Terraforming Mars · Strategy and opening plans
Terraforming Mars has company growth and public parameters. Production improves future gains; public progress shortens time. Long projects need enough generations to repay.
Terraforming Mars · 2016
1–5 players · 120 minutes
Standard 2–5-player game, Tharsis map; remove Corporate Era cards; no Prelude or variants
Opening plans and decisions
Terraforming Mars has company growth and public parameters. Production improves future gains; public progress shortens time. Long projects need enough generations to repay.
Compete for spaces, milestones, and awards while jointly changing ending pace. Private engines and shared progress interact.
Start here if you are new
Deduct purchases from the budget first
Research reveals several good cards, but money cannot both retain and play them all.
Reserve funds for crucial projects/milestones first; buy cards usable in expected remaining generations.
Each costs 3 M€ up front; unused options displace current construction.
Buying fewer limits responses and combinations.
Tag-combo corporations may keep a specific set and plan its play order.
Count cities when choosing greenery
Several legal greenery spaces exist.
Compare printed bonuses, ocean money, friendly/enemy city adjacency, then remaining oxygen.
One greenery gives each adjacent city 1 point.
The best scoring space may sacrifice resources or future room.
Near parameter completion, compare immediate ending with another generation's effect on each engine.
Recalculate awards from final stocks
A stock-based award is funded and the game may end this generation.
Include final production in everyone's stock before spending heat, steel, or titanium.
One payment may change who gets 5 or 2 points.
Keeping stock may sacrifice TR/project points.
If payment secures a milestone or stronger project, compare certain gain with potentially lost ranking points.
Comparing two choices
11 M€: Gardener milestone or Power Plant?
You have 3 greeneries; Gardener unclaimed, 2 milestones already claimed globally. Cash 11 M€, energy production 1.
Claim Gardener for 8 M€
Secure 5 points and the final slot.
3 M€ remains; no production gain.
Standard Power Plant for 11 M€
Energy production 1→2; one more energy next production.
Cash 0; Gardener may be taken. Future use is needed to repay investment.
Judge whether Gardener can wait; energy investment needs usable projects and enough productions.
Spend 8 heat to end or retain a stock lead?
You have 10 heat, opponent 9; Thermalist funded. Temperature +6°C, oxygen 14%, oceans 9. Final production still changes stocks.
Spend 8 heat to warm Mars
Reach +8°C, gain TR+1, trigger this generation's ending.
Heat 2 remains, risking the award; finish actions and production.
Keep 10 heat
Keep the current stock lead and future options.
No TR from this action and no ending caused; others may end or overtake stocks.
Compare post-production ranking and another generation's value; current 10 versus 9 does not guarantee the award.
Details that are easy to miss
- The 3 M€ hand-purchase fee is not the play cost.
- One action does not pass out; only 0 actions passes for the generation.
- Full parameters still finish the generation and production before final greenery conversion.
Games are long; reserve a full afternoon for your first session.
A decision example
Compare production investment with immediate points/planet progress by estimating remaining productions, not printed total capacity alone.
Why can decisions take so long?
Cards, resources, public progress, and rival pace change together. Reduce beginner load by identifying the tightest resource and main scoring route this turn.
A shared finish prices private engines
Everyone advances terraforming, so you cannot guarantee how many generations an investment runs. Opponents can accelerate ending and change its return.
Fixed generations would make payback timing more predictable and change pressure to finish global parameters.