Terraforming Mars Board Game - How to Play

Development on Mars (Tiles placed on game board)
1. City Tiles
  1. Gain 1 VP for each adjacent Greenery Tile
  2. Cannot be placed next to another city. Add player marker to mark ownership
2. Special Tiles
  1. Cards that allow placement of special tiles on the board. Function described on the card. Place player marker to mark ownership
3. Green Tiles
  1. If possible, placed to greenery tile that you own. Otherwise, place on any available area. Add player marker to mark ownership
Global Parameters (conditions) on Mars (tracked on game board)
1. Oxygen Levels - tracked with oxygen marker on oxygen tracker on game board (increases TR by 1 for every 1 step increase)
  1. Starts at 0% during game setup
2. Temperature Levels - tracked with temperature marker on temperature tracker on game board (increases TR by 1 for every 1 step increase)
  1. Starts at -30 deg celsius during game setup
  2. Get bonuses when raised above steps indicated on temperature tracker
3. Ocean Tiles (increases TR by 1 when placed)
  1. Only placed on areas reserved for ocean
    1. Starts with 9 tiles on Ocean tile stack
  2. 2 MegaCredits placement Bonus when tiles placed next to it
Generations (Game Rounds)
1. Generation Marker placed on TR track on game board to track generations
  1. Place Generation Marker at 1 on TR Track during game setup
Game Goal
1. Terraforming Rating (TR)
  1. Get as high a TR as possible (player markers are placed on TR track on game board)
    1. All players start at 20. Place Player Marker on 20 on TR Track
2. Get the most Victory Points (VP)
  1. Get as high a VP
Player/Corporation's Resources
1. Player Board
  1. Production Tracks (Use player marker to track production)
    1. Production can be more than 10, use 2 markers to mark numbers more than 10
    2. Megacredits - Production is equal to sum of TR and MegaCredit Production
    3. Steel
      1. Pay for cards with building tag
    4. Titanium
      1. Pay for cards with space tag, worth 3 MegaCredit/cube
    5. Plants
    6. Energy
    7. Heat
  2. Resource Supplies (Use resource cubes to track supplies)
    1. MegaCredits
    2. Steel
    3. Titanium
    4. Plants
    5. Energy
    6. Heat
Playing a Card
1. Check card requirements
2. Exceptions that still allow you to play card
  1. Mars Global Parameters/Conditions have already reached goal
  2. Adds resources that can't be collected
  3. Removes resources from other players even when unable or you do not wish to do so
3. Pay card's costs and perform immediate effects
  1. Production Effects must be performed
  2. Place the Card
    1. Type of cards
      1. Event (red bordered)
      2. Cards are collected in a personal pile face down. Tags only apply while played
      3. Automated (green bordered cards)
      4. Placed face-up in a stack on the table with only top row visible. No further effect but tags still apply
      5. Active (blue bordered cards)
      6. Ongoing effects that may trigger at any time, or actions that you can use. Placed with top panel visible
Gameplay (Generations)
1. Player Order Phase
2. Research Phase
3. Action Phase
4. Production Phase
Players
1. Player Actions
  1. Research Phase
    1. Which cards to buy?
  2. Action Phase Choose any of the actions:
    1. Play a card from hand
    2. Use Standard Project
    3. Use action on blue/corporation card
      1. Blue card and corporation cards have actions (indicated by red arrow) that can be used once per generation. Place Player Marker on card to indicate action has been used
    4. Claim Milestone
    5. Fund an award
    6. Convert Plants to Greenery
      1. Spend 8 plant resources for a greenery tile
    7. Convert heat and Increase Temperature Levels
      1. Convert 8 heat resources to increase temperature 1 step
  3. Production Phase
    1. Convert Energy to Heat
      1. Get MegaCredits based on TR and Prodcution
      2. Produce resources based on production track
Use Standard Project
1. Sell Patents
  1. Discard cards from hand to gain same number of MegaCredits
2. Power Plant
  1. Spend 11 MegaCredits to increase your energy production 1 step
3. Asteroid
  1. Spend 14 Megacredits to increase Mars temperature 1 step
4. Aquifer
  1. Spend 18 MegaCredits to place Ocean Tile
5. Greenery
  1. Spend 23 MegaCredits and place a greenery tile
6. City
  1. Spend 25 MegaCredits , place city tile
Corporation Cards
1. Starting Conditions: Cards inform players of how much MegaCredits, resources and production they start with
2. Effect/Action (Boxes marked by Blue Ribbon)
  1. Action
    1. Used once per generation
Player's Cards
1. Player's Cards on Hand
Project Cards
1. Effect/Action (Boxes marked by Blue Ribbon)
  1. Effect
    1. Ongoing Effect that is always active
  2. Action
    1. Used once per generation
2. Tags / Describes category of card
  1. Animal
  2. Microbe
  3. Building
  4. Jovian
  5. Earth
  6. Science
  7. Power
  8. Space
  9. Plant
  10. City
  11. Event
3. Production (Brown Box background)
  1. Resources with Red Frame
    1. Affect any player you choose including yourself, reduce resources of other players or yourself. If other player does not have the production, then you must reduce your own
  2. Resources without Red Frame
4. Non Standard Resources
5. Cost/Requirement
  1. Pay to play the card (e.g. MegaCredits)
  2. Requirements to be met to play the card
6. VP
  1. Some Cards give you VP at the end of the game
Award (when funded, award is checked at end of game, award winner earns 5 VP)
1. 1st player to fund pays 8 MegaCredits, 2nd player to fund pays 14 MegaCredits, last player pays 20 MegaCredits. Only 3 Awards can be funded
2. Winning an Award
  1. 1st place gets 5 VP, 2nd place gets 2 VP
  2. Ties are friendly. More than 1 person can get 1st or 2nd
  3. If 1st place is tied, there is no 2nd place
3. Landlord
  1. Own most tiles in play
4. Banker
  1. Have the highest MegaCredit Production
5. Scientist
  1. Have the most Science tags in play
6. Thermalist
  1. Have the most heat resource cubes
7. Miner
  1. Have the most steel and titanium resource cubes
Milestones (Each milestone is worth 5 VP)
1. Terraformer
  1. Have TR of 35
2. Mayor
  1. Own 3 city tiles
3. Gardener
  1. Own 3 Green Tiles
4. Builder
  1. Have at least 8 building tags in play
5. Planner
  1. Having at least 16 cards in your hand
Game Setup
1. Start 9 tiles on Ocean tile stack
2. Place temperature marker at -30 deg. celsius on game board
3. Place oxygen marker on oxygen level tracker on game board
4. Shuffle Project Cards deck and place next to board
5. Players choose colours/markers and first player. First player gets 1st player marker
  1. Place Player Marker on 20 at TR Track
6. Shuffle and deal 2 Corporation Cards to each experienced player. Beginners get Beginner Corporation Card
  1. Players choose which of the Corporations they wish to play
7. Deal 10 Project cards to Experienced Players. Non Experienced players follow the instructions on Beginners Corporation Card
  1. Players choose which of the 10 Project Cards they intend to keep (cost 3 MegaCredits to place a Project Card in your Starting Hand)
8. Start 1st Generation Game from Action Phase
How does the game end?
1. Global parameters reach their goal
  1. Oxygen
  2. Temperature
  3. Ocean
2. Game Ends at end of the generation
  1. Players have one last chance to convert plants to Greenery after Production Phase
3. Final Scoring (Player with most VPs wins) - Ties are won by having most MegaCredits
  1. TR at end of game is basic VP score
  2. Add Award VPs
  3. Add VPs earned from claimed milestones
  4. Each greenery tile is worth 1 VP
  5. Each City tile is worth 1 VP for every adjacent Greenery Tile
  6. VPs on cards
    1. Add VPs on cards that collect resources
    2. Add VPs of all your remaining cards (ncluding played events) and count VPs