2016 strategy board game

Terraforming Mars is a board game for 1 to 5 players designed by Jacob Fryxelius and published by FryxGames in 2016, and thereafter by 12 others, including Stronghold Games.

In Terraforming Mars, players take the role of corporations working together to terraform the planet Mars by raising the temperature, adding oxygen to the atmosphere, covering the planet's surface with water and creating plant and animal life.[1] Players compete to earn the most victory points, which are measured by their contribution to terraforming and to human infrastructure. Players accomplish these goals by collecting income and resources which allow them to play various projects, represented by cards (drawn from a deck of over 200 unique cards), which increase their income or resources or directly contribute to terraforming the planet or building infrastructure.

The game has been well received by fans and critics, winning and being nominated for multiple awards and accolades.

Players represent competing corporations who all have a stake in terraforming Mars. The game board depicts the planet's surface, which is represented by an array of 61 contiguous hexes. Each hex represents about 1% of Mars' surface area. Onto these hexes, players can place oceans, greeneries, cities, and other special tiles.[2] The object of the game is for players to complete three terraforming conditions: raise the atmosphere's oxygen level to 14%; raise the temperature from 30 to +8 degrees Celsius; and cover 9% of Mars' surface by ocean (represented in-game as having 9 ocean tiles placed on Mars).

Players accomplish these goals by playing cards that represent various technologies or buildings used to terraform Mars.[2][3] The game is played over a number of generations, each represented as one game round. A generation begins with players drawing cards, then players take turns performing actions (which can be playing cards, using the ability of a card already in play or paying for one of the several actions depicted on the board). Once all players have finished taking actions, players collect income and resources according to their production of the different resources, then the next generation begins.

One of the unique aspects in Terraforming Mars is the Terraforming Rating (TR) system. Whenever a player performs an action that advances one of the terraforming conditions, the player's TR increases. A player's TR not only represents the victory points they have earned during the game, but is also added to a player's money income when collecting income and resources at the end of each generation.

The game ends at the end of any generation when the three terraforming conditions have been met.[4][5] Then, players count up their points, which come from their TR at the end of the game, cities and greeneries that they have placed on Mars, achievements they have claimed during the game and cards they have played, and the player with the highest score wins.

Five expansions have been released:[6][7][8][9]

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, a simplified card game version of the original, released in 2021.[10] A legacy variant and a dice game are also scheduled for release.[11][12]

A video game adaptation of Terraforming Mars, developed by Asmodee Digital, was released in October 2018. Matt Thrower of Strategy Gamer considered the adaptation to have "too many rough edges to recommend".[13] However, in a list of Best Board Games On PC from the same site he later revised this opinion, saying "developer Asmodee Digital has stepped up the plate with a host of updates. And while the interface remains a bit obtuse, the game itself is shining as it should."[14]

Popular Mechanics named Terraforming Mars as one of its 50 best games of the year.[15] Polygon named Terraforming Mars its runner up for best game of 2016 and best strategy game of 2016,[16] Ars Technica listed the game as one of its 20 best games of 2016,[17] and Vulture called it "the best high strategy game of 2016."[18] In an article for The Guardian, Dan Jolin stated that it "isn't just a great science game, it's a great game full stop".[19]

The game was nominated for the 2017 Kennerspiel des Jahres award for Best Strategy Game of the Year.[20] It won Best Family/Adult Game at the 2017 Deutscher Spiele Preis.[21] As of 2021, Terraforming Mars is ranked 4th among all board games on BoardGameGeek.[22]

Hellas and Elysium and Venus Next were the two runners-up for the Golden Geek award for the best expansion to a game in 2017.[23]

Prelude has been received very well by critics for speeding up the beginning phase by giving each player extra abilities at the start of the game.[24]

In the 2022 movie Moonshot, a family is seen playing Terraforming Mars while on Mars.

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Terraforming Mars (board game) - Wikipedia