Terraforming Mars Gameplay Runthrough

[@brandondwaite]

I know you don't really like this game, but I want you to know how much I appreciate you filming a run-through for it anyway. Others have done them already, but yours are the ones I really lean on when I am making and purchasing decision. Thanks for pushing through so that we can get a better idea of whether this game will work for us.

[@boardgamefangirl]

DITTO Squared! Richard's run-throughs really are detailed and super helpful and have definitely influenced my purchase decisions.

[@DavidKlausa]

Just curious, why don't they like the game? I felt it was sorta inelegant, with too much going on and no clear logical strategy, which I find frustrating, but I've only played it once.

[@MnMcoo]

Now I finally understand how to play the game - thank you!

[@sevatatarenkov7246]

Hi. I am pretty sure that you can play Search for Life as long as Oxygen is below 6%. However, once you play it, you can use it every generation, even when the oxygen level is higher than 6%. It talks about it on page 6 of the instruction manual, about how the requirement needs to be met when you play the card not when you use it later. Regardless, thank you for the tutorial, it was super helpful for getting started with the game.

[@PauloRenato23]

timestamp please

[@vanchaser]

At 10:12 - In a 2 player (only) game there is no second place. There is only 5 points for first place for awards.

[@Krste198]

The 2nd player will get victory points for that even if he doesn't own the reward?

[@Qui86]

Sounds like this guy is having a blast!

[@Eriadel]

I've just got this game today. A lot of fun and options. I simply love it even in the basic mode.

[@Jackanapes7]

When playing the standard game where everyone starts with a production of 1 across the board, EcoLine would still increase your plant production by 2, so you should have started at 3.

[@rahdo]

yup, that error was noted in the video and the video show notes. i'll still maintain that the way the rules are written though that my interpretation was correct (but that's just the rules being too vague) :)

[@Femaiden]

the way i read it...it looks like its just a flat “2” not a “+2” . I look at the operative words. It says “you start with 2 plant production” not “you start with +2 plant production “ granted, this gives them a smaller headstart if people use the standard “+1” to all production method over starting with nothing. but it just feels like that was the way they intended it. because the alternate start where you start with nothing was not the original way, that’s for the “corporate era” expansion, so it feels like the “spirit” was for ecoline to start with exactly 2 while everyone else starts with 1

[@PaulSmith-zs5je]

My wife and I played this game for the first time last night and there was very little "Take that" and found a number of opponent actions help the opposition. Found it well balance with different strategies. I had little Mega Credits and high heat and mining. She beat me by 10 VP in the end as she had the money to purchase the awards and milestones.

[@IainMabbott]

"Regolith is a fancy science word for dirt." :)

[@rahdo]

SCIENCE!

[@Toytoonsreviews]

Hi Rahdo, You have the best run through tutorial for this game by far. We had a hard time figuring out the game until we found your vids. Now we watch your vids for reference for our new games all the time. We just watched Roll Player, Near and Far and many others that we recently purchased, all of them are very easy to follow and entertaining to watch. Keep up the great work!

[@ludwigvanbeethoven61]

This will game will be legendary in 2032+

[@DanGalarzaCyber]

Interesting, so there *is* set collection, which is what I watched this video for: to find out what Tags were. Thanks for your help.

[@namrevo84]

"slowly but surely... terraform the planet mars" Nice one ;-)

[@JJ_TheGreat]

I just played this game for the first time at my game night. My issues with the game so far have to do with the end of game scoring. I had no idea while playing - for example, how plants and cities on the Mars map would be scored. I played with the corporation which helped me become efficient at heating up the planet, and the cards I received were more focused on improving my heat production than anything else. I also did not understand what microbes were and how to use them on the cards until 2/3 of the way through the game. As a result, I was able to get quick, easy points from each time I raised the temperature, but because I was not able to get cards which allowed me to build cities or gardens, I neglected getting anything on the map. Yes, I know that I could have spent 25 to build a city, but that is a lot of money to put something for which you do not know how it could help you - that is, not knowing how many points it would give you. I will have to give the game another try, now that I know what I need to focus on to score even at the end. In comparison, I am a Terra Mystica fan. In that game, you know exactly how you can get bonus points during the game - as well as at the end of the game. Analogously, my not knowing how points are scored at the end of the game in Terraforming Mars, would be like if I did not know how points would be distributed from the cult tracks ("Hmm... So if I can get to 5 on this one, maybe I'll end up with 5 more points") or from the final area scoring - if, for example, I were to just continue to expand my one town and make it as big as possible instead of using shipping to go elsewhere - and expand your foothold elsewhere around the map for final area scoring.

[@stvaf]

Woah, your time when playing this awesome Terraforming Mars is the same as mine..! Thanks for playthrough-ing this awesome game, Rahdo!

[@eusebiou-say-bee-oh326]

... playing through ? Around the world, English is already an amalgam of a language. It will only becomes more difficult to learn, for those who are learning, if we keep on making new rules for its use (...not being offensive, so please don't be offended 👍)

[@stormquiver]

think you missed placing the generation marker on the board.

[@DeathTheTeen]

Generation marker for multiplayer games is useless. It's only there to track how many generations your game took. Don't know why they added it in the general setup. It only has a purpose in solo and drafting variants.

[@xxalgorinxx]

epic fast review, i need this game after this!!! tks a lot!!!!

[@nezukoshop]

Wow, why being late, rahdo? I've already played this game 7 times since I bought. I have no regret buying this, the strategic rating @ BGG is high enough at 14th. :D

[@rahdo]

arranging co-host is tough. i actually filmed the runthrough over a month ago

[@veerchasm1]

This is a better version of Concordia with an endgame that makes thematic sense

[@robbmh87]

Where in rulebook does it state to use money for your resources instead of your player markers?

[@rahdo]

sorry, what moment (timestamp) are you referring to in the video?

[@josephsapiano6170]

Is there any player interaction apart from negatively effecting other players with card actions?? Sounds like pretty multi-player playing kind of solitaire to me...

[@rahdo]

there are lots of attack cards, you compete to beat players in several different metrics, you try to steal land from them on the board itself. it's one of the more "interactive" euro style games to come out in the last few years

[@cjanquart]

hell-E-on or he-Lee-on? SpaceBucks or MegaCredits? Who cares...it's a great game!

[@vognarov]

I just love your channel. There is simply no better way to learn new game on your own. English isnt even my mother tongue but it doesnt matter because your camera movement, explanations and thought process is so perfectly executed in every video, thank you and please keep going! :)

[@ronhatch9175]

Why does the "Sell patents" project have an icon with an X for the cash you receive? There must be some circumstance under which it gives you more than 1, right?

[@rahdo]

as an action, you can discard as many cards from your hand as you like and get $1 for each

[@Femaiden]

just gonna say, on your first turn you went into that whole explanation about jovian and space cards and explained the strategy with the mining right and why you wanted to put it on a titanium space. i was wondering why you put it on the “1 titanium” spot instead of the water space with 2 titaniums on it. i’m assuming that you thought you couldn’t do that because it is water. I believe you can, because if you look at the board, you will notice that there are a total of 12 ocean spaces but there are only 9 ocean tiles, in addition, there are exactly 3 of those special tiles such as mining rights and the sinkhole that could “potentially “ be placed on ocean tiles, this is why they put 12 ocean spaces on the board, it is to facilitate the fact the you HAVE to place all 9 ocean tiles to complete the game, while still allowing for those 3 special tiles to still be placed on the ocean spots. I also interpret it such that those blue spaces, technically don’t have any water on them at the start; they merely mark the spots where water will pool when we start melting icecaps and causing weather phenomena. it could be like...earth’s government “zoning” and they only approved certain projects to be allowed to be put there. just like that “city” hex, the city isn’t there yet, but the space is preplanned for the eventual city to be placed there, so nothing else can be put there

[@deuce1062]

you cannot play Mining Rights on an ocean-reserved space. you can only play ocean tiles there UNLESS a card specifically says it breaks those rules (3 cards do - mohole, protected valley, and mangrove). thus 12 spaces = nine required oceans plus the three special exceptions (of which mining rights is not one).

[@LoveDragonDon]

For beginners level, 10 cards that starts out are FREE actually.

[@PauloRenato23]

timestamp please

[@rolandoorozco599]

Great stuff as always. Curious...how long does it take you to learn a game so you're comfortable enough to do these awesome runthroughs?

[@rahdo]

one or two plays. in rare cases, no plays (see food chain magnate runthrough)

[@Femaiden]

also, i dunno why so many people dislike this game...i think it’s really smart and fun and i can’t understand why it got passed over by Mensa selects....and then Mensa selects games like Ghoooosts!(which i think is a stupidly dumb game) and Fluxx(which i do like, i just don’t understand why Mensa picked it) instead...

[@jerryf196]

This game or origin first builders?

[@rahdo]

origins for us, but i think that's a pretty minority opinion! :)

[@jerryf196]

@@rahdo thanks. Actually watching this video you did on origins: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZnRmGivlKegp8k

[@BoardgameswithNiramas]

Best game of 2016 imo! And the carebear aspect... I guess you could just remove those few card that are a bit mean? Now as a 2 player game I dunno, just played it with 3,4,5 players and it is just simply awsome as such!

[@aarondovauo1471]

Cool idea, not for us as we already have a healthy dose of "take that" in a fair number of our games.

[@Mat23]

You talk so fast at times dude... it was a bit hard to follow. But thanks for the run through eitherway. :)

[@adamheeley285]

The components look really cheap. It would probably sell more if they made them higher quality. The cards look like they were made on printer paper.

[@rahdo]

well they've already repeatedly sold out :)

[@KuddlyKisses]

Aw, I thought this was going to be cooperative -_- Terraforming Mars would have been a perfect theme.

[@terencerocckid5052]

Use alot of big air mattress to suck the gas out of mars atmosphere and put oxygen making factors at the poles while also planting plants or algae.😂😂😂

[@sirrichiofawesome9617]

Didn't you say you wasn't going to review this because it was too cut-throat?

[@rahdo]

i had said that i was hesitant to get the game in the first place becuase i was worried that it would be too cutthoat, but in the end, my voters *really* wanted to see it, and I did want to try it because I was confident it was going to be well designed, and I hoped it wouldn't be "too spicy" for us, but it turned out it was...

[@sirrichiofawesome9617]

***** I'm sorry it wasn't a game which would work for you and Jen, but I really appreciate you gave it a try and made a runthrough. You give the best reviews since you show how the game is played and don't just give your opinions and description of the rules. I rely on you for 95% of the games I am interested in and my wife will only watch you. I think Terraforming Mars will work for us, since the attack cards seem more setbacks than outright destruction, I need to see what my wife thinks before making my final decision Thanks again for the runthrough!

[@GameUp5406]

WHY U NO FINISH THOUGHT!!!!!!

[@rahdo]

sorry, not sure i understand

[@houndofzoltan]

Jen's a bit quiet...

[@SteveKelem]

Camera-work is too unsteady to watch without getting nauseous! Waving cards around in front of the camera is also disturbing, and we can't pause and read the cards. I ended up listening and glancing at the screen occasionally.

[@rahdo]

there's static cam versions of all my vids (check the shownotes)

[@ludwigvanbeethoven61]

It's fine.

[@truce11]

Badly need update in art quality. Looks bland but I want to like it

[@hiimsho3683]

I thought it was a fps game...

[@AUGOM0919]

i got more confused.. pffftt..

[@iammurphy]

I don't think Jen exists

[@rahdo]

oops, typo... faq.rahdo.com #1 :)

[@jdrmdrla]

Is he cute? Lol

[@azell2913]

is jen real?

[@rahdo]

faq.rahdo.com #1

[@amorbavian]

This guy's just talks without punctuation