12/2/2023 0 Comments Terraforming mars rules![]() The game needs to be played to get a feel for these aspects. ![]() The tutorials are well done, but the complexity of how to know when to use various cards or actions is something that really can’t be taught in a tutorial situation. From the standard projects to the project cards to the scoring, and so on. There are five tutorials, each of which takes a few minutes and walks through a basic aspect of the game. The game contains a series of tutorials and a text set of rules which are indexed so you can skip around as you’d like. There is a fair amount of minutiae along the way that needs to be explained, but the basics are fairly straightforward. ![]() The tough part isn’t explaining how to play a card, it’s trying to convey why you would play Card A over Card B at a given point. The basic rules can be explained quickly, at least relative to the weight of the game. Terraforming Mars is a difficult game to teach not because of complex rules, but because of complex strategies. It simply *feels* like what a capital ‘B’ Big Game should. It has a fun theme, some cool mechanics, a huge amount of replay variety with the massive card count, the open-endedness of the whole thing leaves players feeling completely in control of their destinies. Once things start to click into place, you can see why the game is so beloved. The game comes off surprisingly tactical for such a long affair, as you will likely need to change directions based on available cards a few times along the way. This gives new players an overwhelming sense of dread trying to figure out what a decent strategy might be, and gives experienced players a lot to look forward to from one game to the next. Making players purchase cards so that they can later purchase the right to play them ensures that everything a player does is in their own hands. Terraforming Mars is very much open-ended. At the end of the game you will find yourself having played an outrageous number of cards which lead to your success or failure in becoming the most powerful corporation on Mars. The Standard Projects are the other primary way to take actions, but those take a backseat to the cards you are able to play. These cards will drive your production levels and other actions. During the research phase at the beginning of each generation you purchase cards into your hand and then must pay their cost to play them later. I’ve probably not made it clear enough thus far, so let me spell it out directly Terraforming Mars is a card-driven game. You also work towards the global terraforming goals which provide you VP and therefore increased currency production. You work towards building your engine so you can produce more currency and other resources so you can do more, better things as the game progresses. ![]() You get two actions per turn, and there are only a few distinct types of actions you can take. For how much there is going on, the basics of Terraforming Mars are surprisingly simple. Others are used to reduce the cost of playing certain cards, and so on. One will allow you to trade them for a greenery tile, for example. There are six resources in the game and each has a production rating which you can increase to produce more for you at the end of each generation. Raising these levels provides some benefit to the player doing so, but it also acts as a bit of a race element where a frontrunner might be able to push the game closer to ending than other players would prefer. The game continues until each of these three values hit their specified levels, at which point that generation ends and final scoring takes place. At the same time, the players will be working towards terraforming the planet by increasing three global attributes: Oxygen level, temperature, and the number of oceans on the planet. Each player must attempt to gain as many VP as possible, which is done in a variety of ways. The game pushes players in two directions. A generation ends once all players have decided to stop taking actions. Players make take as many turns as they want/are able to in a generation. Building a city, for example, costs 25 while calling in an asteroid costs 14. Most actions come at a cost, each card has a cost associated with it while the Standard Projects all have fixed costs. Other actions include purchasing Milestones or Awards which will reward players with VP at the end of the game. The primary actions include playing a card from their hand, choosing from one of a handful of constant Standard Project actions, or trading resources for some effect. Once corporations are chosen, play begins.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |