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In Uchronia, you are the patriarch of a great Uchronian noble house, competing with the other houses that commit their wealth to building the city, enriching it with new constructions, and striving to win over the people.
In game terms, players start with six resource cards in hand, then each discard a card to the shared forum; each resource card shows the type of resource (with color-coded five resources in the game), an activity icon (with, for example, all yellow clay cards showing a pick), and an order (with yellow showing Production). Five building cards are placed face-up in the Great Works area and can be built by the players; any time a building is taken from this area, reveal another building card.
On a turn, you first move any card(s) played the previous turn to the forum, then you either Command or Plot. To Command, you play one card from your hand with the order you want to carry out or two identical cards, which allows you to take any order. The orders are:
Production: Place one card from the forum into your stock. For each Production activity you have, take the action again.
Exploration: Place one card from your hand into your stock. Repeat for each Exploration activity.
Draconians: Show one card from your hand, then move one card of this type from the forum to your stock; in addition, each player who commanded in his previous turn must give you a card of the same type from his hand, if possible. For each Draconians activity you have, you can show one more card, which lets you claim more from the forum and possibly more from opponents.
Trade: Transform one resource in your stock to an activity. Repeat for each Trade activity.
Construction: Start a new building (by discarding a matching color resource from the forum) or transfer a resource from your stock to a building in progress. Repeat for each Construction activity.
When you complete a building, you gain its special ability for the remainder of the game. You can have only two activities, plus one more for each completed building you own. If you have more of a particular ability than anyone else, you claim the monopoly card for this activity, making each of these activities worth 1 victory point (VP) and allowing you to claim a matching resource whenever anyone completes a building of this color.
If you Plot instead of Command, you first copy one order showing in another player's area (if you have an activity of the same color), then you either draw until you have five cards or draw one card (if you already have at least five).
The game continues until one or more players hits a VP threshold (14-20 depending on the number of players). After completing the round (giving everyone the same number of turns), the player with the most VPs wins.
- Unique terrain terraforming and sink/rise mechanics that affect positioning
- Shorter leaner game design with a capped round count
- Asymmetric factions with different unit types and powers
- Resource management and economy through energy and iron
- Eight shared objectives giving multiple paths to score
- war/conquest with terraforming and resource management
- the land and tribal factions on a modular map with four sectors; areas can sink or rise each round
- asymmetric units with different powers and a conquest-based objective system
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Players place units to control sectors; areas have capacity limits.
- area_control — Players place units to control sectors; areas have capacity limits.
- bag building — Builds on playboard unlock unit recruitment; pay costs to place units.
- building_and_recruitment — Builds on playboard unlock unit recruitment; pay costs to place units.
- Combat — Dice-based battles with attacks, shields, and unit powers; reinforcement/ retreat options.
- Combat: Dice — Dice-based battles with attacks, shields, and unit powers; reinforcement/ retreat options.
- Compound Scoring — There are eight objectives that determine scoring across rounds.
- conquest_rewards — Winning battles grants conquest cards.
- Movement — Move units between areas up to their speed; enables spreading and battle positioning.
- objective_based_scoring — There are eight objectives that determine scoring across rounds.
- Resource management — Choose sectors to gather energy or iron; grassland vs mountain yields differ.
- resource_gathering — Choose sectors to gather energy or iron; grassland vs mountain yields differ.
- Rondel — Rounds involve action cards and four actions per player; end with resource collection.
- round_limit — Game finishes after a fixed number of rounds (six or nine).
- round_structure — Rounds involve action cards and four actions per player; end with resource collection.
- Terraforming — Terraforming changes which areas sink or rise; terraforming is a core mechanic.
- unit_upgrades — Upgrade unit cards to higher levels by spending energy.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the land is alive
- tektonia is a war game where your aim is to achieve the most objectives of the certain amount of rounds
- the round starts by drawing cards to see which areas are going to sink or rise at the end of the round
- most areas are grassland and it gives you energy which what you need mostly
- the land terraforms up and down
- there is some asymmetric between the faction units
- upgrade to better powers cost energy
- the conquest card you gain from winning battles
- after six or nine rounds the player that achieves the most objectives has led their tribe to glory and wins
- terraforming of the land