Stronghold Games Board Game, Black, 2 Expansion

Terraforming Mars is a "Pringles" game; once you've played once, you keep coming back to it. I was first introduced to it by a friend, and soon after bought my own so that I could keep playing. It is very well-balanced and well-made, and provides plenty of fun on an evening which otherwise might have been quite dull. The box comes with a board, 5 player sheets, 5 bags of player cubes (red, yellow, blue, green, and black), 3 bags of metallic cubes for currency, around 200 project cards, and various tiles which indicate forests, cities, oceans, and other structures. All of these are of a decent quality, and so far we have seen no wear and tear to any of them. The board sometimes doesn't lie completely flat, but this doesn't significantly affect gameplay in any way. It is worth bearing in mind that the game takes up a large amount of space, so having a large table or section of floor space clear is a must. It also comes with a much needed instruction booklet; Terraforming Mars has a steep but not long-lasting learning curve which can seem daunting, but is well worth giving a go. After playing only one game, the whole family had gotten a firm grasp of the basic rules, and we're now playing near expertly, able to plan ahead and strategise based on our knowledge of the game. Each game takes between 2 and 4 hours, depending on how long it takes indidivuals to decide on their turn. This doesn't mean the game is boring though; far from it! The gameplay is interesting and even addictive, with none of us noticing how much time has passed while we've been playing. You can also never tell who has won the game until the final scoring happens, leading to some tense moments and unexpected winners. This also contributes to constantly wanting to go back for more, so you can improve on your previous score or try different approaches. Since owning the game, we have also bought 2 expansions; the "Preludes" expansion and the "Colonies" expansion. The Preludes expansion adds a huge amount to the game, and I view it as a necessity as it not only decreases play time (due to providing more resources) but also allows for more focused strategies; the Colonies expansion is also a great addition as it gives players more options within the game. Overall, Terraforming Mars is a brilliant board game which is well worth the money. Due to the plenty of combinations of cards and strategies, the game has endless replayability, and will make sure you never have a dull board games night again!

This game does require a bit of rule reading and YouTube watching on your 1st playthrough. But once you've played 1 game, the rules are really easy going forward. Games typically can go on for a few hours, but it's utterly engrossing, and you're always wanting 1 more turn. Great theme with fantastic board design and engineering aspects. There is so much replayability to this game.

I've been playing this for a fair few months and every game is different. It's a little complicated at times, especially near the end but always great fun. So many strategies and it's more like three hours then two but it's never boring. Plays good solo, two players, three and four. People complain about the resource recording cards which are not great as it's easy to knock the markers off. I bought the wooden versions off the internet, not cheap but excellent quality. The Prelude expansion speeds things up at the start and gives you more corporation cards but is a bit overpriced. I bought the expansion which give you two other maps to play on, a double sided board, and this is really worthwhile as your strategies have to change. So to sum up. Great game with lots of replay and once you get into it, it's very addictive in a good way.

Good quality overall, however printing on the cards isn't perfect. Some cards are printed noticeably lighter/washed out. The two clear cubes also have chipped corners. For the price, it's not bad enough to go through the trouble of returning it, but might be to someone else. Apart from that, the double layered boards are great, as are the cubes compared to the original Terraforming Mars. In terms of gameplay, I really enjoy it solo! There's no player interaction at a higher player count, so won't be suggesting when playing with others at all. It was also a bit of an adjustment after playing the original in terms of how the resources work, but once I got the hang of it, it was fine. Much quicker to set up for a solo game than the original!

For my board game, that persists of 5 family members and have gone through many of the usual German style resource management and zonal strategy game through the years, plus many other genres. This has become our end game. With one or 2 expansion the game has now reached a level where after 100s of games, every game is still unique. Perfect pacing, perfect level balance. The skill gap is perfectly balanced where the better players usually win but anyone in the group can still win and still enjoy games. Every player looks forward to a TM games night and that includes my 57 and 70yr old parents who are fully competent and competitive. It's actually been an amazing tool to keep in regular contact with my brother and his family and my parents, socialise, a few dricks and some classic brotherly British banter. The best board game ever created IMO.

Added a couple of extra decisions to consider especially late game

An excellent expansion which speeds up the early few generations of the game, which otherwise can feel a bit slow and also allows for more strategic/synergistic picks of your starting corporation and starting cards.

Tenía mis dudas sobre el, porque no soy muy fan de la temática espacial y futurista en juegos de mesa, pero este si me gustó mucho y su versión solitaria funciona muy bien y es divertido. Me encantó.

Love this game! Easy to play, clear and descriptive instructions, excellent quality of materials. A great game, playable by two people and which takes many of the same concepts from Terraforming Mars (full edition) and tweaks them a bit to make for an interesting, enjoyable - and shorter - game. Highly recommended. Suggest getting the expansion pack "Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition: Discovery", for even more interesting competition.

Game is great! Quality of the delivery was very poor: boardgame box completely dented