How to play Maiterra
Maiterra is a hex-tile strategy game for two to four seats. Everyone plans at once, the turn resolves for all at once, and the seat that holds more than half the land wins.
A match
- A match has 2 to 4 seats. The board is Lakeland: 17, 16 or 22 fields for 2, 3 or 4 seats, around lakes that fall somewhere new every match.
- Before the draft every seat picks a house, all at once.
- Then each seat opens with 3 food and 4 people, and drafts 2 free fields. Draft order is by die roll.
Turns
Turns are simultaneous: everyone queues orders, then the turn resolves for all seats together, in this order:
- Orders are checked and paid for. You spend only what you hold.
- Armies march: 1 field, or 2 for cavalry (a ride cannot pass another army). Two armies marching opposite ways along one edge fight on the road first.
- Fights, on any field holding more than one army.
- Claims.
- Buildings and training finish.
- Production. A building produces from the turn after it is built.
- Bank trades pay out.
- Food is eaten; starvation.
- Growth.
- Cards are drawn and victory is checked.
Winning
- Hold more than half the board's fields; at two seats, one more than that. On Lakeland that is 20, 18 or 24 points for 2, 3 or 4 seats.
- Or be the last seat still holding any land.
- If nobody gets there, the seat leading on points at the end of turn 50 wins.
- Every field scores 2 points, wherever it is and whatever stands on it. Buildings and armies score nothing, so build for what they do. A field lost costs its 2 at once.
People, food and coins
| What | Rule |
|---|---|
| People | +1 a turn for every house you have, up to a cap of 4 plus 2 per house. Growth costs no food. |
| Workers | A farm, sawmill or brickworks costs 1 person and needs a matching slot on the field's terrain. It makes 2 a turn, or 4 on a field with a science centre. |
| Food | 3 a turn for free, plus farms. Only armies eat: a soldier or cavalry eats 1 at home and 2 away. People and workers eat nothing. |
| Starvation | Each missing food kills a soldier or cavalry at random. |
| Coins | 1 a turn per person, idle or working. |
| Bank | Swap any resource for any other at 3 to 1, never people. A soldier can be sold for 2 food. |
| Storage | At most 99 of each. |
Buildings
| Building | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Farm | 1 person | +2 food a turn |
| Sawmill | 1 person | +2 wood a turn |
| Brickworks | 1 person | +2 brick a turn |
| House (2 a field) | 3 brick, 1 wood | +2 people cap, +1 person a turn |
| Wall (1 a field) | 2 brick, 2 wood | +3 defence on that field; eats nothing |
| Barracks (1 a field) | 3 brick, 1 coin | Trains units on that field |
| Science centre (1 a field, 1 a seat) | 3 brick, 2 coins | Doubles that field's production |
Armies
| Unit | Cost (at a barracks) | Attack | Defence | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soldier | 2 coins | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Cavalry | 1 wood, 4 coins | 3 | 1 | 2 |
- Marching is free. Pulling a stack back before the fight costs 1 wood.
- To claim an empty field, stand 1 soldier on it and pay 1 wood and 1 coin.
Combat
- A side's strength is its units as above, plus 3 for each wall on the field it owns.
- Both sides roll a die, 1 to 5. The higher roller adds the difference to their strength.
- Higher strength wins. A tie holds for the defender.
- The loser loses everything on the field. The winner loses some units too, fewer the harder they won.
- An empty walled field still fights with its walls. Winning past a wall breaches it.
- Taking a field razes every building on it, and each conquest draws you a card.
- Unclaimed land has no defender: when armies meet on a field nobody owns, every side attacks, and cavalry charges at its attack strength.
- Flanking: an attack that marches in from more than one field adds +2 for each extra direction, at most +4. Units already standing on the field add none.
- On the road: armies marching opposite ways along one edge fight before either arrives, with no walls and no Rally, both at their attack strength. The winner marches on with what is left; the loser stays home. A stack pulled back is never caught.
Houses
Every seat picks one of four houses before the draft and locks it in. Nobody sees another seat's house until all have locked. Houses may repeat. A house gives one perk for the whole match.
| House | Perk |
|---|---|
| Star | On any turn it loses a fight, it draws a card (at most one a turn). |
| Tower | May build two science centres instead of one (still one a field). |
| Sun | +1 food a turn for every three farms it has standing. |
| Moon | Its cavalry defends at 2 instead of 1. |
Cards
You hold up to 3 cards and draw one for each field you conquer. There are five:
- Speedup: march 2.
- Lucky Strike: roll twice, keep the higher.
- Rally: your fields defend as if walled.
- Sabotage: an enemy field produces nothing next turn.
- Prospect: take 3 of one resource.
Teams
At three and four seats, the lobby of a new solo match, a Wi-Fi room or an online custom room can put seats on numbered teams; the same number means allies. Ranked matches, the Daily and the tutorial are always everyone against everyone. Allies never fight each other, may march across each other's fields, and fight as one side when an enemy attacks them or when they attack together. A team scores its members' points together, against a higher target than a lone seat, and the whole team wins together.
The turn timer
Matches people play in one sitting have a timer. A Wi-Fi or live online table starts at 90 seconds a round; its host may make it 60 or 120 seconds, or turn it off. A ranked match is fixed at 90 seconds. Solo matches and matches played over days have none. Everyone sees the same clock.
At zero nothing you queued is lost: every seat that has not ended its turn hands in the orders it has queued, as they stand, and a seat with none passes.