While Terraforming Mars may be centuries away in real life, you can try your hand in an ambitious undertaking of planetary engineering in this multiplayer game.
Terraforming Mars is a 1 to 5 player game designed by Jacob Fryxelius and published by Stronghold Games. The game has elements of tile laying, card drafting, hand management, and set collection.
In Terraforming Mars you play as one of the many 25’th century corporations tasked with making Mars habitable. Each corporation has a unique specialty and you are trying to win funding from the World Government of Earth.
In order to successfully terraform Mars, you and the other players must work together to raise the oxygen level, create oceans, and raise the temperature of the atmosphere via greenhouse gases. Only after all these parameters are completed will the planet be livable. Despite relying on each other to increase these statistics you are still competing to come out on top as the sole winner.
Each round, or generation, consists of completing funded projects from various cards. Those range from introducing plants or animals to building cities. You can even crash asteroids into the planet to raise the temperature or mine Jupiter’s moons.
Photo courtesy: Fryxgames
There are also standard projects that all players have access to at any time in order to help build their “engine” so to speak. Anytime you increase one of the three necessary parameters you increase your terraforming rating which provides you with additional income each generation. Your terraforming rating or “TR” also doubles as points toward winning the game.
Each round you must draw new cards for research and purchase any cards you wish to keep. Each player takes turns playing cards or taking standard projects until everyone passes. You may also wish to fund a project or complete milestones for meeting a certain objective.
During the production phase, everyone collects resources and mega credits to purchase new cards for the next round. Once all three global parameters are complete the round ends and players get one final opportunity to cash in their remaining plants. The goal here is to make more greenery to earn more points, including cities that have greenery surrounding them. The player with the highest TR rating wins.
Terraforming Mars also currently has two different expansions. The first is the Hellas and Elysium; featuring a new double-sided board showcasing the Southern Hemisphere and the Opposite side of the original board. These new boards offer different geographical features for some nice variety plus new milestones and funding projects.
The second expansion is Venus Next in which you are trying to tame the volatile atmosphere of Venus in addition to terraforming Mars. You can also make floating cities and discover many new scientific projects.
Photos courtesy: BoardGameGeek
Terraforming Mars is a very fun game for the heavier complexity group. There are many interesting cards which teach you neat scientific ideas. If your group is looking for a fun, semi-cooperative game that utilizes goal fulfillment and area control I highly recommend this game.
While it’s a little on the long side, Terraforming Mars always a hit with my playgroup.
About the Author: Christopher Guyton
