Terror Below

Plays: 4Px1.

The Game

Terror Below is a Kickstarter game. You are specialists on giant underground monster worms, operating in a canyon full of worm activity. These worms attack and destroy, and they lay eggs too. You score points mainly by collecting and delivering worm eggs, and by killing worms. Whoever reaches 20VP first wins the game. However if anyone loses all three of his leaders, the game ends in a sudden death, and you compare scores immediately.

This impressive worm sculpture is, unfortunately, not a game component. It's decoration. You don't actually use it in play.

The main play area is a 6x6 grid. Along the edges there are five buildings where you can deliver eggs for points. The three sections at the bottom represent the three currently active worms. Along the top there are four active missions, i.e. scoring cards. Whenever anyone completes a mission and claims a card, you draw another to replace it.

These are mission cards. These specify the type of egg to deliver to a specific building to score points. All buildings accept all types of eggs. However the default score is only 1VP. If there is a suitable mission, you claim the mission card instead of scoring that measly 1VP. The other type of mission is killing worms (not shown in this photo). Some missions specify a worm type, some don't.

The three cards in the top row are the worms cards. They are randomly drawn. On each card, the two numbers are the coordinates where the worm is detected. The pattern on the right indicates where the worm will attack relative to its current position. The number in the star tells you how many action cards will trigger an attack. On every player's turn, an action card is played below one of the three worms, so eventually there will be enough to trigger one of the worms to attack. The number in the heart is the worm's health value, i.e. how difficult it is to defeat it.

The spaces below the worm cards are for players to play action cards. If an action card played has arrows on them, the worm will move according to the arrows. E.g. this pick-up truck card causes the #3 worm to move two steps north. Sometimes players play face-down cards below the worms. These face-down cards are only revealed and resolved when an attack is triggered. So the player who played that card knows whether and in which direction the worm will move before attacking.

These are the action cards of players. You have a hand of three. Usually you play one per turn. You always replenish back to three. The number at the top left is the number of action points you get. If there are arrows at the bottom, you will move a worm.

At the start of the game, you choose any one of the five buildings to be your starting point, and you place your pawn (a vehicle) there. Every turn is just playing an action card, then spending the action points given by that card. There are only a few types of action. The basic one is simply moving, one action point per step. You may clear rubble. Rubble prevents movement. Whenever you clear a third rubble, you get to draw a tool card or a weapon card. That's you finding useful stuff in the rubble. You may pick up an egg. When you do that, you forfeit any remaining action points you may have. Your turn ends. You may cash in an egg for points when you are at a building. When doing this, you get to use the special ability of the building. You don't have an action for attacking a worm, because worms are underground. You have to wait for a worm to attack before you can try to kill it.

Disk #2 means Worm #2. When a worm is activated to attack, it lays an egg at its current position, and it attacks in a specific pattern around its current position. Normally you want to avoid being at a location under attack. However if you want to fight the worm, you need to position yourself at such a location. It's not always easy to predict where the worm will attack, because the last card played onto a worm can cause it to move one last time before attacking.

At the start of the game everyone draws 3 leader cards and picks one as the starting leader. When your leader dies, you pick a successor from the other two. If all three are killed, the game is over and you compare points immediately. If you are trailing, you need to be careful not to kill anyone's last leader. The hospital, which is one of the buildings, lets you resurrect a leader. If you deliver an egg to the hospital, you may revive a dead leader. Zombie!

The card on the left is a tool card, and on the right a weapon card. This military satellite is a little crazy. Once you start using it, every turn it bombards one random location. Like in Akira. If there's a worm, it is killed, and you'll score points. If there's another player, his leader is killed. If your own vehicle happens to be there, oops, your leader is dead.

The Play

Terror Below is a light tactical game with a generous dose of luck. You can't really strategise much. You are mostly analysing the current situation to determine what the best move is. It depends on what cards you have, what eggs are available, where the worms are, which worms are close to attacking, what missions are available. You can often do nasty things to your opponents, e.g. sending a worm their way, using cards to steal their eggs. There is much luck. Sometimes a newly drawn mission is a windfall because you are at the right place to easily complete it. Sometimes when you finally manage to pick up an egg, you find that there is no mission for that egg colour. So you can only deliver it for 1VP. Some egg missions give 4VP. That's a 400% difference! Also, since you draw action cards, tool cards, and weapon cards, there certainly will be luck. Sometimes you draw cards perfect for your situation. Sometimes you get cards useless for your situation.

There is a race element. Often you race to complete a lucrative mission. So you have to watch what your opponents are doing.

Those beige coloured rocks are rubble. Each space has at most 2 pieces of rubble. Rubble blocks movement. You need to clear it before you can enter.

The blue car now has access to two eggs!

When you clear rubble or pick up an egg, you place them on your leader card. If that leader dies, you lose all of them. If you kill an opponent's leader, it can be a major setback for him. That on the right is the card back of a leader card, i.e. the dead side. However he can be resurrected at the hospital.

If you are at a building, worm attacks can't hurt you.

Most of your points will come from these mission cards on the left. Some tools and weapons help you earn points. Delivering eggs and killing worms give points. You use those tokens on the right to keep track of these loose points.

The Thoughts

Terror Below is a simple game suitable for casual players. It is mostly tactical in nature. It's not a game you take seriously. It's a fun romp you play in a relaxed manner.