Episode 227: Terracotta Army

Emperor Qin Shi Huang has passed away. To protect him in the afterlife, a great army in the form of statues of faithful warriors must be assembled to stand guard in the Emperor’s tomb. You will be among those tasked with building this magnificent army. In Terracotta Army, you represent talented craftsmen and artists laboring to build the wondrous assembly of statues. During the game, you collect resources, upgrade your workers, and seek favor with the Emperor’s advisors. Your goal is to play a crucial role in the process of creating the terracotta army, building warriors and specialists in the mausoleum to protect Emperor Qin She Huang.

Throughout the game, you and your fellow players will compete for the most lucrative spots on the action wheel, in order to build the army together. For a cost, players are allowed to manipulate the inner or middle rings of the action wheel in order to create a more personalized action. Using clay acquired from the action wheel, players place warrior miniatures within the mausoleum, forming groups. A group’s miniatures may belong to multiple players as denoted by the player bases on those miniatures. Multiple separate groups consisting of the same type of miniature may exist within the mausoleum – but build your statues with caution.. Single statues of a given type are not considered appealing and will be removed from the mausoleum before the Terracotta Army is evaluated at the end of the game.

At the end of every round, players have an opportunity to score points based on domination and presence. Evaluation tiles are randomly selected at the beginning of the game and placed face up so all participants may plan their strategy. In order to score points for these tiles, you must achieve domination or presence. To achieve domination, you must be the LONE player with the most of the specific resource or type of statue currently being evaluated. To have presence, you must have at least one of the specific resource or type of statue currently being scored. Points are also awarded at the end of every round for domination and presence related to the row and column of the mausoleum that the inspector pawn resides in. At the conclusion of the fifth round, the groups within the mausoleum will be evaluated and only one of you – the craftsperson with the best building skills – will stand as the winner!