How to Play Terra Mystica

Terra Mystica is a luck-free board game with a devoted player base that requires a decent upfront learning investment, and i've got your back! Watch this video before your first game, and you'll be ready to dive in and play the game. Use these links to skip ahead:

0:00 Introduction
3:12 Playing a Round
15:09 Round End
16:48 Extra Things
19:21 Towns
20:31 Favour Tokens
21:48 Endgame and Scoring
23:36 Factions
29:01 Setup

Here's a BGG link to the tables i mentioned that change factions' starting scores:

Like what you see? Join my merry band of backers on Patreon:

Buy your own copy of Terra Mystica using the link below, and we'll receive a small commission:

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Email Ryan: nightsaroundatable [at] gmail (dot) com

Special thanks to my patron DMExplains and to the devoted Terra Mystica players on BoardGameGeek who looked over my script!

[Davidesonar]

This video literally has it all. Subtle humour that's never destracting from the explanation, awesome helpful animations, all components of playing the game are very clearly depicted and the build up of explaining is done in a way where it's easy to grasp. This is such a good video i'm really impressed. It's exactly what i want in a boardgame explain video. Please never stop making videos and make more like this. I might be getting too excited over a boardgame tutorial video but fuck it, you've earned it. I hope you gain a lot more subscribers. I'm already recommending you to friends if they ask for suggestions.

[AleVarx]

I've seen a lot of tutorials for Terra Mystica but this one is a truly masterpiece. You've earned a subscriber.

[musicbykurt]

I worked as a full-time, professional board game teacher for three years -- this is a fantastic, A+ achievement in teaching Terra Mystica. It's damn near perfect, if a little exhaustive! You really deserve to be proud of this one. Thank you for your hard work.

[osirisgolad]

Thank you Ryan, the game deserves a video of this quality. The order in which you presented things was well chosen and the teaching time for the base rules is impressively short. Excellent attention to detail as well. I only realised I didn't know some of the smaller rules until I had to teach three completely green players two weeks ago(if only I had had this video then) and I was writing up a short teaching summary while skimming the rule book to make sure I wouldn't forget anything, and I've been playing the game for about a year now. I had no idea you could split up cult spades over multiple hexes, ditto for bonus action spades if you have any leftovers, didn't know you could return a priest from your board to your pool to move up one step on a cult track, etcetera.

The only thing I think you missed was the 10-town limit, which until two weeks ago I thought would never be relevant anyway. Turns out it's not that unlikely in a 5-player game after all.

[petetete]

Terra Mystica is the hardest game I have ever tried to learn. I have still never won, but I wish I had watched this video before our first attempt. It was an utter disaster, 5 guys who had never played before spent 4 hours arguing over how to implement the rules. Setup alone took almost an hour. We didn't even finish it, we abandoned it 3/4 of the way through and it took months before it was back on the table. If you have never played this game before, this video should be mandatory viewing. On top of that, I would strongly recommend you only attempt the game if you have at least 1 person in your group who has played multiple times before, otherwise you may never end up appreciating it. It's a very good economic strategy game, but it takes half a dozen or more plays to get your head around it. The video is great, well done.

[tomyarden]

Hey man, just wanted to tell you that I like the way you made this explanation. You put efforts to the editing and it's light, friendly and really helped me pay attention and learn it with fun. And it's organized which makes it so helpful, especially for such a complicated game. Thank you

[tuckerroveto]

Was looking for a refresher for teaching a new player and watched this! Just an awesome video!! Thank you!! I’ll just send the link, job done!

[Andrash]

Fantastic video. The animations highlighting the relevant areas of the playing board being discussed are sooo helpful. Very well done!

[tacoseven]

Wonderful instructional video. No fluff, just a super tight script and great post editing. A masterpiece in the tutorial field!

[Kowzorz]

I love that the setup is at the end! Nothing is worse than slogging through a setup for a board when I just wanna see the play action and concept, but it's still integral to these videos. Plus it gives context for all the pieces that go on the board so is well received on the learning end.

[fatowen]

The Google searches for the past three games I have been learning have lead me to your channel. Castles of Burgundy, Caverna, and now Terra Mystica, not to mention I have A Feast for Odin on the way... crap.. I just mentioned it... Anyways, you have been the most enjoyable Canadian board game tutorialist that I've watched and I can't thank you enough... can't thank you enough?.. really?.. how many thanks are necessary?.. come to think of it Castles of Burgundy may have been that other Canadian fellow... well, maybe just one big THANK YOU will do! Seriously, I really appreciate your videos. Very clear, very thorough, and all around enjoyable. You've got another subscriber. Cheers! 🍻

[SennyBnk]

I saw dozen of guides on YT regarding Terra Mystica rules, but you've done it right. Everything is well explained and in proper order. Thanks.

[nikolaus.kopernikus]

Amazingly explained for me as someone comming back to the rules after some time. Thank you!

[catherinetaylor]

My favourite game. Great video thanks. I’ve played this game over a dozen time and read the rule book 3 times but you’ve shown me a couple of rules I had misunderstood / forgotten. Thanks again.

[mollybozarth]

This is the best teach out there for Terra Mystica. Thank you for helping me get people into my favourite game!

[MrVurtan]

Just one word: GREAT!!!
I do enjoy every video you make Ryan. Clear and funny to make a half hour of rules like a breeze

[SnooSnooKachu]

This has been immensely helpful for me. I have a virtual board game meetup coming up where we'll be playing this, but due to us playing remotely, it would be pretty hard for my friend to teach us like he usually does. While I'm unsure I'll win, I'll at least not be the guy asking questions every 6 seconds!

[russellscott]

Superb video. I’ve just got the game (not opened yet) but think I’ll be re-watching this a number of times. Thanks.

[wildejedi]

Very very good video, easily the best one I've watched. You broke the rules down into easy to understand segments. Thanks

[NB]

I'm going to be playing this with 4 other people who have played before, so this was a nice introduction so I have some sort of idea about what's going on when they re-explain it tomorrow night.