Terraforming Mars The Colonies by Stronghold Games, Strategy Board Game

Terraforming Mars (TM) is absolutely fantastic. I'd give it 6 stars if I could. It's that good. Definitely a gamer's game (ie. not intended for newcomers/nongamers), but worth every penny. With that said, TM has a bit of a learning curve.TM also has a wonderful solo variant, so if you're looking for a challenge, and you like to play solo (or at least have that option), look no further. That's actually the main reason I bought this game, and yet now I can't wait to try it multiplayer. And since it has the solo mode, I'll be able to teach it no problem and help move the game along as well. Another huge plus for me.At its core, TM is an engine builder, with cards and projects to help increase 6 main resources and production of said resources (MegaCredits=money, Steel, Titanium, Plants, Energy, and Heat). I won't go into great detail, but it's from these resources and a set amount of starting resources depending on which Corporation (think player) you play as that you start your engine building. There are 5 beginner corporations that are generic and all the same, and then there are an additional 12 that each have their own special ability(ies) and amount of starting credits, and possibly resources and/or resource production. I recommend starting with a beginner corporation, as knowing which cards to keep during setup also has a learning curve.Throughout the game, the player(s) are attempting to gain victory points (known as Terraform Rating, or TR) while simultaneously terraforming the planet. This terraforming includes 3 main elements: increasing temperature, oxygen levels, and water/ocean tiles.In the solo mode, you are attempting to complete all 3 of these before the end of your 14th turn. If you do so, you win. You can also keep track of your best scores, though TM isn't simply just a beat your own score solo mode. You actually have to WIN first (ie. complete the 3 elements to terraforming by end of turn 14), which is NOT easy. It's very clever, and very fun. Games typically take me 1-2 hours.In multi mode, you are trying to accrue the highest TR at the game end, signified by the completion of all 3 elements of terraforming. However, you score not only points from your base TR, cards, city tiles, and plant tiles (as in the solo mode), but also from any awards or milestones that you claimed. In that regard TM is somewhat of a point salad game...which I think is great. Again, looking forward to trying it multiplayer.While initially there is some luck of the draw, this is mitigated each turn during the refresh phase, as each player gets to look at 4 new cards from the deck and decide how many to keep, paying 3 credits per card. It is also and perhaps more so mitigated by the standard projects listed on the board, which every player has access to every turn regardless of which cards they may or may not have. These can be key in the solo mode if you don't get the best starting cards, which I assume would be true multiplayer.At a $41 price point, I can't recommend this game enough. It has numerous expansions (I think around 5 or 6), so even if you tire of the base game at some point (I haven't yet), there is much more you can add to TM. The Hellas & Elysium expansion is a double sided board with 2 new and different faces of Mars to terraform (ie different maps), so you have the option of 3 maps total. The Prelude expansion has additional cards and more importantly additional corporations, for even more variety. I have yet to get to either of these, but am looking forward to it when the time comes. There are also several others that I do not have yet.All this being said, the replayability is quite high on TM. And it's tons of fun if you like to think. There is a reason it's been in the top 20 on BGG the last 4 years since it's inception.EDIT: I forgot to mention that I highly suggest buying at least the 2 pack of wooden player boards from Smonex. They are great quality and completely take care of the problem of accidentally bumping/moving your production markers from the player boards that come with the game. Though not as vibrant or colorful, the wooden boards work so much better. Game on!EDIT 10/1/22: I have all the expansions except Turmoil, and I still love it. Favorite game of all time. Even better with the expansions; so much replayability.

I would caution that this game takes a long time to play, but it is fun once you begin to understand it. There are lots of ways to develop your strategy making it very replayable. After we bought this, we purchased it digitally on Steam and have alternated playing each version. Give yourself 2.5 to 3 hours to play it the first time.

Always a fun game and entertaining for an afternoon. Playable over and over and good expansions available.

I heard from a bunch of serious gamers that TM was one game I needed on my shelf. I saw the price drop, so I took their recommendation and bought it.Thematically, you are a corporation whose job is to Terraform Mars. On your turn will take 1 or 2 actions and this usually involves playing a card or activating an ability on one of your cards already in play. At first, your options will be pretty limited to just playing the cards from your hand, but as you buy more cards (consider them patents) you'll have more options. We probably played the first 4-5 rounds (called Generations) wrong. We took our 1 or 2 actions and then we acquired our resources. Once everyone has had a turn, you get another turn if you can take at least one action. And this process repeats until everyone passes/has no more actions they can take. Once everybody has passed, then you acquire your resources. Once we realized we were making this mistake, it sped up the gameplay, increased what we could do, and upped the enjoyment factor.To win at Terraforming Mars, you will count the points you accumulate during the game: playing certain cards, acquiring certain tags on cards, acquiring plants or animals on blue cards, having your cities touch green spaces, and your overall Terraforming Rating. I honestly did not know who was going to win the game until we counted our points at the end.While you are competing against the other players, your actions (and theirs) really don't hurt or help the other players. There was one card that allowed me to take a token from any card (we read that as anyone's card, not just mine and I we might have played that wrong). So, there are 'some' instances of your card/action directly affecting another player, but these are few and far between. There is no fighting and no one can be put out the game or go bankrupt like in Monopoly.Increase the playtime duration by 30 minutes to 1 hour on your first playthrough if everyone is new to it, but I think we got a firm grasp of the game by round 5 or 6. There are advanced rules and I would like to play those on my next playthrough.There are multiple expansions to this game, but I have not played any of them.Some people have complained about the quality of the game pieces (or lack thereof). The cubes are fine. The piece of card board to mark your resources is flimsy, and if you knock the table, your cubes (and you'll have at least 6 of them on your card at any given time) can get knocked off. I have seen a free app for iphone that is supposed to track this and you can buy some really nice wooden or plastic ones that will prevent this, but they are unnecessary in my opinion. Some people have mentioned that some of the cards look like their clip art: most of the art seems original and a minority of them seem like they came from a stock photo (there is one of a white dog I can remember that seemed out of place). To me, this did not hurt the game. There are a LOT of cards and each of them is original, no duplicates!Overall, I enjoyed the game and can see my group playing this one in the future.