Maps of Misterra: Review

Maps of Misterra: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Area Majority, Exploration, Open Drafting, Territory Building
Player Age: 10+
Player Count: 1 - 4 Players
Time to Play: 45 - 60 Minutes
Game Designer: Mathieu Bossu, Thomas Cariate, Timothée Decroix
Game Artists: Stanislas Puech
Publisher: Sit Down!
Year Published: 2023
BGG Complexity: 2.11
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Introduction:

A new island has been discovered and Misterra explorers from near and far are coming to chart this new island. One of those expedition teams happens to be yours. As you dive deeper you find you are faced with a quandary; do you fill your parchment paper to meet the island exactly or do you stretch the truth a tad to meet the often extravagant presumption of your sponsor? 

Maps of Misterra is a tile placement game where you are scoring for two boards; the shared island board and the less restrictive individual parchment board. Whenever two discoveries of the same terrain type happen in a row, that terrain on the island board is no longer hazy and becomes locked in that space. For every identical location between the parchment and island board you will score 2 points at the end of the game. You may score better points through your presumptions cards so you’ll want to be mindful on how you structure both boards.

Game Anatomy:

Game Boards:

There are two boards; the island board and the individual parchment board. The island board is shared between all players and will have everyone venturing on the terrain to claim connected regions. 

The parchment board has sketch tiles played that will firstly change the state of the terrains on the island board and also will score presumption cards based on the patterns that players create.

Terrains:

There are four terrains in the game; Steppe, Lagoon, Jungle, and Mountain. Each terrain starts on the hazy side when first mapped, meaning that they can be changed through your changed mapping or someone else's mapping.

Once the terrain is mapped twice in a row in the exact same location it flips to the confirmed non-hazy side. For each terrain type, if you are standing on it at the start of your turn there is a special (mostly optional) ability. 

The Steppe allows you extra movement, the Lagoon allows you to discard a sketch card before selecting one, the jungle is mandatory and doesn't allow you to map while you are there, and the Mountain allows you one space in every orthogonal direction when mapping.

Sketch Cards:

Each sketch card has one or two terrain types on it. These will be played during the mapping phase on your parchment board.

They can be played on blank locations or can overlap one or two already existing terrains. A sketch card has to have one part played either where your character is on the island map or the four orthogonal adjacent locations they can see.

If on the Mountain terrain, this range will be boosted. When mapping these sketch cards, two hazy terrain tiles will be populated on the island board matching the location of the sketch card on the individual parchment board, if this is the second time in a row of this terrain type the hazy terrain will change to confirmed. If there is confirmed terrain already in that location you will not change the terrain on the island board.

Presumption Cards:

For every game, each player will have two presumption cards and this is how they will score their parchment board at the end of the game. There are two types of scoring possibilities; one that you can score only once, and one that you can score as many times as it is met. These presumptions can give points based on patterns, certain rows and columns, largest/smallest terrain, and connected terrain regions.

Setup:

Shared Setup:

- Place the island board in the centre of the table.

- According to the player count, add one to three confirmed jungle tiles onto the island (As shown in the image below).

- Create a stack of each terrain tile type (hazy side up) next to the island.

- Shuffle and deal each player four presumption cards. Each player will select two and discard the rest.

- Based on your player count, remove the sketch cards with higher numbers back into the box. Then shuffle the remaining sketch cards and reveal a display of five cards. 

Player Setup:

- Give each player their character card, parchment board, cartographer meeple and three claim markers matching their colour.

How to Play:

Each player's turn is separated into two half days (a day). On a half day you will move, choose a sketch card, then map or claim. So because a turn is a day, this series of events will happen twice per turn.

Move (optional):

For the first movement of the game there is a mandatory move of placing your cartographer on one of the beach locations surrounding the island. After this the movement phase is optional. You can move onto an adjacent beach location or any orthogonal adjacent location with a terrain tile. If you step onto steppe terrain remember that you can move an additional time. 

Choose Sketch Card (mandatory):

Select one of the five sketch cards available in the display.

Map (optional):

Using this new sketch card you can place it on your parchment board with at least one of the sides being on a following legal location. These are; the sketch card can go on an empty location, partially cover or fully cover another sketch card. The legal locations are based on where your cartographer is on the island board, so the card can be placed  where your cartographer is or on any space orthogonally adjacent to them. This range can be increased if you are standing on the mountain terrain. 

When a sketch card is played, those two locations will now change to a hazy terrain of that type on the island board. If there is already a hazy terrain of that same type, the terrain will be fully discovered and flip to the confirmed side. If there is already a confirmed terrain there, nothing will occur on the island for that new mapping. 

Claim (optional):

Players will score points for their claimed regions. A region is built up of orthogonally connected terrains of the same type with at least one tile confirmed.

To claim:

- Discard the sketch card out of the game.

- Place one of your claim tokens where your cartographer is as long as:

     -The terrain your cartographer is on is confirmed.

     - It is a different terrain region than what you have already claimed 

     - Someone else hasn't claimed this region

     - You haven't already claimed three regions.

By connecting an enemy's claimed region of the same type later in the game you can remove their points for that claimed region by sacrificing your own points.

Ending the Game:

There are three possible ways the game can end; if all the terrains in the island board are confirmed, there are no sketch cards available in the display or deck, if one player has covered all the spaces on their parchment board then every other player will get one more turn.

When the game ends, remove all the hazy terrain and claiming tokens that had their region connected to another players claim token.

Scoring:

For the final scoring you will gain the following:

- Points equal to any matched presumption cards.

- Negative one point for each empty space on your parchment board.

- Two points for every terrain that is on your parchment board and confirmed on the island board.

- Two points per tile composing the regions you have claimed.

Final Thoughts:

- Unique double board scoring goals.
- Interesting area control of terrain on the island.
- Good range of challenging presumption cards.
- Easy to learn but challenging to teach the first time.

Maps of Misterra is a very interesting combination of exploration, area control and polyomino gameplay. The most interesting part of the game comes from trying to manage both the shared board and the personal board. On the shared board players are fighting to control large regions of the same terrain and also make it match their parchment board. In the individual board, however, players are trying to work a polyomino puzzle to optimise the most points out of the presumption cards. To be the most effective and gain the most points you need to find a good balance of prioritising both. This is a unique game and that is why it is hard to teach at first but once understood it offers a very engaging puzzle. If this already sounds good to you, I recommend finding this gem.

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