Terraforming Mars BGG ↗

My BGG Comment

I love the idea of making Mars habitable and this engine/tableau building game of industrial production feels very satisfying to me. With all the expansions though the number of cards is huge and luck of the draw does play a role in this. I recommend playing with only one of the bigger expansions and Prelude. Has a solid solo variant: you have to complete the terraforming (Temperature, Air and Water) by yourself in 14 turns or less. Rating 9.5 2026 After 133 plays (often app). When I first played this at a friends house, I knew immediately that I was going to buy this game. And yet, as a mostly-solo player, I barely ever play my physical copy because the solo challenge is really well done on the app and setup is something of a hassle with this game. But I own everything except the big box: all of the playmats, deluxe metal cubes, all of the expansions, the automa... somehow except for the automa and the playmats it all fits into the original base game box (unsleeved cards). This is one of my all time favorite games combining so many of my favorite things about board games: engine building, hex-tiles on a map, having too many cards and making tough decisions, a scifi theme... the original solo challenge is such a good experience that I keep playing it back to back sometimes. I lose a lot but it is winnable. I always play with Prelude, my favorite map remains Tharsis. Venus Next is a nice addition. Last year we had a big 5 player game with all the expansions and it was a blast. The new-ish automa is also really fun to play and simulates the multiplayer in a very different approach from the solochallenge. I hope to play the automa this year. Concerning digital play: This is one of my favorite boardgame apps all around (iOS + Steam). For such a complex game it is really well done. You can easily track all the needed information. There are barely any bugs left these days (I had a total of 1 hickups in the last year). Needs tablet sized screen though I would guess. Rating 9.5

• 20 Favorite Multiplayer Games in my collection
  I have played this solo on the app ... 100 times. It never gets old. But the solo challenge is vastly different from the real multiplayer. I'd love to try this with the new maps I have and the various expansions.
• 2026: Top 20 of My Euro
  The engine builder. Fell in love with it on first play. Lots of app solos over the years but multiplayer is so exciting … still holds up after 10 years
• 2026: Yashima's Game Diary
  When I first played this at a friends house, I knew immediately that I was going to buy this game. And yet, as a mostly-solo player, I barely ever play my physical copy because the solo challenge is really well done on the app and setup is something of a hassle with this game. But I own everything except the big box: all of the playmats, deluxe metal cubes, all of the expansions, the automa... somehow except for the automa and the playmats it all fits into the original base game box (unsleeved cards). This is one of my all time favorite games combining so many of my favorite things about board games: engine building, hex-tiles on a map, having too many cards and making tough decisions, a scifi theme... the original solo challenge is such a good experience that I keep playing it back to back sometimes. I lose a lot but it is winnable. I always play with Prelude, my favorite map remains Tharsis. Venus Next is a nice addition. Last year we had a big 5 player game with all the expansions and it was a blast. The new-ish automa is also really fun to play and simulates the multiplayer in a very different approach from the solochallenge. I hope to play the automa this year. Concerning digital play: This is one of my favorite boardgame apps all around (iOS + Steam). For such a complex game it is really well done. You can easily track all the needed information. There are barely any bugs left these days (I had a total of 1 hickups in the last year). Needs tablet sized screen though I would guess. * Player Count: 1 (App, Solochallenge) * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 125 (as logged, mostly on the app, if I had logged all app plays, I'd be easily at 200) * Rules Retention: Fine. I played this so much. A teach is definitely not trivial though. But all my friends know this game. So ... * Keeper: Absolutely. * Recommended: Engine building with big card stacks fans or fans of Mars but mostly lots of cards. * Competition: the app, Ark Nova (tags, lots of cards)
• 50 Best Games played 5+ times
  I played the solo challenge on the app countless times. I logged some but not all of them
• Best in Class
• My Solo Games
• Yashima's 2023 Top 20 Solo Games
  What can I say. I love SF games, I love the premise of terraforming the red planet (ever since reading the Mars trilogy). The game never gets boring. I am mostly playing on the app because it is just a bit much to set up on the table for how much I get late-night-hungry for a quick snack of terraforming experience... Ranking last year: 2
• Yashima's 2025 Top 20 Solo Games
  I did not play as much of the solo challenge on the app as the year before and still when ranking it went up. Solo Plays 2025: 4 Ranking Last Year: 5
• Yashima's 2026 Top 20 Solo Games
• Yashima‘s 2024 Top 20 Solo Games
  I love SciFi as a genre and it saddens me a little that this list reflects that so little. But this is definitely one of my very favorite solo games of all times and if it had come in anywhere below the Top5 I would be disappointed in myself for ranking badly. It‘s obviously the big stack of cards that fascinates me but also the great variety of strategies you can go for. I mostly play on the app because I am lazy. I always include Prelude and often Venus and I always play the solo mode. I win as much as I lose. When I play a few games in a row my winning quota improves quickly. But even losing this game is fun until the last minute. You never know when a late game Lake Marineris will save your game… playing against TR63 seems harder than fully terraforming except on those occasions I reach the TR and miss terraforming while playing for the latter. Also really enjoyable multiplayer. It may have gone down a little due to playing less because of some new entries to the list that have taken up a lot of plays. Solo Plays 2024: 38 Ranking last year: 2 (🔻3)
• Yashima’s 2022 Top 20 Solo Games
  #2 So. Another game with a caveat: I play this almost exclusively on my tablet. Every once in a while I go and put it on the table. But the setup is a huge hassle. But of course that allows me to add in other expansions besides prelude which gives some variety. I play the solo mode with Prelude. You have 12 turns (14 without Prelude) to push all 3 terraform gauges (temperature, oxygen and oceans) to the max or you lose. At first, I lost every game. But over more and more attempts (50+ recently), I got better and now I win most games. There is a bit of luck of the draw at the start. My current highscore came with Ecoline and a really good matching draw of prelude cards and initial cards. I loved this engine building game for the theme and for the gameplay from the first time I played it at a friends house and next thing I knew I had made an all-in pledge for the Turmoil Kickstarter Even on the table I rarely play with more than prelude and one other expansion. The game has simply got too much content to use it all at once. And some people really dislike that this huge deck sometimes puts you in a bad position and there aren‘t enough mechanisms in it to help you cycle through the deck to get your combos done. After playing a lot of games, I know all of the base game cards by heart and I agree sometimes you have it easier when you get certain cards at the right time. But playing smart, I can still win more often than not. And the card play is compelling and getting those gauges filled is satisfying. Getting a good combo of abilities played is great fun. And when I lose I can often see how I focused too much on a certain card that ended up being „unworthy“. There is a reason this ranks so high on BGG as well: it is just such a good game.

Owned Expansions

• Terraforming Mars: Hellas & Elysium
• Terraforming Mars: Venus Next
• Terraforming Mars: Prelude
• Terraforming Mars: Colonies
• Terraforming Mars: Turmoil
• Terraforming Mars: Turmoil Promos
• Terraforming Mars: Prelude 2
• Terraforming Mars: Automa
• Terraforming Mars: Milestones & Awards