Courtesy of James Thomson @jamesjacob on BoardgameGeek Posted Jul 12
Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition is the quicker card game version of it’s parent Terraforming Mars.
In the modern board game industry, there is a tendency to value innovation. Designers and publishers are constantly finding new ways to meld seemingly incommensurate mechanics into app-driven games that are set in captivating, fantastic worlds. Creating a game that captures consumer imaginations seems to be a must for companies looking to make their mark.
But then there are games that take old ideas and repackage them. Games like Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition. How can a game capture consumer imaginations by repackaging old ideas, you ask. The answer: by taking ideas from two of the most popular board games ever made, Terraforming Mars and Race for the Galaxy. With just under 17,000 Kickstarter backers, who pledged well over a million dollars, and with a mass-market deal (see below for a quick background), it seems this reintroduction of old ideas had great aspirations.
The old games: TM
I’ve only played Terraforming Mars a couple of times, so I’ll keep this brief. Terraforming Mars is a game in which you’re running a corporation, competing to lead the mission of making Mars habitable for humans. During the game, you draft cards, which are used to increase the temperature, increase the level of oxygen, plant forests, and create oceans. The corporation that makes the biggest impact scores the most points and wins the game.
TM has been on my radar for a long time, but two things have stopped me. Firstly, my plays took a long time (3-4 hours). I’m happy to play a 3-4 hour game now and again, but it’s not likely to reach my table on a regular basis. Secondly, TM can get a bit ugly, and I’m not a fan of cards that can be used to directly attack other players in the middle of an otherwise peaceful game. Nevertheless, I have to say that TM offered a very satisfying and engaging experience.
The old games: RFTG
Race for the galaxy has an interesting history. It’s part of a series of games that started and ended with board game iterations. In 2002, Andreas Seyfarth released Puerto Rico, which had a very innovative action selection mechanism. When you chose an action, all players would get to take that action at the same time. In other words, here was a board game where you didn’t have to sit and wait for 3 other people to take a turn before you could go again. It sat at the top of the BGG list for quite a while, and its success warranted a card game version. San Juan was released in 2004 with Andreas Seyfarth’s name on the cover, but behind the scenes was another designer, Tom Lehmann.
Tom Lehmann took some of the action selection ideas and reimplemented them into Race for the Galaxy, which offered a deeper gameplay experience than San Juan, but kept the quick pace and short gameplay time. Race was then reimagined as Roll for the Galaxy (2014), a dice game. Finally, it was reimplemented as a board game, New Frontiers (2018). There’s quite a bit to digest here, so here’s a timeline:
Puerto Rico (2002, board game) – San Juan (2004, card game) – Race for the Galaxy (2007, card game) – Roll for the Galaxy (2014, dice game) – New Frontiers (2018, board game)
I think this history is important. Before we disregard a game for “stealing” old ideas, it’s worth remembering that those ideas have been already been recycled several times. Furthermore, as far as I know, you can’t copyright a game mechanism. Other games have borrowed the phase selection mechanism that was introduced in Race (e.g. Villages of Valeria). However, it surprises me that games with this kind of simultaneous play haven’t flooded the market. Not only do these mechanisms speed up gameplay, they offer plenty of interesting decisions and tense moments. For example, you want to produce goods. You’ve been watching your opponent, and you think they will take the produce action, so you choose to build, hoping to piggy back off their production. The thing is, they’ve been watching you too, and they do exactly the same thing. You both end up building when you should both be producing. Like rock paper scissors, the immediacy of these decisions can be frustrating, tense, funny and satisfying all at once.
Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition takes the round structure from Race and uses it to speed up the engine building mechanisms from TM. As the game progresses, you’ll be making tough decisions about which cards to invest in, thinking about how to raise the temperature, raise oxygen levels, plant forests and create oceans on Mars. The more you’re able to impact the living conditions on Mars, the more points you will score.
Each round is split into five phases, but players will only choose one phase each. In a two-player game, this means that only one or two of the five phases will activate each round. If you haven’t played the games described above, this might sound confusing. It’s the kind of thing that is better learned by playing the game to get into the rhythm. Nevertheless, here’s a breakdown of the phases.
Phase 1, development phase. Each player can play green cards. Green cards increase production. In the game, you’ll be producing money, heat, plants, steel and titanium. The more resources you have, the better equipped you will be for terraforming the red planet.
Phase 2, construction phase. Each player can play red and/or blue cards. Red cards have instant effects and blue cards grant ongoing effects and actions.
Phase 3, action phase, where you’ll be able to use the actions on blue cards. You can also take a “standard” action, which includes things like paying 8 heat to raise Mars’ temperature one step.
Phase 4, production. For example, if you have 5 plants on your green production cards, you now receive 5 plants, which can be used to plant forests.
Phase 5, research phase, which essentially allows players to draw more cards.
In a round phases 1 and 2 might the the active phases. Next round, it might be phases 2 and 4. One of the challenges is trying to ensure that you can always make the most of the active phases. On the other hand, it’s also challenging to not do something, so that you can save money for the more powerful cards in hand. Rounds continue until Mars has been fully terraformed and then players count points and determine the winner.
One of the most exciting parts of the game is the interaction between the cards. There are over 200 unique cards in the game and these can be combined in countless ways. This means that you can pursue quite different strategies from game to game. For example, some cards will give you extra points for raising the temperature. Play these early in the game and you may find yourself clambering to heat up Mars for the rest of the game. Next game, you may find that you can produce microbes and animals that win points and thus try to scour the deck for red cards that supplement this strategy.
It’s not a race
Race for the Galaxy does what it says on the box: it’s a race. Players are essentially trying to build their galactic empires as quickly as possible in order to score the most points. In AE, if you’re too hasty with increasing the temperature/oxygen/ocean parameters, you might be doing your opponents a favour. The start of AE is quite slow, but as the temperature and oxygen level start to max out, the pace switches up a gear. I’ve found that I’ve kept hold of very powerful cards for the whole game, waiting for that crucial moment to get the most out of them. In other words, AE is more about playing the right cards at the right time, rather than rushing to build everything as quickly as possible.
However, it potentially suffers the same problem as any other game with 200+ cards (San Juan, RftG, It’s a Wonderful World, Red Rising etc.): If you’re looking for a specific card, you may never find it. AE deals with this by having a number of fairly similar cards. Yes, all the cards are unique, but sometimes it’s just small details that distinguish them. For me, this isn’t a problem. On the contrary, it forces you to think about how to use what you have, rather than waiting for that one pivotal card. In fact, I’ve caught myself wanting to play every card in my hand, which means I’ve rarely found myself wanting to dig through the deck for a specific card.
Art, graphic design, rules
I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one to think that Terraforming Mars reached the bgg top 10 in spite of its looks. The cards looked a bit ‘80s and the stock images were incommensurate. I’ve heard that some people are still not happy with the looks of Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition. Personally, I think AE is a big step up. Not only does the artwork successfully embody the theme, but the iconography is clean. Furthermore, each card’s ability is described on the card (this was a notorious problem with RftG, which had a steep learning curve due to the heavy reliance on only icons). During our first game we had almost no rules questions, which I consider to be quite amazing for a game of this ilk. That said, I was the rulebook-reader. When I opened the box, I was bombarded with rules. There is a quick-start guide, a 20 page rule-book with a round breakdown on the last page, a player aid, reminders on the player boards, and descriptions on the cards. I admit that I’m a bit OCD when reading rules, so by the time I had read everything, I already felt like I’d played the game twice (I had also seen Watch it Played’s excellent video in anticipation of receiving the game).
Who’s it for?
Although the rules are on the verge of being too thorough, I would not feel comfortable pulling this off the shelf with anyone other than experienced gamers. I think it’s great that this is available in stores like Target, but I wonder whether someone might bring this home and find themselves overwhelmed by a fairly thinky strategy game with a myriad of abstractions and icons. When I first played San Juan, I remember that I was fairly confused by the idea that everyone would play simultaneously, and I’m sure that some people may be equally flummoxed by the phase selection in TM:AE. Nevertheless, TM:AE is not nearly as complex as something like Maracaibo or Star Wars: Rebellion. In fact, I think Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition could be an excellent place to start for people who are curious about heavier games.
Overall
I already own San Juan, Roll for the Galaxy and It’s a Wonderful World, so did I really need TM:AE? Another engine building game? Another game with the phase selection from RftG? No, not really. It doesn’t really offer much that I haven’t before experienced. But I’m a sucker for engine builders, and TM:AE is no exception. I think the melding of RftG and TM was a fantastic idea, and it’s implemented in a way that does that idea justice. Perhaps its familiarity is part of the appeal. I feel like I’ve played and enjoyed this game before, but it has a new rhythm, a new way of thinking, and a new style. Furthermore, its quick set-up time, quick(ish) playtime and huge replayability make it easy to pull off the shelf. I can see why TM fans will miss the depth and length of the base game, and I can see why RftG fans will miss the “race” tempo. But for me, this is the box that will be staying on my shelf.
Extra background: Kickstarter vs. Target
If you’re wondering why TM:AE has so many 1s on bgg, here’s why. Before Kickstarter backers received the game, Target released a retail version of TM:AE (the release date corresponded with a wide range of other mass market releases). This infuriated some backers who expected to receive the game first. They were quick to chastise Stronghold for “betraying” them. Some reacted by posting comments on Kickstarter. Others by rating the game a 1 on bgg.
I personally think it’s great that this game is available in a mass market store. At the same time, I’m very glad that I have the KS version, with a better storage solution, dual-layer player boards, and extra cards.
James Thomson