Terraforming Mars - How To Play

NOTE: If you are using a standard corporation, you draw your 10 card opening hand and get to examine that, before choosing the corporation you wish to keep.

Email: watchitplayed(at)live(dot)com
Twitter: @watchitplayed
Instagram: @watchitplayed

We truly appreciate your views, feedback and subscriptions.

00:00 - Introduction
00:36 - The Setup
04:58 - Overview
05:19 - A Generation
05:37 - The Action Phase
05:59 - The Actions
06:27 - Action: Using A Standard Project
06:40 - Standard Project: Selling Patents
06:55 - Standard Project: Power Plant
07:14 - Resources vs. Production
08:11 - Production Limits
08:43 - Standard Project: Asteroids
08:57 - Increasing a Global Parameter
09:55 - Placing Tiles
10:14 - Placing Oceans
10:38 - Standard Project: Aquifer
10:50 - Standard Project: Greenery
10:58 - Placing Greenery Tiles
12:13 - Reaching a Global Parameters
12:46 - Standard Project: Creating A City
12:56 - Placing A City Tile
13:44 - Action: Playing A Card
14:25 - Card Cost Requirements
15:30 - Red Bordered Resources/Production
16:55 - Using Steel and Titanium
18:46 - Stacking Cards
19:10 - Red Banner Cards
19:36 - Other symbols
20:14 - Action: Blue Actions
20:44 - Animals (Microbes follow the same types of rules)
21:48 - Action: Trade in Plants for Greenery
22:05 - Action: Trade in Heat for Temperature
22:13 - Action: Claiming a Milestone
23:02 - Action: Funding An Award
23:28 - Corporation Abilities
23:42 - The Production Phase
24:35 - The Player Order Phase
24:53 - The Research Phase
25:21 - Ending The Game
25:45 - Final Scoring
27:25 - Determining The Winner
27:40 - Corporate Era Card/Solo Play
28:13 - Conclusion

#watchitplayed #boardgames #tutorial

[WatchItPlayed]

NOTE: If you are using a standard corporation, you draw your 10 card opening hand and get to examine that, before choosing the corporation you wish to keep.

[jccusell]

Flipped through the book, watched this for 25 minutes, flipped through the book for 5 minutes, played it straight away without checking rules much. Felt like Neo learning Kung Fu. Hands down the best how to play channel on YT.

[Grumdy]

Rodney nonchalantly going full boss and wrecking the audience at 28:14 with the no-look lid twirl and dunk

[Tuneman]

My wife and I are avid board game players with a 20' wall of board games in our (now 18" narrower) dining room. Terraforming Mars somehow perplexed us the first few times we tried to play. (Not understanding how the 1-5-10 metal cubes were only counters and not the resources themselves, and being intimidated by not knowing all the additional "microbes" and interactions between the cards. We set up and played for 15 minutes and quit... 3 times!

After watching this video, we played a 130 minute game and LOVED it.

Sometimes it takes seeing it, not just reading it, to know how it plays!

So much thanks to being able to reference the play in this video, as well as the description timeline.

[writative]

This is my go to for learning how to play anything. Rodney is clear and concise and always presents complex ideas in an easy to digest way.

[railwayruss]

This is the first channel I look for when I purchase a new boardgame. Clear, brief and concise. Thanks.

[simonb]

You have NO idea how many times I've tried to get into this game. I bought it for my tablet 2 years ago and couldn't understand what was going on. I've failed so many times to grasp the complexities, but then I watch this video and BOOM!! Thank you for such a great production, you really do provide an amazing service.

[NicolaFrankVachon]

Hi Rodney. I really appreciate your videos. I can't imagine how much work you put into each of them. Everything is so well made and precise. Clearly a labor of love. Thank you from a fellow canadian.

[centrix]

I needed this a week ago. Had to read the rulebook myself to understand the game.

1st world problems....

[stacyross]

You have such a gift for explaining game rules! Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into these videos - my family and I sure appreciate them. You've taught us how to play several games so far, and this one might be a new favorite! Thanks again!

[Orious]

Quick rule correction at 16:10 in the video. The step of removing 2 resources is not optional, unless it says "Up to" in the text. You can however choose to take resources from players even if none of them have that resource, effectively doing nothing. The game developer (Jacob Fryxelius) addressed this:

The general rule is that all the effects have to be performed in order to play the card.
However, sometimes there are situations where you cannot get the full benefit from the card, and we want you to still be able to play the card. In order to achieve this, we added the 3 exceptions mentioned in the rules:
You can ignore effects that
1) raise a parameter that has already been maxed
2) gives you resources that you can't collect
3) removes opposing resources even though your opponents don't have enough resources to remove

The same would go for getting production that you can't increase, but there is no such case in the game.
Reducing production (animals), on the other hand, is mandatory since that is obviously a cost to play the card, as is removing your own resources (Moss).

Also great videos they are very helpful!

[rahulkalita]

Such a simple game, I was scratching my head going through the rulebook. Thank you man for the beautiful explanation..

[GreysonDKB]

Terraforming Mars is such a great game. It's so good to see you add this excellent tutorial to your channel. It will help a lot of players new and old. I learned two small mistakes I've been making. Thank you, Rodney!

[bmackVR]

I've had this game for 2 years now and I always like watching your videos to find out what little rule I missed up! Turns out I missed something here too!

[MrAndyjobo]

By watching this video, I was able to find a couple of rules that our group missed during our first couple plays! I just happened to win both times, but once I tell them about our errors I'm sure they'll use that information to diminish my past "victories".

[MHFelem]

My second favorite game besides Gaia Project.. It is always great to see this game to be explained ❤️

[pearldsouza]

the best watch it played video! you had my full attention for 30 mins!!

[novemberchild]

My partner has been asking me to play this with him for ages, but the game looked so overwhelming.. Now I've watched this video twice and I'm going to surprise him :D

[hessonr]

Your videos are so helpful! Despite reading the rule book I couldn’t help feeling I missed something. The production phase felt wrong and we weren’t using the gold, silver, bronze tokens. Not sure how I missed that in the instructions but I get it now thanks!

[christopheraledo]

dude Rodney I was just about to read the rulebook to this when I got a notification about your video, you're like Batman. cheers mate.