Moonwalking Mars - a Terraforming Mars Board Game Review

The latter is officially part of the expanded game - the 'World Government' step - where at the end of each generation the first player bumps any one of the tracks or places an Ocean tile without gaining any reward. Prelude will also quicken the game by giving everyone a jump-start.

I totally sympathise with people who don't enjoy TM and the reasons given, in fact I also disliked it the first couple of times I played but there was something there that made me want to go back for a closer look. I find it very subtle in that you have to run through many small incremental steps to move toward your strategy whereas the likes of RFTG and San Juan have bolder and more obvious plays because you are playing within the limits of a fixed tableau size. In TM you'll be playing three or four times as many cards as well as using many more actions either on cards or the board so the game has a larger space within which to develop to its climactic point. I also concede that it will always be a long and involving game with minimal direct player interaction, and it also perhaps attracts a certain crowd because of that (which is why I only play this at home with my son, I never go near it on club nights). Play what makes you happy with the people that you like.

I love it and played it last night. That said, there are expansions (Colonies) I dislike and strategies (card draws) that I don't care for, but I almost always enjoy a play of it, and apart from one aberrant game, we get things done in well under 4-5 hours, even at 5p.

I keep seeing a used copy of this at my second hand book/music/media store and thinking hard about it every time.