space the final frontier these are the
voyages of the terran faction their 6
year mission to explore strange new
worlds to terraform new planets and
create new Federation's. To become the greatest faction among the stars.
*Sean wah-wahing the Star Trek theme*
Aww... Sean! What?
OH! Hi, I'm Sean I am Diana and we are TL DR
game series Quick Looks
today we'll be taking a look at Gaia
project from the creators of Terra
Mystica and published by Z Man games.
Gaia Project is a 1 to 4 player civilization,
engine building, and resource management
game played over the course of six
rounds. Each player will choose from one
of the 14 different factions and must
terraform planets in competition with
the other races to become the greatest
civilization.
Players advance on the research track to customize gameplay and builder upgrade structures to increase
the income or resources they gain at the
beginning of a round.
Players will continue taking actions until they pass their turn.
Once they pass, they pick a new player
booster and then calculate any victory
points gained in that round. At the end
of the sixth round, they calculate all
victory points and the player with the
most wins.
Yeah, and there are a plethora of ways to get victory points in this game.
There the player boosts that you
mentioned, there are the round bonuses
and in fact I'm not even going to take a
chance of missing any of missing any
So lets see, there are the standard and advanced tech tiles, the research tree which has six
different research options, federations
which you can create more than one of
the special actions, the QIC and the
power action spaces, and of course the
endgame conditions and some of these you can do multiple times in each round.
But, I think that's enough about the overview of the game. Dianna, what do you like about this game?
I really like the variability.
There's just a huge amount of diversity
in this game. Not only do you get 14
asymmetrical factions to choose from but
you randomized everything from the start.
From the flexibility of the map tile
placement in the beginning to things
like round goals, endgame conditions, and
player boosters. There's just so much
variety in the characters and special
abilities that you keep wanting to play
over and over so you experience each one.
This game is highly interactive. Each
action you take on the game board could
in one way or another affect your
opponents.
It's important that you are constantly
adapting to your opponents and your
surrounds. It may seem intuitive to carve
out your own little corner of the map
but the game actually incentivizes
building closer to your opponents. If
someone builds or upgrades close to you
then you get to charge power for free
and if you upgrade in mind to a trading
post near an opponent then the resource
cost is reduced.
Which brings up another point I really like about this game and that's the rubber band effect that keeps
players constantly in the game but more
importantly prevents a runaway winner situation.
Specifically, the first player
token is taken by the first player to
pass their turn so essentially if you
have to cut your plan short one round
the next round you gain an advantage by
being first. The other mechanic that
really helps this effect is the passive
power that Sean mentioned earlier.
Another great thing about Gaia project
is the two-player variant. The map size
is decreased, which promotes a higher
degree of player interaction.
It also uses a dummy player on the endgame scoring track so achieving maximum
endgame points is a real challenge.
One of the biggest draws to this game is that the actions are quick and meaningful so play moves at an enjoyable
pace and keeps me engaged. Micro actions are a great attribute to this game since the action variability is so vast.
From an artistic standpoint, I really enjoy that every faction has unique artwork that really fits each
races style of play. It's also pretty easy to become completely immersed in the race that you're playing
Ah! There we go.
*Chewbacca Roar from Dianna*
Let the wookie win.
and you might actually find
yourself portraying.
*Laughing*
So Sean, what didn't you like about the game? Obvious or substantial?
Well obviously you had an issue with the insert.
What insert?
Anyway, in our opinion this is not a great game for beginners. Let me preface by saying if you've played Terra
Mystica you're gonna pick up on the
concept very quickly, but for new players
there's quite a lot of iconography to
learn and it's gonna feel very overwhelming.
I've had some issues with
the rule book
as well and some of the rules are a
little bit convoluted like gaiaforming a
transdim planet and the Ivets space
station. We had to reference the rulebook
a number of times for those two things
and we'll probably have to reference it
for different things on the playthroughs
in the future.
As much as I love all the variety this game has, I really do wish there was an option for a more
symmetrical gameplay. This would make the game more accessible to less experienced
players but it would also make the game
a little bit easier to learn and to teach.
The last thing that I don't like about
Gaia Project is something that I spent
hours... no days contemplating.
I wanted everything to be perfect so I had it all
planned out and then Dianna said
something and I knew I was gonna have to
change what I was gonna say and at this
point I just have to make a decision or
she's gonna kill me... but I can't!
I'm stuck in this cycle of analysis
paralysis.
Well... while you decide I think
it's time we go ahead and rate. Are you
ready to make a decision?
I'll just pass my turn.
No, no... would you recommend Gaia
Project?
Oh, I would. What about you?
Yeah, I definitely would
Would you play
it again?
I would play it again. I still have 10 factions to try.
Me too. Would you buy it?
I would definitely buy it.
Yeah, I think it's worth it.
Well alright! Thank you for joining us here at TLDR Game Series Quick Looks we hope you enjoyed the video.
Make sure to check out our other videos and podcast and we'll see you next time.
Bye!
