Designer:  Jacob Fryxelius (After the Virus, Space Station, Terraforming Mars)

Artist:  Isaac Fryxelius (Brawling Barons, Terraforming Mars)

Publisher:  Stronghold Games (Among the Stars, AuZtralia, CO2, CO2; Second Chance, Core Worlds, Cottage Garden, Dark Moon, Diamonds, Die Macher, Fabled Fruit, Fields of Green, Flamme Rouge, Forum Trajanum, The Golden Ages, La Granja, Great Western Trail, Kanban: Driver’s Edition, Kitchen Rush, Kraftwagen, Nations: The Dice Game, Not Alone, Panamax, Paper Tales, Pictomania, The Pursuit of Happiness, Stronghold Second Edition, Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, Terraforming Mars, That’s Pretty Clever, Twice as Clever, Village)

Genre/Mechanisms: card drafting, economic, end game bonuses, expansion, hand management, hexagon grid, income, set collection, solo/solitaire game, space exploration, take that, territory building, tile placement, turn order: progressive, variable player powers

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Terraforming Mars Big Box + 3D Tiles is already fully-funded. In fact, pledges currently total more than 45x the initial funding goal with 2 days left to go on the campaign!

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode:  yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About: “A storage option for all the Terraforming Mars material released to date — the base game, five expansions, and the first-player rover — and a set of 3D terrain tiles to dress up the game. Terraforming Mars features players as corporations competing to terraform Mars, to advance human infrastructure throughout the solar system, and other commendable things.”

How It Works:  “In Terraforming Mars, you control a corporation, and you buy and play cards describing different projects. The projects often directly or indirectly contribute to the terraforming process, but can also consist of business enterprises of different kinds. In order to win, you have to accumulate a good terraform rating (TR) and many victory points (VPs). Your TR is increased each time you raise a global parameter (temperature, oxygen, or ocean). Your TR determines your basic income, as well as your basic score. As the terraforming process proceeds, more projects become feasible. Additional VPs are awarded for anything enhancing mankind’s grip on the solar system. This can be anything, from founding cities to building infrastructure, or protecting the environment.”

“Time is measured in generations, and each generation starts with a Turn Order phase, followed by a Research phase, in which players access new cards. In the Action phase, players take turns doing 1 or 2 actions, going around the table until everyone has passed. Then, in the Production phase, all players produce resources according to their production parameters on the player boards, and gain income from their TR.”

“The central game board has tracks for temperature, oxygen level, terraform rating, and generations. There is a surface map where you add ocean tiles, greenery tiles, and city tiles as the game progresses. There is also a list of standard projects available to all players, as well as milestones and awards that players can compete for.”

“The game ends when there is enough oxygen to breathe (14%), oceans enough to allow Earth-like weather (9), and the temperature is well above freezing (+8 ̊C). It will then be possible, if not comfortable, to live on the surface of Mars!”

“The winner is the player with most VPs at the end of the game. VPs come from your TR, your tiles on the game board, won awards, claimed milestones, and VPs on cards you have played.”

Comparisons: There are two things that really make Terraforming Mars unique. One is the gameplay. Tile placement, card drafting, and overall engine-building and resource management are the mainstays of Terraforming Mars, but the various expansions add so many different elements that it’s difficult to come up with a direct comparison. There are several other Mars-themed games on the market (from First Martians to On Mars to Mission: Red Planet), but none of those games play very similarly.

The other feature is Terraforming Mars’ questionable production value, something that recent Kickstarters have aimed to assuage. The Turmoil Kickstarter offered 1st-party dual-layered boards, components which are also featured in this campaign. And now, of course, is the ability to really bling out the game with 3D tiles. Although neither of these things have fixed the critiques of poor card stock and inconsistent card art. And for fans of the game, they may even have become part of its charm.

For comparisons sake, a few other well-regarded games that combine card drafting with tile placement (or tableau building) include Everdell, The Isle of Cats, Lisboa, Takenoko, Through the Ages, Wingspan, and to a lesser degree, Railways of the World and Underwater Cities.

What Should I Pledge?:
$79 Terraforming Mars: Small Box: includes 90+ 3D Tiles and Markers, 3 Project Cards, 18 Card Dividers, Storage Solution for 3D Tiles, and all unlocked milestones.
$99 Terraforming Mars: Big Box: includes everything from the Small Box pledge, plus 2 Deck Boxes, 5-Player Cube Holders and 2 Resource Cube Holders, and a Storage Solution for the base game, expansions, add-ons, Deck Boxes, and 3D Tiles.
$144 New Recruit: includes everything from the Big Box pledge plus a copy of the Terraforming Mars base game.
$179 Terraforming Veteran: includes everything from the Big Box pledge, plus copies of the expansions Prelude, Hellas & Elysium, Venus Next, Colonies, and Turmoil. Does NOT include a copy of the base game.
$224 Corporate CEO: includes everything from the Terraforming Veteran pledfge, plus a copy of the Terraforming Mars base game.

Add-Ons:
$10 Rover Mini: a First Player Marker miniature.
$20 Dual Layered Player Boards (5)
$15 City Domes (25)
$10 Trade Fleets: 8 Molded Ship Minis
$60 Metal Cubes: includes 200 metal resources
$50 Card Sleeves: includes 550 custom card sleeves
Individual expansions will also be available in the Pledge Manager as Add-Ons, but the prices have not been listed in the campaign.

KS Exclusives
It’s currently unclear if there are any KS Exclusives, but it’s entirely possible that only the Standard Edition will be headed to retail.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $224 for the Corporate CEO pledge, $10 for the Rover Mini, $20 for the Dual Layered Player Boards, $15 for the City Domes, $10 for the Trade Fleets, $60 for the Metal Cubes, $50 for the Card Sleeves, plus an estimated $46 in shipping for a total of $435.

Terraforming Mars Big Box + 3D Tiles completes its Kickstarter on Friday, July 3rd and tentatively ships in March 2021.