Terraforming Mars

With quite a few games under my belt by now, I wanted to see whether Terraforming Mars could support a more stubbornly “off-board” approach. The result was a razor-thin, deeply satisfying win by a single VP, and another reminder of why I rank it so highly.

This time I mainly pursued cards that offer discounts instead of investing in board presence. With a little help from the draws, by the middle of the game I had a discount of 9–14 per card, plenty of minerals, and an extra 1–3 cards drawn each round. My game turned into a card engine that kept running better and better.

That choice meant my board was almost bare: I finished with just one city and two or three forests. Still, the card-driven plan paid off well enough to steal the victory by a point. With drafting, card selection gains even more weight, and I expect games to become tighter as everyone else at the table gets to know the game better too.

Terraforming Mars continues to be exactly what I want it to be: one of my favourite games, capable of accommodating different directions without losing its intensity. Even the short, barely hour-and-a-half game left room for an aperitif afterwards — a rare luxury for a game that keeps you this engaged.

Updated session

I brought it back out when the deluxe bling bling set arrived, for a two-player game with drafting and without Turmoil. My opinion did not change: it remains one of my favourites. Colonies felt a little underwhelming at two players, but not enough to spoil the overall experience. And the Big Box, along with its plastic pieces, is genuinely solid production work, even if its price was steep. As they say: it takes two to tango, three to terraform.