Terraforming Mars (2016)

How To Play Terraforming Mars

The players acquire unique project cards (from over two hundred different ones) by buying them to their hands. The projects (cards) can represent anything from introducing plant life or animals, hurling asteroids at the surface, building cities to mining the moons of Jupiter and establishing greenhouse gas industries to heat up the atmosphere. The cards can give you immediate bonuses, as well as increase your production of different resources.

Many cards also have requirements and they become playable when the temperature, oxygen, or ocean coverage increases enough. Buying cards is costly, so there is a balance between buying cards (3 megacredits per card) and actually playing them (which can cost anything between 0 to 41 megacredits, depending on the project). Standard Projects are always available to complement your cards.

Your basic income, as well as your basic score, is based on your Terraform Rating (starting at 20). The Rating increases every time you raise one of the three global parameters. However, your income is complemented with your production, and you also get VPs from many other sources.

Phases

Each player keeps track of their production and resources on their player boards, and the game uses six types of resources: MegaCredits, Steel, Titanium, Plants, Energy, and Heat. On the game board, you compete for the best places for your city tiles, ocean tiles, and greenery tiles. You also compete for different Milestones and Awards worth many VPs. Each round is called a generation (guess why) and consists of the following phases:

1) Player order shifts clockwise.

2) Research phase: All players buy cards from four privately drawn.

3) Action phase: Players take turns doing 1-2 actions from these options: Playing a card, claiming a Milestone, funding an Award, using a Standard project, converting plant into greenery tiles (and raising oxygen), converting heat into a temperature raise, and using the action of a card in play. The turn continues around the table (sometimes several laps) until all players have passed.

4) Production phase: Players get resources according to their terraform rating and production parameters.

When the three global parameters (temperature, oxygen, ocean) have all reached their goal, the terraforming is complete, and the game ends after that generation. Count your Terraform Rating and other VPs to determine the winning corporation!

Terraforming Mars Review

“With that being said, Terraforming Mars is overall a really satisfying game to play and the gameplay is exceptional – the extensive card deck means each playthrough will be unique. It’s also nice to find a game that you can play with friends or solo, so you’ll really get your money’s worth with this one.”

Ruth Gaukrodger, space.com

“It’s difficult to convey what makes Terraforming Mars so great because it’s not any single mechanism that sells the experience. It’s a large number of them that blend together seamlessly, which elevates the fun factor.

Every turn is interesting and full of player agency, there is no set path to victory, and no two games truly feel the same. It’s a wonderful mix of resource management, risk assessment, and planning, and the fact that every card is unique makes every draw exciting. Plus there are the 12 unique corporations that all work differently.”

gideonsgaming.com

“Because of the versatility of this game, we would recommend Terraforming Mars to many people. It may be an expert game, but the rules are certainly not difficult to learn but we would advise watching a video for this. There are so many fun elements in the game, such as player interaction, chain reactions, combos, hand management and difficult choices. Terraforming Mars contains something for every board game player. As far as we are concerned, this really is a top notch game!”

spellenplank.nl

Original content from Board Game Geek. For more information and a better understanding of the game, you can watch the videos below.