How to play Terminus Board Game & Review

Terminus is a route-building game played with a Rondel.

Title: Terminus

Year Published: 2024

Designer: Earl Aspiras, Thomas Volpe

Publisher: Inside Up Games

Players: 2-5

Game Time: ~180 minutes

Set-up Time: 

Ages: 14+

Theme: Modern-day transport companies

Mechanisms: Route Building, Rondel.

How to win: Gain the most prestige by building Stations and Hubs, completing Projects and Agendas and fulfilling Demand.

Game Description

You and your competitors’ transit companies have been hired by the city to build new subway lines and commercial developments to improve the city’s bottom line. Manage assets such as time, money, & resources to build your subway line. Gain prestige by completing objectives and fulfilling the city’s transit demands. Focus on individual projects, open Agendas or a little of both in an effort to earn more prestige than the competition. Can you stay on track to deliver on the city’s many needs?

How to play Terminus

Learn how to play Termius in this video detailing all the rules quickly and concisely.

Main mechanisms

The actions are taken on a Rondel… However, I think while it is strictly a ‘Rondel’ by its definition, it doesn’t feel like one when playing.

There is route building, drafting and resource management too.

USP

I don’t think there is anything particularly new here. There are a lot of already done mechanisms put together in a theme that is done a lot.

Theme

Although it is done a lot, I liked the addition of lobbyists and the city planning side included in a route-building game.

Setup & Rulebook

The setup is fine. There are a few “place X of these here and X of these there” depending on the player count bits. But, these are printed on the board so you don’t have to remember them.

The rulebook is fine but it has the actions in the order they are on the board and not a sensible teaching order. For example, the first action they teach tells you to spend one Power before explaining how to get Power.

Watch my video for a more sensible order 😉

Components & Artwork

The components are nice. The resources are cool and the dual-layered player board helps a lot.

The art has a nice look but some of the more complex iconography is very confusing.

Ease of Teaching

The game itself is fairly easy to teach. The 12 actions are quite easy with the build action the only real fiddley one. Some, like the ones for gaining resources, are easy to teach.

But, with the Developments, Agendas, Projects, Upgrades etc there is a whole lot of stuff to remember and it is overwhelming to teach all of that.

Similar Games

I would put it above lighter route-building games like Maglev Metro due to being more of a challenge.

I would put it closer to any medium to heavy-ish route-building game like Age of Steam for example.

Terminus Review

Positives

The main mechanisms and base gameplay are very fun and give you plenty to think about.

It looks nice on the table and the components, even the base wooden ones look good.

There is plenty of interactivity with other players not just from the route building but also the resource market and chasing after Agendas, Developments, Upgrades etc

You have to plan your turns to ensure you have the resources to do what you want to do…

Negatives

…but it’s quite frustrating at times as one miscalculation or a change in the market value of a resource can leave you feeling deflated.

In a 4-player game, you need to teach 25 abilities on Developments, Agendas and Upgrades as well as the rules to play which is tedious and overwhelming.

The game arrived with pieces missing and a miscut punchboard, something I’ve only experienced once before in my life.

I had such a bad time with InsideUp Games pedantic, patronising and antagonising customer service I can confidently say I’m done with them and will not buy one of their games again.

Terminus Round-Up

A very good game that is too fiddly due to less-than-adequate graphic design and from a company with terrible customer service.

Rating

I give it 6/10