Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition - Tutorial & Playthrough

Here is my Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition tutorial where I teach the game as it is being played. This video was voted on by Patreon supporters and you can check out / jongetsgames to learn more!
Teaching Timestamps:
Introduction - 0:00
Game overview - 0:38
Game start & planning step - 3:04
Resolve phases step & development - 5:27
Steel discount explanation - 11:39
Construction phase - 13:35
End step explanation - 17:30
Requirements explanation - 20:17
Flipping oceans & raising temperature - 23:10
Action phase - 25:44
Forest tokens & increasing oxygen - 27:53
Production phase - 30:26
Research phase explanation - 32:41
Finishing terraforming - 51:57
How the game ends - 53:50
Final scoring explanation - 54:19
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[@JonGetsGames]

CORRECTIONS: 1:17:02 - We forgot to increase our TR rating by 1 for flipping that ocean tile.

[@allison2525]

Your play throughs are just so great. I appreciate your content and the time and effort you put into all your videos.

[@markpatoka]

Nice playthrough and tutorial. I've only played it solo but knew I messed up one or two things and this playthrough helped confirm the correct actions.

[@francine7668]

You explain games like no other. Thanks so much!

[@VikingKittens]

So glad you took the time for this video! Good job Patreons!!! Great video and thank you Jon!!!

[@olivertremel9869]

Great tutorial, thank you! Perfectly explained and just the right amount of tactical thoughts. 👍

[@tomterrific7883]

Well Done!

[@jessiej1746]

Terraforming Mars: Race for the Galaxy Edition.

[@notlekard]

Lol basically

[@alexanderolferuk8496]

Really good playthrough, Jon, as always! And the game looks like my cup of tea :)

[@victornader]

Finally somebody explains pretty well the end step phase !

[@AhJong0]

Whatever people want to say about this versus TM, no one could disagree about the art! Those full bleed cards are gorgeous. Thanks for the video Jon, always superb 👍

[@JonGetsGames]

It's funny you say that because my wife does miss the TM art. She liked how all over the place it was :)

[@AhJong0]

@@JonGetsGames lol that really surprises me - I don't mind it's bizarre mishmash but I can't find it a positive. Always feel a consistent art style really gets me in the proper groove for a game 😄

[@Johnsemgawl]

Great playthrough, cant wait for this to arrive in (hopefully) August. Such a clean and fun game

[@spiozke]

Brilliant explanation just as always)

[@ionutsandu2830]

pff I was just searching eariler if you had already done a video on this game, and then... voila :) thank you, this is awesome!

[@scottlogan8293]

Thanks for the video it helped a lot!

[@TruckDrivinGamer]

1:10:55 Jon: we'll keep the dream alive and crash this into the planet Average Human: it's like this game was made for us, because we instinctively know how to take care of our planets 😂 Great game, Jon! I'm looking forward to purchasing this once I've paid off my Kickstarters, lol

[@ginrai2291]

I was pretty much on the fence with Ares Expedition, but in all honesty i haven't even played the original version of Terraforming Mars yet, But i am more confident that this game will make it in the collection in the no so distant future!

[@rpesel]

Race for the terraforming mars

[@crumpledfish]

I’d heard this was the love child of TM and RftG, and your video has definitely proven that to be true. As I count both of those among my favorite games, I am now super excited to get this. Thanks for the great tutorial!

[@MrNurglis]

I also love TM and RftG, but that puts me off: do I need this in my collection as well, if I already have those?

[@JonGetsGames]

Noone "needs" any game, but I personally never fully clicked with RftG and I have loved TM: Ares throughout my 3 plays so far.

[@crumpledfish]

I think the big appeal here for me is that TM:AE strikes me as more user-friendly than Race while still having the same feel. I've played quite a bit of Race and yet I still find myself having to stop and think sometimes about what a card effect is (usually Phase IV). As far as I can tell, the iconography on AE is much simpler to follow, which could make it easier to get new players to try it and stick with it.

[@JonGetsGames]

Agreed about the iconography. Also every card tells you explicitly how it works and what it's restrictions are which really helps new players.

[@redeyedghost1406]

@39:40 - "The red player has decided to play Power Grid." Me: Which map?

[@teflonravager]

Glad I watched your video! I was thinking about getting this but when you said 'As you can see they come in three different colours' I realized that might not be a good idea unless the green and red cards are easier to distinguish in person as I only see two colours of cards.

[@JonGetsGames]

Every red card is an event, and every event has the yellow-arrow event tag on it. So that tag is a way to easily tell the difference without using the cards color.

[@TravisErickson5]

It's worth mentioning (emphasizing?) that at 21:26 when you drew two cards and discarded the other two, you did NOT gain MC for this particular discard action (like one does at the end of the round).

[@BabulyaVmoskve]

Hi Jon! Each time when I look at the edges of main playboard of "TM: Ares" I wonder: how many expansions Fryxelius planning to publish. are there any information regarding?

[@JonGetsGames]

I haven't heard anything about potential expansions up to this point.

[@bobbell4227]

Minor point, at 51:18-19, the yellow player is conducting research, you tell folks they are drawing 5 cards due to the bonus, but only keeping 1 card. Of course, they keep 2 cards due to the bonus. You do actually keep two cards at 56:28, so it was just a verbal miscue.

[@JonGetsGames]

Ah, thanks for pointing that out!

[@zacharymartin1477]

Ok…asking for clarification Exactly when do you move the cubes on the production tracks (money, cards, heat, plants)? I know it happens during production phase, but do I do it after I’ve earned my production or before? And when do you move the cubes on titanium and steel tracks? I think I missed it.

[@JonGetsGames]

You move the cubes on all those tracks when cards are played that tell you to move them. This goes for titanium and steel as well as the resources that are produced.

[@steveleamont]

Ok - I don’t see a use for the card tracking? It would be great to have it go up since 1=3 MC! (Blue track under MC track). How does it ever go up?

[@JonGetsGames]

There are a few cards that increase your card production, so when production happens you draw cards equal to your level on that blue track.

[@elliottbarker1595]

i think at 1:11:47, green would have used their Restructured Resources card to spend a plant instead of 5 out of the 6 MC they needed to spend.

[@JonGetsGames]

Good idea, that didn't occur to me while filming.

[@jeffhiatt1682]

at 1:17 i THINK you missed raising your TR when you flipped an ocean for yourself (blue player). Really good playthrough...Karen and I really like this game and have played it 5 times already (and i still watched the playthrough). she beat me 94 to 52 in game 2 when she just built an monster of an engine, but i have squeaked out wins in the the other 4 games. I am curious what you think of this for replayability. We love TM the original game but it takes us a LONG time to play at 2 players, and we find that we can get our "TM fix" with this game in an evening, so this is going to continue to hit the table.

[@JonGetsGames]

Good catch at 1:17:02, I'll add a note now. I've played the game 2 times now (second was a 2 hour 3p game) and the engine I built was totally different from my first. I hope the replayability is good, so far I think it may be and after 2 plays I am looking forward to many more.

[@stefanformgren4978]

so the bonus is like pouerto rico (everyone do the card but cardlayer get bonus) , and the cards also works like roll/race for the galaxy (everyone can get 1,2,3,4,5 different actions to do), I have playd TM on APP for awhile, but interested to get this home for a faster game, dose it feal way to different or dose it still feel like TM ?

[@JonGetsGames]

To me it feels like a more laid back TM. There is less tension because there's almost nothing others can do to mess with you, unlike TM.

[@stefanformgren4978]

@@JonGetsGames sounds good, thanks for the answer

[@retromancer]

"The red player has decided to play Power Grid" Soo, they're quitting to go play a better game.

[@JonGetsGames]

I've honestly never been impressed with Power Grid, I've played it 3 times and I'm happy to be done with it there. I've played this game 6 times though, it's closer to my tastes.

[@jakubfijak9218]

Great video, but i am almost certain that you speak slower than that and you compensate that with increased video speed. It makes it more difficult to listen to.

[@JonGetsGames]

Nope, I only change the video speed when obviously fast forwarding through setups etc, my voice speed is never changed. I actually talk much faster than this regularly, but try to focus on talking slower for these videos due to many people having a hard time with speed.