Every Game is Awesome 36: Terraforming Mars

[@mbeebe10]

Have played this game a few times now and I think it gets better and better the more we learn different strategies. Great game and great review.

[@JackChurchill101]

Played it yesterday and was impressed by how seamless the mechanics worked. The world is very carefully realised and there's enough subtlety in the cards to build an air of personality and roleplay. The Forests are a little overpowered as a resource, but apparently that is addressed in the expansion where Steel and Titanium are promoted to balance things out. If anything the game does spend a little too long in the "Midgame". - Whilst it does take time to get your engine rolling, many of the most ambitious things you want to achieve are only possible in the last 15 to 20 minutes, as the oxygen gets higher and the heat goes above 0. So you don't really have time to enjoy the fruits of your engine as it's a mad rush to cram in as many points as you can before your opponents finish the game by hitting that "8 degrees mark". - This does however add the desire to replay, so perhaps it is more about replayability than lording over your achievements.

[@uglyelmo5205]

Just played this tonight: It is a very good game. One of the few our group will play several times.

[@lovenilsson9681]

Best game ever! My gaming group has a demo copy and I can easily play this several times on the same day. As they say in the review - it's long, but it doesn't feel long.

[@jankogo]

I actually played a prototype of this game with one of the designers in my gaming group. Good for him to make it to the big leagues!

[@shanelaporte]

Well this just landed on my radar now. Thanks for the review guys!

[@timhicks4141]

Really looking forward to this run of Mars games. I *love* this theme.

[@rebeccalightbody7779]

Hey! You guys should do TOP TEN engine building games!

[@knoxcolten8910]

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[@rohancrew1988]

@Knox Colten instablaster ;)

[@knoxcolten8910]

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[@knoxcolten8910]

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[@rohancrew1988]

@Knox Colten No problem =)

[@gamingcouplegaatbgg3254]

There is a Race for the Galaxy boardgame in the works and they have a bar set for them now, not that Race didn't set it high anyway. I am glad Tom said RftG because I was thinking that too. I love games like this with A LOT of unique cards that offer different strategies and fun combos. The journey is definitely better than the destination on these games. Great review! Haven't been the biggest Jason fan of late but his poise and presence in this series is starting to grow on me. Also, RftG is still my favorite art in ALL of boardgaming. The art itself makes me visualize whole worlds in an instant. No other art draws me in like that so quickly. I wish they would have hired that bunch or got someone to make the cards look that good. EDIT: Agree with other posters, the graphic design is also very important. The primary colors in this game aren't necessary and detract from the theme.

[@kevinross1806]

sci-fi euro game with take that mechanics. love playing this game. Awesome review mr. vasel

[@ashleepradella4912]

Cannot wait to play this!!!!!! :D

[@nodnarb247]

Looks like I'll be picking up a copy...

[@gnomechompsky4996]

Interesting review! Thanks, guys!

[@studionovas6831]

I JUST LOOOOOOOVE this game!!!! Do you know of some other games that gives the same feeling? The feeling that it just doesn't really matter if you win or loose, it was just the journey was so much fun!????????

[@paulandrews331]

Horrified

[@dansioui9819]

Everdell

[@Syncopator]

I do like enginebuilding, and given the number of cards this one has it seems like it would have a lot of variation/replayability.... Haven't decided yet but this one seems to be worth serious consideration....

[@chiefarmorer]

Played twice. It's going on my good list.

[@scottfett6136]

I think we need to get Jason a stack of phone books to sit on.

[@GreggBolinger]

As an engine building game, it's 90% solo, the biggest lag is mid-late game player turns taking way too long. Especially in a full 5 player game. This is compounded with newer players that need to read every single card and improves over time with experienced players, but it can still be a problem. Aside from that, I think I like it a lot. Need more playing time in though.

[@jonazo7188]

I like that the game lightly punishes you for a lot of the "take that" actions with negative points. In a way this game almost has a cooperative feel, because you're all working toward the same goal (that is, uh, terraforming Mars), so when you raise the oxygen level or the temperature, even though you might be the only one scoring points on it right now, it's good for everyone, for the purpose of moving the game along, as well opening up opportunities for new cards for the other players to play (that required a certain temperature/oxygen threshold, for example). I've only played it once but I really got that "wow, I love this game" feel from it.

[@TheWarmupLap]

We did a 4 player game where we drafted. Took 4.5 hours with teaching. :(

[@BlimpMcGee]

wow, was considering it, but now it's a hard pass, thanks!

[@TheWarmupLap]

Just as a follow up we did a 4 player game with teaching and we didn't draft, and it was over in 8 generations. Less than 2 hours.

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

The "wait a moment, the game ended, but I was having so much fun!" is the general curse of any engine building game, sadly. Like when the seven turns in Above and Below are over.

[@aowoodworks2408]

which is why in our group we extend above and below to 9 turns

[@clintdelong4532]

yea, Above and Below always feels too short to us as well.

[@christofarien]

Tor Iver Wilhelmsen Big Red Raven Games fan, but with all their games you really need to expand the rounds. Especially with City of Iron.

[@Alluvian567]

Every time he says 'lichen' I die a little.

[@ErmineskinCreelov]

The theme song, a cheesy version of "Hurts So Good" by John Mellencamp, is what sold it for me.

[@DanGalarzaCyber]

I love engine building, so I'll be down with this.

[@danielfilip1284]

17:31 Interresting, I played this with the creator a few month ago with 5 players and he said the game playes faster the more of you there are.

[@adelfaidah3224]

I partially agree. Look here's how it is, if they are all experienced it will most likely go faster as someone is bound to terraform mars and thats all good the problem is, when you play with inexperienced players all you get is a bunch of people suffering from analysis paralysis where you might as well play a game on the side till your turn is up

[@douglasdea637]

It's a good game, good enough that I bought my own copy, with all the expansions, despite my buddy having a full set. It's quickly become one of my favorites. It's the kind of game that when you finish you immediately want to reset and play again.

[@matttinnell6874]

It's so awesome to be awesome

[@inuinuinuinuinu]

ugh i've been waffling on this one for a while and now i think i have to keep my preorder :P

[@mattpkp]

Wish they had an expansion tht let you build a better city and more tiles to place on the board, some area of control or combat. The engine is strong just missing a big expansion that builds upon the game.

[@briancline7349]

Next to Jason, Tom looks like a giant among men...

[@matttinnell6874]

Every card is Awesome----Jason :)

[@glencannondr]

1:19 for OCD trigger

[@hypnoticsorin8016]

This game looks really good, but I'm hearing it takes around 2-3 hours to play. Sadly It's really hard to find people I know who are willing to commit that much time to one game. Such a bummer, there is so many games I have to miss out on because of this. Not sure if it's worth getting for just solo play

[@twenty-sidedturtle2107]

Could this game be played co-op? Seems like if you can play solo you can play co-op.

[@eugenb.8448]

So the question is: If you only get one Mars game is it this one or First Martians from Portal. I'm leaning towards First Martians because of the way the app will be used but this is tempting.

[@MrRyoga84]

best game this year!! so far :)

[@aarond.8586]

You only get the number of M€ in your production at the beginning of each generation, correct? In the video Tom says every turn, but I just want to clarify that it doesn’t mean you can use the credits in your production tracker during each action phase, or have I been playing this wrong?

[@steveg7000]

I gotta get me some of those Geekboxes. Wonder if they're sold by a U.S. retailer....

[@k9thexv630]

From the 0:24 mark to the 1:02 mark these guys mention that Terraforming Mars was one of the three Mars themed games. What are those other two games called?

[@doidletp]

K9theXV Mission Red Planet is one.

[@chadcampbell8393]

Nice shirt Jason, do you help out with Lucha Underground?

[@teslavoltagames3208]

Love this game. It is now my 4th favorite game. I did make a how-to play video series on this game if you want to check it out.

[@AbbaLang]

which would you say are your top 3?

[@Xanduur]

What are the other Mars games?

[@DanielSong39]

Reminds me of Outpost.

[@blaice9226]

Here we have litchin...

[@impostor53]

Nice review, thanks! What's the game they mention around 22:45? "Dragon of" something.... ???

[@webs1]

The Dragon & Flagon, the tavern brawl movement programming game by Geoff Engelstein that is also published by Stronghold. I think Tom gave it a 8.

[@evgenidimitrov7790]

I just played the game for first time, and if you do not use drafting, it is heavily luck based. And how you can not complain about the player sheet, since if you hit the table, all of the cubes move around and you lose track on everything.

[@HikageMaru]

I wasn't impressed with the card quality. Flimsy and some of the cards came out of the box damaged. Also, some of the flavor text on the cards have awkward grammar. Have not had a chance to play it. Looking forward to it regardless of my nitpicking.

[@e.l.2386]

Does anyone know when this will be available? Can't find it anywhere.

[@Dalibor6]

It was available in Essen.. still in pre-release i think.

[@leakedzebra]

I love this game, but the box is flimsy and there is absolutely no way to organise it all

[@gheilers]

I like the box. It reminds me of the classic SPI game boxes from the 1970s. The board is also very nice - gorgeous subdued secondary colors, as opposed to the usual bright and distracting primary colors. The counters are also nice, for the same reasons. The cards, however, are sub-par - non-matte finish, way too many colors, so-so artwork, and poor choice in colors (including what seems to be annoying metallic pigments). The game's theme and mechanics are a bit underwhelming. For my "Mars fix" I will still turn to SPI's classic "BattleFleet Mars" and "John Carter." :-) boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3369/john-carter-warlord-mars boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3662/battlefleet-mars

[@Mat23]

Wish the player boards didnt look so cheap

[@TheMrE]

The graphic design kills me.. those yellows and greens and the fonts and the crappy silver gradients in the cards .... Argh.. I need to try this game first to see if it overcomes all that.

[@saykhia]

Same. And the font choices :S some of the card art is really nice though, which contrasts the card design even more

[@mgouat]

Though it looks interesting there are many games that are interesting and are also not painful to look at. And plastic cubes, bleargh.

[@roberta.3760]

I think this is a game that will do much better component wise with a second edition. I'll wait for them to make some money, put some time into development, refine game play, release that 2nd edition, and then I'll pick this game up.

[@BeyondtheLens]

totally my feeling. I can not buy it. On the otherhand i bought yamatai because of the looks and it is boring AS F**K

[@marcwebber3481]

Lichen pronounced Lie-kin

[@wesswingley7441]

YES!

[@ilovecokeslurpees]

I was just about to post that. :P

[@teflonravager]

Both pronunciations are correct.

[@HighDiveFilms]

Both are correct, US Pronunciation and UK Pronunciation: dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/lichen

[@Fissi0nChips]

One is correct, one is a bastardization.

[@TheHouseofPanda]

I couldn't understand this game. My wife and I couldn't understand the rules and we know we played a few rules wrong. Definitely didn't feel like playing it again. Any tips?

[@blackjack2150]

Awesome game, but the player boards are trash and deserve to be called out. It's not really a cheap game either.

[@jareksmith3554]

Lichen is pronounced "like-en", but it definitely looks like "lich-en"

[@ddiver7908]

It's a 8.5 out of 10. There i saved you 23:40 of your life

[@tortoiseman526]

it's very multiplayer solitaire, and I felt at no time did the theme come through. it's a decent game but nothing more

[@Uther1313]

Its fun up until the mid game where its obvious who is going to win. Very tedious after that point. Minimal interaction. Limited options. Engines dry up and become useless. Too random in the card draws for me to really enjoy it that much. Unless my friends really want to play there are so many other games that I would rather play than this one.

[@donnied6477]

such as?

[@LeRoi81]

Not every game!

[@siturl5834]

The board looks really bad....tiles have garish colours, and Mars isn't even Red? (Crème coloured?) Not meaning to sound critical, but the art really sells a game to me.

[@gheilers]

Actually, that board is pretty close to the actual color of Mars. :-)

[@homelessjoe]

That's not a compliment. Mars is drab. Just because something is accurate doesn't make it nice on the eyes.

[@Altodromo]

I think the game is ugly in cosmetic terms, buts its my favorite game of all time. Try it if you feel like it, I think you wont regret it.

[@adamheeley285]

Those play mats suck, its enough for me to not want to buy the game. The cards also look super flimsy.

[@justinrrizzo]

adam heeley Yeah....I was just looking to buy this, but the components look like mud...and Tom said it was the components they turned it around for him. Haha.