Terraforming Mars Base Game: A Comprehensive Ranking of Corporations

In this video I rank all of the base game corporations for the board game Terraforming Mars. I use a SWOT chart, talk about overall strategy, fun card combos, and give an overall ranking. Let me know if you would like to see more!
Here is a link to the overall chart for the video: imgur.com/59AODB4
Thanks for watching!
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:04 SWOT Chart Explanation
2:21 Strategy and Ranking Charts
3:34 Credicor
5:33 Ecoline
8:16 Helion
10:33 Mining Guild
12:41 Interplanetary Cinematics
14:22 Inventrix
16:21 Phobolog
18:54 Tharsis Republic
21:35 Thorgate
23:57 UNMI
25:58 Teractor
27:35 Saturn Systems
29:25 Beginner Corporation
30:56 Overall Thoughts

[@Sheijian]

Credicor B Ecoline A Helion D Mining Guild C Interplanetary Cinematics B Imventrix D Phobolog A Tharsis Republic A Thorgate C UNMI C Teractor A Saturn Systems B Beginner Corp D

[@marsexpert4276]

Great video! Love that you used a SWOT chart, finally something useful I learned about in university :D

[@strategygameplan9488]

Thanks! Your tier lists are great!

[@BoardInTheHouseBGAplayer]

thanks!

[@richehh]

Thanks for putting together that analysis. I enjoyed it. Disagree on many of the ratings though, but I guess that is the beauty of Terraforming Mars! For me, ecoline and Helion are by far the strongest cards (the caveat here is I only play 2 player so it may differ wildly with 3 and 4 player). Think you were spot on with most of your analysis, keep the videos coming mate

[@strategygameplan9488]

Thanks! For sure, I agree that's what's cool with Terraforming Mars is that there can be a lot of variation in strategy and what people feel is effective.

[@malcolm-chrisbikoumou972]

I think it depends on player count and expansions used. In my group, we play with Venus and Colonies. In this set-up, I think Ecoline is quite bad and Helion is one of the worst corp in the entire game. The reason is that with these 2 expansions, engine building and early money is better than terraforming. Ecoline doesn't have early eco. I also think Helion's ability is most of the time useless because one heat is worth more than 1M€. I don't think being flexible in how you use your heat is a good ability when most of the other corps get more value, sooner and easier.

[@definitelynotthequestion5359]

I could accept most of those, while i disagree, i can see the thought process. But Credicor B? What were you smoking? Its the most versatile of all, not reliant on cards, gets HUGE start money, discount on some standart projects as well. Easy A.

[@shamsi500]

Thank you very much for your efforts.

[@anggitaputri3123]

Hi, I just got my first copy of TM yesterday, I never played this game but watched how it played from couple of videos, I really have no idea which corp is better than the other until this video of yours explaining it elaborately 😁. Thanks, from 🇮🇩

[@strategygameplan9488]

Thanks for watching - hope you have fun!

[@PicklesRTasty]

This video makes me believe that drafting is a far more common mechanic than a niche optional the rulebook had implied.

[@strategygameplan9488]

I believe this to be the case as well!

[@David-xq3ec]

Good video!

[@strategygameplan9488]

Thanks!

[@danielluc4433]

Have you even played ranted online games? I think your ratings are quite off

[@davidjones88]

Credicor a B? It's often ranked near the top of people's tierlists. 57 starting money and -4 on standard project City and Greenery is huge. You have so many options for amazing gen 1-2 plays, mopping up plants and securing key places on the board, whilst having enough flexibility to take advantage of any potential space/Jovian openings. Its main strength is not about the 30+ cost cards in the game, but about the SPs and 20-30 cost cards. Phoblog is overrated as an A as it is super dependent on your opening hand. A lot of space cards are overvalued as they contain VPs and not much else for their cost. But, if you have a couple of decent ones it can be very effective, but you're going to get hate drafted and denied Jovians. You can take advantage of space events, particularly if you can target plants, but again this is vulnerable in draft play. Overall, it's an A at best, and much lower at worst. Inventrix slightly underrated. 3 card draw enables Planner milestone and you can then make a very well informed option with 16 cards in your hand and adapt to your opponents. It's not top tier by any means, but it's decent. Sometimes it's great if you have the right cards in hand (e.g. ocean requirement cards). Tharsis also overrated as an A. As soon as you reveal it, people will be careful with placing cities. Its effect is generally worse than Credicor. Generally agree with the rest, though; and I like the format. Nice vid.

[@hofical]

Helion in D? :O Whaaaaaaat? In the video you didn't even mention its ability to use heat (The worst resource as you point out) as money (The best resource as you point out). A mistake? Helion IMO is one of the strongest corporation because the ability to have money produced from two sources is so powerful. Also if you draft there is another inherent bonus: people generally do not want to take heat focused cards but if you are in play with Helion they may face tough choices wether to let you take a huge heat card or to take it and discard it (to avoid you having it) leaving you with other strong cards to choose from.

[@in1548]

Are you planning to do an extension with all the expansions? My group plays with fan madea and expansions so I would like to get your thoughts on those

[@strategygameplan9488]

Sure! I'm planning on doing all of the expansions first, but that sounds like a good idea. The only 'fan' expansions I've played with are the 'Ares' and 'Community' based corporations. I've always been interested in those corporations that didn't quite win the BGG promo corporation contest a few years back as well.

[@mingluo1513]

Playing with all expansions, Teractor is the best basic company.

[@pawepawe8387]

I find Inventrix more flexible than Phoblog. With Inventrix you can easily go for Planner Mile Stone. Science tag is not to be underestimated (It helps to activate IA Central, mass converter, etc. earlier). It's ability is not that bad. With preludes I also managed to play kelp farming in 1st generation which was amazing. Phoblog is not flexible at all. You better find titanium production and some space cards that are good early on. I would place Inventrix with A/B tier and Phoblog with C/D. Don't get me wrong, I had some amazing games with Phoblog, but this corporation is very situational. Tharsis is not that good. More experienced players will avoid placing cities on the board. Playing too many cities as a tharsis is common trap. With no greeneries to follow cities give not many points. Saturn Systems is one of the most flexible corp to play. You start with 42 MC and 4 production (1 MC and 1 Titanium) which is pretty good. You do not any Jovian tags to win, other players play Jovians a little less willingly.

[@strategygameplan9488]

Thanks for watching!

[@dieminestinkt]

if you have standard projects on hand tharsis becomes an easy S-Tier though. You don't need people to place cities. There are so many winpoints and recourses on the board. that deterring people from competing for those is already a bonus in itself. alternatively if you find plant production and cheap water placement, you can really get strong combos going, benefiting of placement bonuses. If no one competes the board and you are free to place your cities. you can effectively get a 2 generation production headstart from placement bonuses on everyone.

[@qad417]

Inventrix is one of the best corpo... you just dont understand it yet. Card with science tag gives you a lot of cheap energy + more cards + lower costs of building cards. All this give you cheap victory points. I think this is Super corp.

[@MrAntagonistMan]

Funny how ecoline is one of the best corps in 2 player but one the worst in 3 or more... It boils down to getting targeted by hate cards and board dominance. in 2 player games, you cant opt to target anyone else so it doesn't matter what corp you pick in that regard. Plus, having an extra 1 to 3 gens is critical for ecoline cause you can just RAKE in the board points

[@strategygameplan9488]

For sure there's big variation when it comes to player count, expansions used, etc. - thanks for watching!

[@in1548]

Tip making videos. Give an overall picture somewhere or quick guide video marks. Scrolling through a thirty minute video is really troublesome

[@strategygameplan9488]

Thanks! I can for sure do that - This has been an interesting learning process for me. I will add some timestamps for this video now.

[@strategygameplan9488]

I added KZbin Chapters, do you think that works or do you think a digital image of a chart at the beginning of the video works better?

[@in1548]

@@strategygameplan9488 This is way way better!!! Thank you.

[@mexgiova]

Ecoline sucks. Best are Credicor, IC and Mining Guild.