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Terraforming Mars

Like watching "The Martian" but with less potatoes!



Growing up in the 80s/90s had it's benefits.  Not the crazy hair, weird fashion; shoulder pads looking at you.  There was amazing music, and as a nerd who loves High fantasy/Sci-Fi/action films.  There was an arms race; all about the pump, between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.  

It was the golden age of action films.  One of my favorite films from that time is Total Recall.  Loosely based off the Philip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale"

Like in  the PKD story the main character of the film experiences a melding of a real and false memory and by the end of the movie has gone to Mars, reclaimed his real life, and started the Alien oxygen terraforming engine.

Hey Benny!  SCREW YOU!!!


As good as Total Recall is I'd like to think that Terraforming Mars takes place 50 years after the movie The Martian which is a more altruistic future for humanity.  Humans have scouted the planet enough and we're ready to send people for a one way trip to make the planet ready for Festivus(for the rest of us).

Maaaaaaaattttt Daaaaaaamooooonnnnnn

The game features fictional Mega Corporations who have a desire to Terraform Mars for all of Humanity to come and live as we have exhausted the Earth. 

The game is considered a Medium Euro style game.  What is a Euro you might ask?  Euro's are engine building games; usually economic and traditionally set in a European country and hence the moniker of Euro Game.

Terraforming Mars is a game for 1-5 Players in which 3 goals need to happen in order to end the game.  You need to Raise the Temperature of the planet to 0 degrees C, raise the Oxygen content of the planet to 14%, and melt enough ice caps to form 9 Oceans.

Each player has a board where each of their economic engines live.  You can mine for Steel and Titanium, increase Green plant production, Generate Energy and Generate Heat. 

Each turn you draft a certain number of cards and purchase projects and discard the rest.  If you have the right number of resources to pay for the cost you can play up to two on your turn.   Most of the projects that you complete affect the planet in some way, warming it up, making more oxygen, etc driving you closer to the end of the game.

The game board is double sided and there is an expansion out called Hellas and Elysium.  With a second one out soon called Venus Next.  There is a lot of variety and is a good gateway Euro game to the more intense heavies out there like Food Chain Magnate.

If you can find a copy at your FLGS I highly recommend picking it up!

Terraforming Mars on BGG

Here is a recent game we played.
So many cubes!

I've started to "pimp out" the board game



So far I've added a Broken Token organizer, 3d Printed Ocean Tiles, and some 3d printed City Tiles.  I will be painting them up and will document it on this blog!


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