral player in the
lower right corner of each final scoring
tile there is a number and the neutral
players considered to have achieved that
many of the conditions depicted on the
tile for example the number of guys
settled this means that in a two-player
game players don't automatically gain
first or even the second place in the
final scoring all this and the fact that
the technology tiles also randomized
provides an incredibly varied and yet
very tight and smooth playing experience
so the big question on everyone's minds
is is guide project better than Terra
basica well I can only give you my
personal opinion based on over 150 games
of Terra Mystica and 22 games of guide
project and it is a definite yes guide
project possesses all the goodness are
we already amazing Fairy Mystica and
improves of many of its aspects I'm
definitely buying the copy regardless of
the fact that I already own the Terra
Mystica and I'm not a game
I only have about 30 or so games the
other question is is the game balanced
in all honesty guard project is an
asymmetrical game at heart and no
asymmetrical game is absolutely a fully
balanced but having participated in the
beta testing I can tell you that the
developers have put in some serious
effort in balancing out the factions as
well as the player board so I don't
think we'll see a repeat scenario for
Kiyo's versus darklings here if there is
one thing I'm not fully happy about in
Gaea project that would be the advanced
technology tiles they're very
complicated difficult and expensive to
get and in my opinion only the ones
bringing you a one time bonus of points
or resources are really worth it and the
set-up time is so much longer than in
Terra Mystica 2 - the number of
components well that's it for me I'm
certain I haven't covered all the
aspects of this wonderful game but it's
my first video review and the game is
quite complex
so there are bound to be some additions
and mistakes I wish you all the best and
lots of satisfying board gaming sessions
