Terramara, Preview 5

Today’s preview shows the Characters in Terramara! In each game, you’ll choose a Character who assists you in a certain way in that specific game. This makes up for a variety of strategies from game to game.

Each Character card shows a young man or woman, who provides bonuses during the game. These bonuses are sometimes conditional, like gaining 1 additional step on the Road when gaining one or more steps. Or they alter some basic rules for you, like not having to lose Military. (Normally you do lose Military when placing an Explorer next to another players’ Explorer or when executing a Raid). Some of the other Characters provide you with either a personal supply of Bonus Tiles or an additional Explorer to send out. The 7 Characters in Terramara, as well as the First Player card, are shown below.

But that is not all there is to these Characters. The back side of each card shows the same man or woman grown-up, who now provides a way to score Victory Points. The front and back side of a card clearly cannot be active at the same time. Instead, you decide when your Character grows-up! This is of course irreversible, and therefore each player can do this once per game. The back sides of all Character cards, as well as of the First Player card, are shown below.

The First Player cards’ back side is used in the final round, since then becoming first player would not be really useful anymore after all. Instead, taking the First Player card in the final round awards you with either 2 Travel, 2 Military or 2 Culture.

We think Michael Menzel did again a wonderful job illustrating these Character cards. There is a clear thematic tie between the illustration and the function of a Character. ‘Seeing your Character grow up’ really adds to the game experience. If you like these cards as much as we do, don’t forget to give a thumbs up for these images on BoardGameGeek 😀 (follow the links by clicking on the pictures).