Terraforming Mars

 

So, I played a two player version of this game last week and well it went on for a long time, a very long time, and upon reflection, well, I think we broke the game. So the game is supposed to last maybe 2 hours, ours lasted closer to 7 hours! It was the first time that I had played the game, not certain how many times my opponent had played. The game is actually a fairly straightforward game, the rules are not complex and the game play is fairly intuitive. There is a large degree of randomness as the game is driven by a deck of 208. Every turn you receive 4 cards which you may keep by paying for them or discard if you do not want some or all of them. These cards do offer up ideas on how your corporation will develop in the game what point gathering strategies you can employ, what attacks you can make on your opponent etc. There are also 2 tracks (temperature & oxygen) and 9 ocean tiles, that once the tracks are completed and the ocean tiles depleted the game will end. Part of the problem with the game is the game ending conditions.

You see, there is not a strong incentive to end the game (beyond the insanity of a 7 hour game), nor does the game force you to meet the game ending conditions. Yes you advance along a chart that gives you money and victory points, but you can also get those items from the cards you draw. Also, while the game has a turn tracker, the turn tracker only applies to the solo game forcing an end after 14 turns. In the regular game there is no such mechanic. The mini game of building money/VP engines is terribly tempting and can supplant the whole terraforming theme of the game. 

This is a problem. 

It is also exacerbated by the fact that some cards have victory points on them and many of these cards once played will be hidden so only the owner will know how many victory points they have. Thus one is further incentivized to gather as many victory points as you can and since you have no way of knowing you opponents total you are de-incentivized to end the game as you may not know how well you are doing.

Despite all this the game was entertaining (newness factor) but I am not certain if the game will work for me and my regular player(s).

This weeks played baord games Dead of Winter, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Eminent Domain

 

 So a couple of nights spent playing boardgames this week saw a new game for us played and the return of an old favorite.