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

Artist: Isaac Fryxelius (Brawling Barons, Terraforming Mars, Thrice Nice Mice)

Publisher: Stronghold Games (Aftershock: San Francisco & Venice, Among the Stars, AuZtralia, Brikks, Calimala, Core Worlds, Cottage Garden, CO2, Dark Moon, Diamonds, Fields of Green, Flamme Rouge, Forum Trajanum, The Golden Ages, La Granja, Great Western Trail, Indian Summer, Jorvik, Kanban: Driver’s Edition, Kitchen Rush, Kraftwagen, Medina, My Village, Nations: The Dice Game, Not Alone, Panamax, Paper Tales, Pictomania, Porta Nigra, The Pursuit of Happiness, Revolver, Space Cadets, Spring Meadow, Stronghold, Survive: Escape From Atlantis!, Terraforming Mars, That’s Pretty Clever, Twice as Clever, Village)

Genre/Mechanisms: card drafting, hand management, resource management, set collection, take that, tile placement, variable player powers

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Terraforming Mars: Turmoil is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total 65x the initial funding goal!

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: low

What It’s About: The newest expansion to Terraforming Mars that adds new corporations, new projects, and new Global Events. Terraforming Mars has players battling for the surface of Mars and its resources on behalf of various corporations. It combines hand management, resource management, and tile placement.

How It Works:  Terraforming Mars is played over a series of rounds, or generations, each consisting of 4 phases.  Phase 1 is the Turn Order Phase where first player shifts clockwise and the Generation Marker moves up a step.  Phase 2 is the Research Phase, where players draw four cards and decide which cards they can afford to buy.  Phase 3 is the Action Phase.  Each turn players take 1-2 actions, including A) playing a card from their hand, B) using a standard project, C) claiming a milestone, D) funding an award, E) using the action on a blue card, F) converting 8 plants into a greenery tile, or G) converting 8 heat into a temperature increase.  After all players have completed all the actions they choose to take for the round and passed, Phase 4, the Production Phase, occurs. Players convert their energy into heat, and receive new resources based on their terraform rating and money production, as well as their player boards.  When the three global parameters– ocean, temperature, and oxygen– have reached their goals, the end-game triggers.

Comparisons: The heart of Terraforming Mars are the simultaneous card drafting/hand management/tableau building and tile placement mechanisms, buoyed by the resource management.  While I can’t think of a direct comparison, games like Clans of Caledonia, Gaia Project, and Terra Mystica similarly have dual mechanism systems with players going back and forth between tableaus or player mats and the construction of a network of buildings/tiles on a map.

What Should I Pledge?:
$34 Mars Attacks: the new expansion & stretch goals. 
$79 Political Chaos: Mars Attacks plus the core game, Terraforming Mars.
$94 Uncertain Times: the new expansion & stretch goals, plus all of the other expansions to-date: Prelude, Hellas and Elysium, Venus Next, and Colonies.  This does not include a copy of Terraforming Mars itself.
$139 Turmoil: Uncertain Times plus Terraforming Mars.

Add-Ons:
None!

KS Exclusives:
First of all, the Dual Layer Player Boards, which this game should not be played without, are Kickstarter Exclusive. It’s great that Stronghold Games has included their own solution so that owners don’t have to go buy something from a third-party.  But it won’t be available with retail copies.  Additionally, the batch of 17 stretch goal cards are exclusive and will not be included with retail copies.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $139 for Turmoil plus $19 for shipping, for a grand total of $158.

Terraforming Mars: Turmoil completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, May 2nd and tentatively ships in November 2019.