Maps of Misterra solo rules (Essen preview #1)
One book to rule them all: week August 14 - August 20
Maps of Misterra tasks you with chartering an unknown island. However it’s not guaranteed you’ll tell the truth. Tiwanaku had a very interesting puzzly solo mode and this one follows suit with equally interesting solo mode.
Summed up
Your efforts are spoiled by an AI named Otoma. Your goal is to score the most points. At the end of the rules they give you four tables to compare to, each dealing with different scoring (and one of those is influenced by the AI, their points are subtracted from yours).
Otoma is governed by a deck of twenty-two cards, one side is used to indicate where they act, the other side depicts what they do. Three of those are claim cards that are seeded into three equally spaced parts in the deck and shuffled (similar to Pandemic epidemics). Otoma doesn’t use a board or any other component, they’re there just to block your progress and thus simulate interaction. Their main goal is to confirm tiles and claim terrains, which can result in negative points for you.
You get points for fulfilling two presumption cards (goals) you receive before the game starts, filling up your board fully, being in sync with the main island map and claiming territories. You lose points for differing from the main board and having unfilled spaces on your map.
On your turn you do three actions:
Move (optional) - orthogonally on a beach tile or terrain tile (can’t land on empty space), each terrain type has ability you can use
Choose sketch tile (mandatory) - a “domino-like” tile with two terrains depicted
Map or Claim (optional)
Map - place a sketch tile on your board and update the main board accordingly (your meeple has to be orthogonally adjacent to at least half the tile), can cover already placed tiles, affects main board based on placement:
Empty space - place hazy tile on main board
Hazy tile - if it matches your placement, flip it to confirmed tile; otherwise replace with hazy tile matching your board
Confirmed tile - nothing happens
Claim - discard sketch card; place one of three claim markers on your meeple’s place (has to be on confirmed space)
Cannot claim already claimed region
Each claim marker of yours has to be on a different terrain type
Discard sketch tile
Game ends on Otoma’s turn if you fill your board fully or the main map contains only confirmed tiles or the AI deck runs out.
My thoughts are revealed
Rulebook
Very well laid out, similar style to Tiwanaku with many examples. The solo mode is explained at the end and requires knowledge of the multiplayer rules.
Overall
Not a crowdfunding game this week, but one that’s upcoming nonetheless. I was very surprised by the solo mode, it fits my tastes perfectly. The AI is only serving blocking purposes and I really love that there are multiple scoring tables to compare to even though there’s no real threshold to “win”. I will be closely watching its release.
Maps of Misterra is scheduled to release at Essen 2023 and is available to play on BGA. Images source: game page on BGG.