“Terraforming Mars” seemed to take the world by storm. I, unfortunately, wasn’t able to jump on the hype train until much later when I bought the digital version via Steam and eventually, iOS. I liked the game so much that I invested in both the card game version and the dice version when they released years later. Still, “TM” has quite a few expansions…one of which is “Automa”, a recently released solo experience against Marsbot. Special thanks to Jondi over at OffDutyNinja for providing a press copy for review purposes. I’ll be breaking with my usual review format, so strap yourselves in!
What is Terraforming Mars?
Terraforming Mars is, at its heart, an engine builder and card / tile laying game. Players will be earning megacredits and using that money to play cards and activate projects. While some projects better a player’s economy and production, others terraform Mars itself by adding water tiles & greenery tiles and raising the temperature. The game ends when the temperature and oxygen are at their max values and all water tiles have been placed. This oversimplification doesn’t do the game justice, but it does have its own solo mode where you’re racing to terraform Mars within a time limit.
You can watch the below video to get an idea as to how to core game plays. The video shows off the early build of the digital version when it was pre-release and does not reflect the current state of the game.
What is Terraforming Mars: Automa?
“TM:A” is an expansion to “TM” so you will need the base game in order to play it. It introduces a Marsbot that you can play against as if it were another human player. The box comes with a bunch of corporations the bot can use, an array of bonus cards that the AI will use against you, a double layered tracker board with an insert for a tracker card based on what map you’re using, and a number of other goodies.
Gameplay Flow
“TM:A” flows rather nicely once you get a handle on the AI’s behavior. To explain, I’ll need to address each phase of a round individually.
Player Order Phase: Rounds are tracked for a reason. The longer the game goes on, the more the Marsbot’s leftover megacredits (MC) will convert to points. The chart changes whether or not you’re using the Prelude expansion.
Research Phase: You’ll have to decide if you want to incorporate a draft or not. Assuming you allowed Marsbot to have a unique corporation, you’ll have to look at its project cards and draft for it using priority symbols on its corp card. You can still draft even if the Marsbot doesn’t have a corp, you’ll just instead draft for it randomly. Once the draft is over Marsbot will randomly get rid of one card and then replace it with a bonus card from its unique deck.
Action Phase: The player will take two actions as normal, whereas the Marsbot will draw one of its four cards (3 are project cards from the main deck, 1 is a bonus card from its own deck). Drawing a card and resolving it ends its turn. If a project card is drawn, only the tags matter. Marsbot has a double-layered board (see below picture) made of up rows and symbols. Match the project card tags with the appropriate row and move the cube left to right, activating symbols on the board if any. Marsbot can earn MC for failed actions…actions that it can’t perform when prompted.
Production Phase: Marsbot doesn’t produce.
Again, the above doesn’t cover all of the rules, rather my goal was to hi-lite important key concepts.
Review
“TM” itself is a fairly complex game. I was admittedly intimidated by this expansion as there are a few rules scattered around the rulebook that I kept messing up or forgetting. I ended up drafting a 3 page word document / cheat sheet to compile the important bits into one place, including some of the base game rules that I often get wrong. “TM” isn’t a game you can just easily unpack and play unless you’re a regular. When playing this title I often need a refresher before having at it.
“TM:A” can accommodate any expansion and there is a special rulebook dedicated to incorporating them. Personally, I stuck with “Prelude” and the base game because I’ve been fatigued lately due to health reasons. I really like how much variety the game can give you depending on what you want to include. Likewise, you’ll see different bonus cards and AI behavior depending on the expansions used and the corporation used, if any.
I liked the inclusion of a new “neural interface” token that is a special AI tile that takes up space on the main board and scores the AI points for everything empty / it owns around it. While you can opt not to observe drafting during the research phase…I don’t recommend it. You’re really putting yourself at a disadvantage if you skip out on drafting, as you’ll have more control over what tags you’re feeding Marsbot if you do incorporate drafting.
While there are multiple difficulty settings, one of which being easy, I found the game incredibly challenging for my skill level. On “Easy”, I barely won my first game and I’m not even sure I played 100% correctly as it was my first time. I intend to incorporate some house rules…specifically, the AI will pay for awards and milestones (it gets them for free) and from generations / rounds 1-5, the AI only gets 3 cards (2 project, 1 bonus) for a slower start. I’m also planning to add 2 rounds to the chart timer…so if the game ends in defeat at round 20 automatically, then it’ll end at 22 and so on. The player will feel less pressure to end the game so quickly this way.
“Terraforming Mars: Automa” is a must-have for solo players. While challenging, the existing difficulties can be modified to your liking assuming you’re willing to break a few rules. Some of the AI tiebreaker rules (where it chooses to place a tile) can be confusing and finicky, but you get used to it. This solo version puts the base game’s solo version to shame, and rightly so. Casual players may struggle with the rules and the complexity of the game itself, while regulars and veterans to “Terraforming Mars” should be able to play a game in about an hour. The former type of player should allot 2 hours at least to accommodate setup and learning the rules.
You can watch my first “test drive” via the video below. I’m happy to report that my scores were much better after incorporating the above-mentioned house-rules and most importantly, no fun had been lost in the process.
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Score: 8/10 (Great)
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