kerravonsen | Jun. 17th, 2023

I am increasingly frustrated with the Solo version of Terraforming Mars.

For those of you not familiar with it, Terraforming Mars is a game where, as it says on the box, you are terraforming Mars, simplified down to a game that one can play. It is a pretty cool game. The goal is to get three criteria (oxygen, heat, and oceans) up to minimum liveable conditions for humans, which is nine oceans (from none), 14% oxygen (from none), and 8 degrees centigrade (from -30C). Oh, and to get fame and glory (victory points) while doing so. One increases those criteria by undertaking projects such as planting greenery, melting icecaps, and throwing asteroids at the planet. Yeah. And one also needs to build infrastructure to aid you in doing those things. Infrastructure enables you to produce resources, such as steel, titanium, plants, electricity, and heat. And stuff costs money.

The normal game is played with 2-5 players, but there is also a solitaire (Solo) version. Obviously since one isn't competing against other players in the Solo game, one has to compete against something else, so what they've done is give you a turn (Generation) limit. You have to complete terraforming Mars by the end of the 14th Generation or you lose.

And that's fair enough - or would be fair enough if they had not also required a rule variant which makes it practically impossible to win.

The variant is known as "Corporate Rules". The Corporate Rules variant can be played in a multi-player game, but for a Solo game it isn't optional; one is required to play Corporate Rules. This variant adds in a whole bunch more cards, but also requires that one starts off unable to produce any resources. Whereas in a standard game, players start off with the ability to produce one of every resource per Generation.

Because of this, one spends the first five or so generations just building infrastructure without getting any actual terraforming done. That doesn't give one enough time to complete terraforming before the 14th generation. So you ALWAYS lose. That's not very happy-making game-play.

So I thought I'd try the Solo game without the Corporate Rules, and lo and behold, I was able to terraform Mars by the 14th Generation. But maybe that is making things too easy? Dunno. Maybe I'll try doing it where you initially produce only three types of resources instead of all five.

( reporting in later... )

( reporting in even later... )