Terraforming Mars
SG6005
Description
According to Board Game Geek’s ratings, Terraforming Mars is the fourth-best board game of all time, right now! That’s high praise indeed for Jacob Fryxelius’ pride and joy. It balances a blend of hand management and card-drafting that’s all driven by economic resource-management, and it culminates in territory-building on the red planet.
Yes, Mars is the setting here (oh, you’d already guessed?), and, much like Elon Musk’s plans at the time of writing, you’re a corporation looking to make the fourth planet habitable for the human race in the futuristic 25th century.
Mars begins the game in its current state: it’s an inhospitable host, with the temperature being far too cold for life to thrive, there’s a severe lack of oxygen and there are not enough oceans. It’s your job to contribute towards fixing these three factors, transforming Mars into a planet that more resembles Earth. When these three characteristics have met their goals, the game will end, and whoever has amassed the most points will be the winner. Hopefully by this point you will have built various technologies, earned set collection rewards and you’ll have a healthy bank balance (terraforming ain’t cheap, you know).
Over 200 different Project Cards drive Terraforming Mars. A round begins by players being dealt cards, and then they decide if they want to pay 'megacredits' to keep some or all of them. It will also cost you 'megacredits' to play the card (think of it as ‘funding’ the project, itself), so money-management is always tight. At the start of each round, players will receive 'megacredits' equal to their current Terraform Rating (which count towards your points at the end), so you’ll want to increase this as soon as possible.
Some projects offer game-long benefits, while others can count towards achieving certain immediate goals. Others also produce resources such as steel, or plants. Players each have player boards to manage their own resources, to further improve their ever-growing tableau of projects.
The brilliant thing about all of these Project Cards is that some of them cannot be completed until certain factors have been triggered, such as Mars’ temperature reaching a certain degrees, or a particular oxygen percentage is met. Other cards have to occur before certain landmarks are hit, making it quite the efficient race. Should you pay the 'megacredits' now, even though you can’t use the card at the moment? Will you even get to complete the project in time?
Asymmetrical starting powers are available, too (recommended for those with a few plays under their belt). These also add further cards into the mix. Players might want to also consider acquiring separate expansions – Hellas & Elysium, and Venus Next.
One thing’s for sure: Terraforming Mars provides a truly absorbing theme. It’s so satisfying when a game’s theme is logical and married with its mechanics in such a superb manner. It’s easy to see why this is rated so highly.
Player Count: 1-5
Time: 120+ Minutes
Age: 12+
Delivery
Delivery times
Atomic Cards aims to deliver your order within 5 working days, Next day despatch is available for orders placed before 6pm and the appropriate delivery option selected with delivery up to 24 hours later, excluding weekends and bank holidays. If there is a particular requirement or target delivery date please let us know.
Collect in store is available next day for order placed before 12 noon, although most items shown on our website are kept in our shop and collection would usually be possible within the hour.
Christmas Delivery
Due to volume of parcels Royal Mail may take longer than usual to deliver your parcel. This is beyond our control. Orders placed after December 16th will be sent via Courier but no parcel can be guaranteed, sorry.
Special Orders and Pre Orders
Atomic Cards will offer a pre order service on some select lines across the shop. If there is an upcoming release you would like to pre-order please contact Atomic Cards on 01793850942.
Some of the items on the Atomic Cards website will be ordered directly from our supplier when you place your order. There may be a slight delay on these items arriving with you due to the extra logistics involved.
Stock and Back order items
Our website shows a selection of items from our shop. If you have queries about any item not shown or shown as out of stock please call Atomic Cards on 01793850942
Returns
This policy sets out the returns policy for goods or services purchased through the online store operated by Atomic Cards, a trading name of Ducklings Toy Shop LTD.
To be eligible for a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it, and it must be in the original packaging.
Some types of goods are exempt from being returned for a refund where they are perishable (e.g. batteries)
Other types of services cannot be returned for a refund, for example where the service begins as soon as you make the payment (e.g. a downloadable software product) or a gift card or gift wrapping service
Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations, if you change your mind about a purchase you have made within 7 working days after the date of delivery, you are entitled to a full refund of the original purchase price for the goods or services you wish to return, and the original postage and packaging charges made. You will not be entitled to a refund of the cost you incur in returning the item to us.
Our standard returns policy entitles you to a full refund of the purchase price and postage and packaging charges if you change your mind (i.e. the goods or services provided are not faulty or were not described properly) within 7 working days.
If the item you purchased was faulty or did not work properly, or you think the item was not as described in the item description, please contact us first (01793850942 or info@ducklingstoyshop.com) before requesting a refund as we may be able to resolve your problem to your satisfaction.
Where you would like to return a physical product you have purchased, please contact us to let us know that you will be returning the item. To obtain a refund for a non-physical product (like a service) please contact us (01793850942 or info@ducklingstoyshop.com) for further information about how this can be done.
Once your return is received and inspected we'll contact you to let you know whether your refund will be processed or not, and credit your original method of payment, within a certain amount of days.
If you haven't received a refund yet where we have told you we have issued one, please check your bank account or card statement to make sure it hasn't been received and then contact your bank as some banks or card companies take a number of days to credit your account.
If an item you purchased was purchased with a discount voucher, then we will only refund the amount that you paid (and not the amount the item was listed for).