Cardboard Corner: Review of Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

I have occasionally come upon the idea that a person's enjoyment of a strategy board game is relative to their ability to simultaneously juggle multiple interdependent elements in their head toward one or more goals. The better a person is at this, the better the chance of them enjoying a complex strategy game. Rather than “boringly difficult”, it's more likely to be a “fun brain exercise”. Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition (2021) can be a fun brain exercise—for the right brain.

Like many board games released the past couple of years, Ares Expedition combines several different mechanisms—hand management, resource management, drafting, action selection, tableau building, etc. But given the way in which players must combine those mechanisms in the flow of play ultimately makes Ares Expedition an engine building game for 2-4 players. Each player takes on the role of a corporation looking to contribute the most toward terraforming the Red Planet. Raising its temperature, increasing the oxygen level, and developing the oceans are the three main ways that players corporate engines contribute, and as such, earn terraforming points. The player with the most terraforming points at the end of the game, wins.

Play takes place in rounds, and each round players must decide which of the five available actions they want to take, bearing in mind that everyone else will be able to take the action, also. This includes two types of construction, two types of production, and research. After actions are chosen, players reveal, and in sequential order everyone takes their actions. During construction, players look to add cards to their tableau (i.e. corporation), which builds synergies toward producing heat, plant life, money, steel, titanium, and so forth. Levels of production are tracked on individual player boards. During production, players look to generate the resources needed to achieve the goals described above, raising temperature, increasing oxygen, etc. Research, along with certain card actions, allows players to add cards to their hands, in turn giving them further options for building their tableau/corporation. This process is repeated until temp, oxygen and ocean levels are maxed out, at which time points are counted and the winner declared.

The fun of Ares Expedition is to be found in discovering and building synergies in the tableau—to build the best engine. With 208 cards included in the box, there are seemingly innumerable ways of branching out. But the question always remains: are you branching out in a strategic fashion such that your resources are used most efficiently at building a most effective tableau/engine? Players who waste money on cards which play little role in their tableau will always be beaten by players who sacrifice short-term for long-term games. These latter players, however, will always be beaten by players who find ways of consistently getting short term gains that extend into long term gains. Not purely an exercise in min-max, there is certainly enough variability in card draw to ensure things remain flexible.

I have read complaints of the game's art, but I have to say I don't know what the fuss is about. Sure, you're not going to put an Ares Expedition poster on your wall, but at the same time the theme of the game is corporate/science based—not exactly a locus of visual creativity and artistic expressiveness. The art the game offers works well, and that's enough. Graphic design is consistent and clear. The layout complements symbolism and gameplay. And the molded boards help keep players' production levels and resources nicely contained should someone accidentally bump the table. No complaints here.

For some players, i.e. players who struggle juggling multiple interdependent elements in their head while working toward one or more goals, Ares Expedition will be a challenge and potentially not fun. There is a fair amount of symbolism and understanding how it flows together to create gameplay possibilities is critical. Like Puerto Rico, Race with the Galaxy, Imperial Settlers, Concordia and others, this is clearly a strategy game—not as heavy as war games, but a game which cannot be played too casually.

I have not played the original Terraforming Mars board game. I have no idea how the Ares Expedition rendition compares. I can only say that it stands on its own two feet by providing an engaging, brain-burning 60 to 90 minutes for a small group of people. Like Race for the Galaxy, 51st State, Alien Artifacts and other similar card strategy games, replay value is high. I have played the game several times, but it still feels like there are multiple layers of depth to be explored—and git gud.