gaiaproject
Gaia Project is a new game in the line of Terra Mystica. As in the original Terra Mystica, fourteen different factions live on seven different kinds of planets, and each faction is bound to their own home planets, so to develop and grow, they must terraform neighboring planets into their home environments in competition with the other groups. In addition, Gaia planets can be used by all factions for colonization, and Transdimensional planets can be changed into Gaia planets.
All factions can improve their skills in six different areas of development — Terraforming, Navigation, Artificial Intelligence, Gaiaforming, Economy, Research — leading to advanced technology and special bonuses. To do all of that, each group has special skills and abilities.
LB_NUMBER_OF_PLAYERS: 1 - 4
Game duration: 63 mn
Complexity: 4 / 5
Play gaiaproject and 834 other games online.
No download, directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Play gaiaproject and 834 other games online.
No download, directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Factions
| Faction | Planet Type | Ability | Planetary Institute | Starting Research | Basic Income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terrans | Terra | During the Gaia phase, move the power tokens in your Gaia area to area II of your power cycle instead of to area I. | During the Gaia phase, when you move power tokens from your Gaia area to area II of your power cycle, you may gain resources as if you were spending that much power to take free actions. | Gaia Project | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore |
| Lantids | Terra | When you take the “Build a Mine” action, you may build a mine on a planet colonized by an opponent (including the Lost Planet). Place your mine next to the opponent’s structure. You do not have to pay for terraforming, but you must still pay the mine’s cost. This mine counts as a normal mine in all ways except the following: this mine cannot be upgraded, and it does not count for any effects that relate to how many planet types or Gaia planets you have colonized. | Each time you build a mine on a planet colonized by an opponent, gain two knowledge. | NA | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore |
| Xenos | Desert | You place a third starting mine after all other starting mines have been placed. | You can form federations with a total power value of six instead of seven. You gain one Q.I.C. as income instead of one power token. | Artificial Intelligence | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore |
| Gleens | Desert | If you would ever gain Q.I.C., gain that much ore instead; once you have upgraded to the indicated academy, this effect no longer applies. To make a Gaia Planet habitable, pay one ore instead of one Q.I.C. Each time you build a mine on a Gaia Planet, gain two additional VP. | When you upgrade to the planetary institute, immediately gain the Gleens’ federation token (gaining the resources shown as normal). Gaining this tile counts as forming a federation. The planetary institute itself can still be part of a federation on the board. | Navigation | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore |
| Taklons | Swamp | The Brainstone counts as one power token (when starting a Gaia Project, building satellites, etc.), but you can spend it as if it were three power. | Each time you would charge power from “Passive Action: Charge Power,” you gain one power token. You can choose to gain the power before or after charging. | NA | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore |
| Ambas | Swamp | NA | Once per round, as an action, you can swap your planetary institute with one of your mines on the game board (this can help you form a new federation). This has no impact on existing federations, even if their power value becomes less than seven. The swap does not count as a build or upgrade action; no VP or power can be gained from it. | Navigation | 1 Knowledge, 2 Ore |
| Hadsch Hallas | Oxide | NA | You can spend credits instead of power to take free actions that allow you to gain resources. Example: You can spend 3 credits to take the free action that allows you to gain one ore. | Economy | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore, 3 Credits |
| Ivits | Oxide | During setup, do not place mines. Instead, after all other players have placed mines (including the Xenos’ third mine), place your planetary institute on any red planet. You can only have one federation, but each time the power value of your federation becomes a multiple of 7, you may take the "Form A Federation" action again. You must discard Q.I.C. instead of power tokens to make satellites. | As a special action, place a space station on an accessible space that does not contain a planet or another space station. The accessibility of a space follows the same rules as the “Build a Mine” action. | NA | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore, 1 QIC |
| Geodens | Volcanic | NA | The first time you build a mine on each planet type, gain 3 knowledge. (You do not gain knowledge for planet types you colonized before upgrading to your planetary institute.) | Terraforming | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore |
| Bal T'aks | Volcanic | You cannot advance in the “Navigation” research area, even if you take the tech tile below the “Navigation” research area. If you do take that tech tile, no advancement occurs. As a free action, you can move a Gaiaformer from a Gaiaformer space on your faction board to your Gaia area to gain one Q.I.C. Gaiaformers in your Gaia area are not available until the next Gaia phase. In the next Gaia phase, move any Gaiaformer in your Gaia area back to its Gaiaformer space. | You can now advance in the “Navigation” research area. | Gaia Project | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore |
| Firaks | Titanium | NA | As an action, you can “downgrade” a research lab into a trading station and immediately advance one level in a research area of your choice. Advancing in a research area is explained on page 15. This counts as an “Upgrade to a Trading Station” action. You can later upgrade the trading station back into a research lab using the normal rules (including gaining a new tech tile). | NA | 2 Knowledge, 1 Ore |
| Bescods | Titanium | The positions of your planetary institute and academies are swapped on your faction board, as is the income you gain for trading stations and research labs. As with the other factions, upgrading to an academy or a research lab allows you to gain a tech tile. Once per round, as an action, you can advance your lowest-level token in a research area (without paying knowledge). If multiple of your tokens are tied for the lowest level, choose which of the tied tokens to advance. To advance to level 5 this way, you must still flip a federation token as normal. Remember, only one player can reach level 5 of each research area. | The power value of your structures on gray planets (your home type) is increased by one (in addition to any other effects that increase their power value). | NA | 1 Ore |
| Nevlas | Ice | As a free action, you can move one power token from area III of your power cycle to your Gaia area to gain one knowledge (these power tokens follow the normal Gaia phase rules). This does not count as spending power. | You can spend power tokens in area III of your power cycle as if they were each two power. Otherwise, they count as one power token (when starting a Gaia Project, building satellites, etc.). When paying for a power action with an odd power cost (1, 3, 5, etc.), the unspent power is lost. | Science | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore |
| Itars | Ice | Each time you discard a power token from area II of your power cycle to move another power token to area III, place the discarded power token in your Gaia area instead of returning it to the supply. | During the Gaia phase, you can discard 4 power tokens from your Gaia area to immediately gain a tech tile (standard or advanced). | NA | 1 Knowledge, 1 Ore, 1 Power in Bowl I |
Rules to Remember
- Starting Resources (before receiving income at the beginning of Round 1) - Credits: 15, Ore: 4, Knowledge: 3
- Resource Storage Limits - Credits: 30, Ore: 15, Knowledge: 15
Actions
- Build a Mine - This places a mine on the board, which usually give you ore as income. These mines must be at most a distance away from another building of yours equal to your navigation (the second track from the left). You must pay the cost of the mine. If it's a Gaia planet (green planets without gaiaformers on them), you must also pay one QIC. If it's some other planet type, you must pay additional ore - the exact cost is determined by your terraforming ability (the first track from the left) and the number of terraforming steps required to make the destination planet habitable for your faction.
- Start a Gaia Project - This allows you to transform Transdim planets (purple) into a Gaia planet. You can only do this if you have at least one available gaiaformer, which you can get as a result of the Gaia Project track (the fourth track from the left). To do this, move power tokens into the gaia section of your board. These tokens are not lost - you'll get them back as the last step of the income phase. At the start of the next round, these planets are now Gaia planets and you can build mines on them normally (without spending a QIC like you normally would to build on a Gaia Planet). The gaiaformer is removed (and sent to your faction board) only after you decide to build on these planets (they are "reserved" for you until then).
- Upgrade Existing Structure - Mines can be upgraded to Trading Stations, which usually produce credits - note that this has a cheaper cost if it's at most two units away from an opponent's structure. Trade Centers can be upgraded to either a Planetary Institute (which produces power and unlocks an ability specific to your faction) or Research Labs, which produce knowledge and allows you to immediately take a technology tile and advance on one of the tracks (if able, depending on your current position in the track). Research Labs can be upgraded to Academies, which also let you gain more technologies and produce either knowledge or QIC (or other resources depending on the faction).
- Form a Federation - This allows you to combine structures to gain more points. To do this, you need any cluster of structures whose total power level is 7 or more. This can include empty space as well, but for each empty space included this way, pay 1 power token from any bowl to create a satellite. For doing this, you gain a federation token, which gives you immediate points, some other resource bonus, and can later be spent to advance to the top position of a research track or gain advanced technology tiles.
- Research Progress - Spend 4 knowledge to advance on any track. The tracks are
- Terraforming, which improves your ability to terraform planets
- Navigation, which increases the range at which you can build structures
- Artificial Intelligence, which gives you more QIC
- Gaia Project, which allows you to start Gaia Projects on Transdim planets
- Economy, which increase your ore, credits, power charge income
- Science, which increases your knowledge income.
- Power and Q.I.C. Actions - Spend power or QICs to take any of the actions at the bottom of the research board. Each of these can be taken only once per round.
- Special Actions - Use any actions printed on booster tiles or your faction board. These can be taken only once per round.
- Pass - Select a new booster tile. Wait until all other players have passed too.
- Free Actions - Resource Conversions (or burn power to move power from Bowl 2 to Bowl 3).
- Passive Action - Charging power. Spend VP as necessary depending on the amount of power being charged. This is optional.
Auctions for Drafting Factions
Each player submits the maximum amount he is willing to bid for each faction that has been drafted. Once all bids are submitted, a round-robin auction is automatically conducted in turn order until each player has the top bid on one faction. During the round-robin portion, each player automatically bids on the faction with the greatest difference between the faction's current bid and that player's maximum possible bid.
A typical automatic auction might look like this behind the scenes.
1) The first player bids zero VP on the faction that has his highest maximum bid (i.e. the faction they wanted most)
2) If the second player submitted the same top bid for two different factions, he'll automatically bid zero on the faction no one has picked yet. If he had placed a higher bid on the same faction as player 1, he would have increased that bid to one VP instead.
3) The third player looks at the current bids and compares those to his maximum bid. He'll automatically bid one higher on the faction with the greatest difference between his maximum bid and the current bid of that faction.
This is all resolved quickly and automatically behind the scenes. It's not uncommon for players to get factions for free if no one outbids them.
After the auction, all players are given VP so that the player that paid the most still starts with 10 VP to use during the game.
Here is a game log auction example for a 3 player game:
In summary:
PLAYER_A wins IVITS for 11, their maximum bid was 27 for IVITS,
PLAYER_B wins AMBAS for 6, their maximum bid was 10 for IVITS, 8 for AMBAS.
PLAYER_C wins TERRANS for 0, their maximum bid was16 for IVITS, 12 for AMBAS, 6 for TERRANS.
some notable example lines from the log are:
**PLAYER_B switches from [IVITS] to [AMBAS] when the bid reaches 3 on IVITS, because 9>7 : AMBAS:8--1= 9 > IVITS:10-3=7.
explanation: AMBAS: 8(PlayerB max bid for Ambas) - -1(current bid for Ambas) = 9 > IVITS: 10(PlayerB max bid for Ivits) - 3 (current bid for Ivits) =11
++PLAYER_C switches from [IVITS] to [AMBAS] when the bid reaches 5 on IVITS, because 12>11 : AMBAS:12-0=12 > IVITS:16-5=11.
explanation: AMBAS: 12(PlayerC max bid for Ambas) - 0(current bid for Ambas) = 12 > IVITS: 16(PlayerC max bid for Ivits) - 5 (current bid for Ivits) =11
Actual Log:
Players will automatically bid on the faction with the greatest gap between its current bid and the player's maximum bid
PLAYER_A bids 0 on [IVITS] (and is willing to bid up to 27 if needed)
PLAYER_B bids 1 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_A. (The bid was 10 away from PLAYER_B's max bid of 10.)
PLAYER_C bids 2 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_B. (The bid was 15 away from PLAYER_C's max bid of 16.)
PLAYER_A bids 3 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_C. (The bid was 25 away from PLAYER_A's max bid of 27.)
**PLAYER_B bids 0 on [AMBAS] (and is willing to bid up to 8 if needed)
PLAYER_C bids 4 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_A. (The bid was 13 away from PLAYER_C's max bid of 16.)
PLAYER_A bids 5 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_C. (The bid was 23 away from PLAYER_A's max bid of 27.)
++PLAYER_C bids 1 on [AMBAS], outbidding PLAYER_B. (The bid was 12 away from PLAYER_C's max bid of 12.)
PLAYER_B bids 2 on [AMBAS], outbidding PLAYER_C. (The bid was 7 away from PLAYER_B's max bid of 8.)
PLAYER_C bids 6 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_A. (The bid was 11 away from PLAYER_C's max bid of 16.)
PLAYER_A bids 7 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_C. (The bid was 21 away from PLAYER_A's max bid of 27.)
PLAYER_C bids 3 on [AMBAS], outbidding PLAYER_B. (The bid was 10 away from PLAYER_C's max bid of 12.)
PLAYER_B bids 4 on [AMBAS], outbidding PLAYER_C. (The bid was 5 away from PLAYER_B's max bid of 8.)
PLAYER_C bids 8 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_A. (The bid was 9 away from PLAYER_C's max bid of 16.)
PLAYER_A bids 9 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_C. (The bid was 19 away from PLAYER_A's max bid of 27.)
PLAYER_C bids 5 on [AMBAS], outbidding PLAYER_B. (The bid was 8 away from PLAYER_C's max bid of 12.)
PLAYER_B bids 6 on [AMBAS], outbidding PLAYER_C. (The bid was 3 away from PLAYER_B's max bid of 8.)
PLAYER_C bids 10 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_A. (The bid was 7 away from PLAYER_C's max bid of 16.)
PLAYER_A bids 11 on [IVITS], outbidding PLAYER_C. (The bid was 17 away from PLAYER_A's max bid of 27.)
PLAYER_C bids 0 on [TERRANS] (and is willing to bid up to 6 if needed)
PLAYER_A wins the auction for [IVITS], spending [VP11]
PLAYER_C wins the auction for [TERRANS], spending [VP0]
PLAYER_B wins the auction for [AMBAS], spending [VP6]
All players receive [VP11] to ensure every player starts with at least 10 VP
FAQ: General
Q: The booster tile is covering the conversions pane!
A: Check the preferences for other options for the booster tile.
Q: On iOS/Mac, the game is unresponsive.
A: The rendering engine on Apple devices deals very poorly with shadows. You'll get much better performance by setting the "Structure outlines" user preference to "No outlines." This is true regardless of which browser you're using.
Q: The game isn't allowing me to gain an advanced tech!
Q: The game isn't allowing me to advance to level 5 in a research track!
A: Both of these require a green federation tile. If you want to do both in a single action, you need two federation tiles.
Q: Why can't I upgrade?
A: This is usually because you lack the resources required to perform any available upgrades. Occasionally, it's because you lack the structures (because they are already on the board).
Q: Is there an option to undo my entire turn?
A: The game asks you to confirm or cancel after selecting a planet for a build/upgrade action, selecting planets for a federation, selecting a research track, passing, and so on. However, the developers have decided not to add an option to undo your entire turn.
FAQ: Conversions/Power
Q: Why do I only get one credit when I convert the Brainstone to credits?
A: If you want to get more than one credit, click on that button more than one time. The game does not do this automatically in order to allow you to allocate the spent power as desired.
Q: Why don't I get a chance to convert resources at the end of my turn?
Q: I should get the option to charge before or after gaining power!
A: There are options in the pull-down menu to the right to enable this under various conditions. By default, options are selected that improve the speed of the game.
Q: I have enough power to perform a power action, but it doesn't show up as available!
A: There are two possible reasons: - You're lacking something else that would be required to perform that action. For example, if you don't have a mine and enough resources to build a mine, the terraforming actions won't show as available. - Someone else has taken that action this round.
FAQ: Federations
Q: Why can't I form this federation?
A: The federation rules are surprisingly intricate given the amount of space they occupy in the rulebook. See boardgamegeek.com/thread/2120375/official-federation-faq for more details.
Xenos: note that 7 power is required if you have not built your PI.
Bescods: note that power is only increased on titanium planets, and only after you have built your PI.
Ivits: Your existing federation starts out pre-selected. Your second federation must connect to your existing federation. Don't forget that Ivits spend QICs for satellites!
IMPORTANT: All bug reports regarding federations require the move number of the action and a screenshot showing which hexes are selected. Without these, it's nearly impossible to piece together exactly what's happening and when.
FAQ: Faction-specific
Q: As Hadsch Hallas, how do I use my PI ability?
A: Once you've built your PI, the new conversion options will be available under the Convert menu.
Q: My faction's ability isn't working!
A: Make sure you're not confusing your passive ability with the ability granted by your Planetary Institute. If it's the PI ability, you'll need to have built your PI.
Q: As Nevlas, what happens to the remaining half a power when I convert?
A: Any "half power" not used is lost. Make sure you select all desired conversions before clicking confirm.
Q: How do I form a second federation as Ivits?
A: Your existing federation starts out pre-selected. Your second federation must connect to your existing federation. Don't forget that Ivits spend QICs for satellites!
