Terracotta Army Review

The emperor has died and you have been tasked with creating an army to protect him in the afterlife. In Terracotta Army, you are placed in the shoes of an artisan that must build an army of statues. Over the course of 5 rounds, players will take turns placing their workers on the action selection wheel and carry out the three actions from inside out. If you don't like what's on one of the rings, you can pay 2 coins to rotate one of them before you place your worker. Actions are varied but simple. Some will allow you to collect clay or money or flip over your dry clay to the wet side. Some will allow you to pay coins to gain favor of the masters. These masters will grant you a coin bonus or let you keep your clay wet between rounds. They also do significantly more powerful things when you select them after you've gained their favor such as flipping over all weapons to their active side or gaining all clay from 2 warehouses.

The core of the game is the statues, though. When you select the build a statue action you will pay the amount of wet clay and pick one of the 4 types of statues from the holder. Then you'll put your colored ring on it and place it anywhere in the mausoleum. Placement is extremely important because each round will score points depending on certain variables of the entire mausoleum or because of where the inspectors are currently at. They will always grade 1 row and 1 column at the end of each round. Once you're happy with your placement, you'll score points depending on which statue was selected and then optionally you can flip the corresponding weapon for bonus actions.

The final type of action is still related to building; specialists. The specialists are purchased with coins and weapons. They will allow you to score points to sway the majority your way potentially or grant points for surrounding them. The horse will allow you to extend your piece without gaining additional pieces. These are great for the area control aspect.

After every round, there is a scoring phase. Scoring essentially boils down to having domination and presence. If you have domination, this means you have majority and will score maximum points. Presence simply means you exist and you'll still score just not as much. This happens with the inspectors but as well as the scoring tiles. After 5 rounds, the game will end and final scoring will occur.

The Good: Terracotta Army does a great job of moving the game along fairly quickly. You'll essentially get 25 turns in order to maximize everything. This seems like a lot, but it's not at all. The economy is extremely tight so you'll spend more turns than you'd think bolstering your income to build statues and getting masters. The action selection system is fantastic as well. Even at 2 players, you expect to have a lot of freedom but that wheel gets really small, really fast. Getting to actually build the army and see it grow on the main board is really impressive to see happen throughout the game. The statue holder/box is an excellent component. It's more than just a box because it has points information and additional actions information as well.

The Okay: Get ready for your head to hurt because this ones a brain melter. There are so many choices to make every turn. If you want to build, great. What are you going to build? Is it beneficial for points? Does it fit into the current rounds goal? Where are the inspectors, can you get more points? Should you do the bonus action? Can I combo this with a specialist somehow? That's one action of one turn. Do this 74 more times now.

The Not So Good: The theme of the game is fairly dry. I think that if the designers opted for anything but minis, it would have taken a lot away from the game. It can play efficiently but as I pointed out, it's going to be a thinker which means if you're staring at the same thing for a couple hours you could get bored while waiting. I've only had the chance to play it at 2 players and that can take some time if you need to teach it as well.

Final Thoughts: I'll be honest, Terracotta Army after 1 play I wasn't sold on it. After 2, I thought I hated it. Then my 3rd play everything clicked. Some of the core concepts I couldn't grasp like the domination and presence aspects. Once it did, the game became a beautifully intricate puzzle for me. Placement is the most important aspect of the game and it's all spelled out right in front of you. There's going to be a bit of a learning curve with parts of the game and you'll want the rulebook nearby but Terracotta Army has quickly risen in my ranks of favorite "dry euros".

Thanks to Board & Dice for providing me with a review copy.