Is it me or have deck building games boomed over the last decade? They seem to have wormed into all kinds of genres. Terraformers combines cards and resource management into an engaging strategy game of expansion against the odds. It’s the story of making the most of what life deals you while still shooting for the stars.
At heart this is a numbers game. There are eight resources including obvious items like food and water along with various minerals and energy. Resources are needed to create buildings, start mines, and other terraforming related actions and research. They are only used for expansion. Once something is built there is no need to worry about upkeep besides a natural disaster causing damage that needs repairing.
Each turn you must choose between a selection of cards which include buildings like laboratories, power stations, habitation, food factories, entertainment and a lot more. What you choose goes in your hand and can be played when ready. Hand size is initially limited to eight. Being turn based it is clear to see how much resources will grow for the next move and with careful planning the maximum number of useful cards can be played. There are elements of luck to contend with such as which cards come up, how resources are distributed across Mars, and fun events like the planet killer asteroid I had to sort out. Placing buildings is also strategic like a mini board game. Some buildings have an effect on their neighbours which are essential for stat boosts. City sizes and reach are also proportionate to the population.
While there is no combat (this is 3X) I am constantly fighting to appease the citizens as their expectations relentlessly rise. Citizen support is a key driver to expanding and improving the quality of life on Mars. There are lots of working parts that go into the comfort of living for the population; regional temperature, radiation, atmosphere, and special buildings. There’s probably a worthwhile convo to be had about the role that morale plays in founding settlements. Regardless, here it plays a big part. I would like to remind them that they chose to move to a planet where the average temperature is always below zero, so don’t get your hopes up too soon. On insane difficulty I spammed space hotels to keep them happy.
The difficulty names are there to stroke egos. There are ten, starting with Normal, which I thought was easy. In the first game there is plenty of room to make mistakes and play around to get a feel for the rules. The low victory points goal will mean the game ends before getting to a lot of the juicy terraforming stuff. The 6th difficulty is ‘insane’ and I think that feels like hard. The 7th is called unrealistic and is probably fairly similar. The three after that will definitely be a challenge.
I’ve only played the main scenario so far. Others specify progress in mining or terraforming or life creation. I assume the victory points are slanted towards those goals. The harder the game is the more it opens up into all areas and the longer it gets. On insane I was developing settlements on Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos. It’s very cool being able to zoom all the way out from the planet and see the moons orbiting. Also seeing the change in the planet’s colour and details, like oceans, as terraforming takes effect. Perhaps it’s due to the way I play but even on insane I still haven’t introduced any animals on Mars. It hasn’t been necessary as there are multiple ways to get points. I might do a life creation scenario to force myself to prioritise it and see the content.
The core principles of the game are easy to grasp despite having a lot of info to keep in mind. For instance, my own global warming goals can lead to hazards such as putting map locations under water. At first progress felt slow and basic, in part due to my play style of carefully overthinking everything. Now I’m seeing plenty of stuff being introduced gradually. I’ve just levelled up and unlocked a bunch of coastal cards for the next game. This is after a few successful games, skipping ahead on the difficulties.
Other things worth a quick mention. I like that colony leaders come and go with elections that I select as God Emperor of Everything. They have some very useful skills and the buffs stay even after they retire. There’s a good mix of characters. It’s possible to undo most actions, big plus. Trade routes with Earth are vital at the start, adding to the numbers game. There are weekly challenges from the devs.
The lack of combat makes Terraformers more relaxing and keeps the focus on building and stability. I get very caught up in optimising my resources and keep clicking through turns to see my plans go forward. It’s almost puzzle like and easy to lose track of time. The randomness brought by choosing from cards seems balanced well enough. It may dictate the direction of growth or delay intended plans but hasn’t screwed me over.
Summing up. I like it. I doubt I’d place it amongst my favourite strategy games but it has it’s own identity and keeps my brain happy.
mishmash 