Let's Terraform: MARS

One thing that makes TM better than most tableau games is that your engine gets to run for awhile before the game ends; too many other games end just as it starts peaking.

Msample wrote: One thing that makes TM better than most tableau games is that your engine gets to run for awhile before the game ends; too many other games end just as it starts peaking.

I think one of the great things about TM is that it does what many games in the genre set out to do without falling into the most usual pitfalls. That is, it's an engine-builder pure and through. It's not a train game or aSplotter title, it covers the same ground as Race for the Galaxy, Agricola just without the bad things that implies

- It's competitive: To me this is the most important aspect of the game. In Terraforming Mars if you do not score a point someone else will. It's not a purely positive game, you cannot win if you never try to deny or take advantage of the actions of your opponents.

- Your actions change the game and force opponents to react: In, say, Lords of Waterdeep the actions of your opponent are irrelevant in that what they do barely changes your plans. You could more or less replace them with a random blocking of spaces and little will change. You do not take really take into consideration beyond a new building popping here and there Here that's not true, here you must steer the board and the game so that you are the one beneffiting fom the terraforming instead of your opponents.

- It's somewhat tight and leans strategic: Compared to other engine-builders the resources in this game are tight. You are always short in money, always short in cards and there's a real feeling of having to choose. You won't inevitably snowball and you have to make sacrifices early on to be able to score later.

- It's fun and easy to play: I think this is a very accessible title. It's simple and can be played with practically everyone without much of a fuss.

Is Terraforming Mars going to become a modern classic in the vein of Age of Steam and Cosmic Encounter? Probably not. It's probably closer to something like Caylus, Chaos in the Old World or Eclipse: Great at what it does but bound to gradually become passé. Not that it matters when you are loving every game.

Hope that helps.

It turns out my wife really likes this game. Go fig - games with cards with lots of text aren't normally her thing.

For me, the player mats suck pretty badly. I tend to bump stuff, which means that my income cubes tend to wander all over the mat. Although this can be strategically valuable, I guess I'd rather not have to round up cubes every other turn. So I'm trying to put my wife's Cricut machine to work by cutting chipboard player aids to hold the cubes in place. I'm going to blow the mat up to 125%, and make a cube wrangler to lay on top of the income grids.

I've seen a couple of other ideas that might work instead. Another one is to glue a magnetic sheet under a player mat, and glue 8mm rare earth magnets under 12 or so player cubes per side. Yet another is to glue self-fusing tape onto the player mat and cubes. Of course if you have a laser cutter or a CNC router, the world is your oyster.

Erik Twice wrote: Is Terraforming Mars going to become a modern classic in the vein of Age of Steam and Cosmic Encounter? Probably not. It's probably closer to something like Caylus, Chaos in the Old World or Eclipse: Great at what it does but bound to gradually become passé. Not that it matters when you are loving every game.

Hope that helps.

You watch your tongue.

Stonecutter wrote: You watch your tongue.

I'm actually a bit unsure why I used Chaos as an example since it doesn't seem to fit my example that well. It's hard to explain what I mean, I just think it's a good game but that it might not become a referrent? Something like that.

I bought some wooden mats for the cubes. They cost me 25€ which is expensive (50% of the game's cost) but after thinking about it I got them. It's a game I want to play a lot and if I play it a hundred times then it's worthwhile (So far I have 30+ games between multiplayer and solo games).

Erik Twice wrote:

I bought some wooden mats for the cubes. They cost me 25€ which is expensive (50% of the game's cost) but after thinking about it I got them. It's a game I want to play a lot and if I play it a hundred times then it's worthwhile (So far I have 30+ games between multiplayer and solo games).

One of my friends bought the Broken Token TM kit, which is a touch expensive for an add-on, but really nice. For me, keeping the cubes from getting knocked off the mat is 90% of the battle. It might be worth it, though. Maybe I can hypnotize the wife, since our anniversary is coming up.

Erik Twice wrote: I bought some wooden mats for the cubes. They cost me 25€ which is expensive (50% of the game's cost) but after thinking about it I got them. It's a game I want to play a lot and if I play it a hundred times then it's worthwhile (So far I have 30+ games between multiplayer and solo games).

You think that's expensive‽ I just bought the expansion. Half the price of the game, but with only a board and none of the cards. Clearly we need government intervention to prevent abuse of the vulnerable hobby game market.

dysjunct wrote: You think that's expensive‽ I just bought the expansion. Half the price of the game, but with only a board and none of the cards. Clearly we need government intervention to prevent abuse of the vulnerable hobby game market.

Well, I do think that paying 50% more just so bumping the table doesn't ruin the game is pretty expensive. I'm fine with the expansion since it's a piece of design and adds something sustantial, it's not a semi-mandatory component upgrade to address one of the game's flaws.

Keep in mind I'm unemployed and my transportation pass takes more than 50% of my parent's stipend.

I use the Gametrayz player boards. They take up a lot of space in the box, but they work well.

dysjunct wrote:

Erik Twice wrote: I bought some wooden mats for the cubes. They cost me 25€ which is expensive (50% of the game's cost) but after thinking about it I got them. It's a game I want to play a lot and if I play it a hundred times then it's worthwhile (So far I have 30+ games between multiplayer and solo games).

You think that's expensive‽ I just bought the expansion. Half the price of the game, but with only a board and none of the cards. Clearly we need government intervention to prevent abuse of the vulnerable hobby game market.

The expansion rules. It adds a ton more variety with zero extra rules, and fits in the original box. That's value.

JEM wrote: I use the Gametrayz player boards. They take up a lot of space in the box, but they work well.

An example where pencil and paper, or a dry-erase marker would work better than what's implemented in the box. But pencils aren't "elegant" enough to be used these days.

I wonder if you put fancy Japanese pencils in the box if it would be considered elegant enough. Muted colors, gold inlaid text . . .

No. You know "what this game needs is a good set of clay poker chips."*


* I lost a bet, I need to include that phrase in 13 internet threads today.

A notepad, Avalon Hill style.

Seriously, I guess the downside is that other players' income values are sometimes required. You can ask, and I guess you kind of have to ask anyway, cubes or not. I know that with the cubes, one glance tells you "not much" or "a lot". As in, "I have to beat X, in Me income, and I think I can do it."

Erik Twice wrote:

Stonecutter wrote: You watch your tongue.

I'm actually a bit unsure why I used Chaos as an example since it doesn't seem to fit my example that well. It's hard to explain what I mean, I just think it's a good game but that it might not become a referrent? Something like that.

Aw I'm just kidding, man. I do get what you're saying though. No chance it becomes a referent. Very out of print, and everyone's attitude towards it is 'this game is awful" (because they played it twice and decided either Nurgle or Khorne was OP) or a desperate, deep love from those of us with 10-20+ plays.

RobertB wrote: Erik Twice wrote:

I bought some wooden mats for the cubes. They cost me 25€ which is expensive (50% of the game's cost) but after thinking about it I got them. It's a game I want to play a lot and if I play it a hundred times then it's worthwhile (So far I have 30+ games between multiplayer and solo games).

One of my friends bought the Broken Token TM kit, which is a touch expensive for an add-on, but really nice. For me, keeping the cubes from getting knocked off the mat is 90% of the battle. It might be worth it, though. Maybe I can hypnotize the wife, since our anniversary is coming up.

I *just* got this, literally put it together last night. As I was building it I had a bit of buyers remorse in a "this is way more than I need for this game" way, but once it was all built and in the box, I was really feeling the utility of it. The card tray and the tray to hold the special tiles is totally overkill, but the player mat replacements and the resource + city/forest tile trays are excellent additions.

Stonecutter wrote:

I *just* got this, literally put it together last night. As I was building it I had a bit of buyers remorse in a "this is way more than I need for this game" way, but once it was all built and in the box, I was really feeling the utility of it. The card tray and the tray to hold the special tiles is totally overkill, but the player mat replacements and the resource + city/forest tile trays are excellent additions.

I broke down, gave up on my cube conquering plans, and bought the Broken Token organizer. It only took a completely shameful amount of begging to get the needed purchasing authority*. My coworker's copy is sitting on my table at home, and it's pretty nice.

*Actually, the boss got sick of hearing my plans, and just told me to buy it.

I normally don't drag BGG posters over the coals, but if you go look up TM forum threads, you'll see that about 1/4 of the threads have to do with, "How do I fix these shitty player mats?", and about half of the replies are, "I have no problem with them, they're awesome, you need to suck less." Guess the problem was just me then. Thanks for the advice.