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Terraforming Mars
#9BGG8.3RATINGHOT #45
Updated Jul 28
1–5
PLAYERS
120
MINUTES
3
BEST WITH
3.3
HEAVY
ERRATA3
Mars University must discard before drawingdesigner
- RULING
- "This card should have an asterisk and capital text to make it completely clear that you do indeed have to discard a card first in order to draw a card."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Search For Life wordingdesigner
- RULING
- "1st edition errata: Should read: 'Reveal and discard...'"
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Card-placed tiles must be placed (rulebook p.10 correction)designer
- RULING
- "1st edition errata: Page 10 in the rulebook states another exception; that you don't need to be able to place a stated tile. This is wrong – any tile placed by the card must be placed unless it is an ocean tile and they are all placed already."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10
DESIGNER CLARIFICATIONS27
Number of actions per generationdesigner
- RULING
- "You have an unlimited number of actions each generation, but may only take 1 or 2 at a time (your turn). After the other players' turns, you get a new turn. Only if you passed (did no action on your turn) you are out and may not have any more turns during that action phase."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Choosing starting cards during setupdesigner
- RULING
- "Choose your starting cards at the same time as you choose your corporation card (Choosing a Beginner corporation must be done before seeing the cards though)."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Standard vs Corporate Era variants and solo basicsdesigner
- RULING
- The standard variant excludes Corporate Era [CE] cards and players start with 1 production of each resource (plus their corporation). The Corporate Era variant adds all [CE] corporations and project cards and players start with 0 production (plus their corporation). Beginner Corporations are not a variant — they may replace choosing a corporation and starting hand in any variant. Draft may be combined with any variant, is not applied to the starting 10 cards, and is never used in solo. Solo always uses Corporate Era.
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Blue cards with actionsdesigner
- RULING
- "Blue cards with actions can only be used once per generation (mark them as used with your player marker until the production phase). If a card has more than one action, you must choose which one to use. Any cost before the arrow must be paid first, then the effect after the arrow is performed similar to when you play a card, and with the same restrictions."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Cards can trigger their own effectsdesigner
- RULING
- "A card's tags may often trigger the card's own effect while being played. For example, Decomposers adds a resource to itself when being played because of its microbe tag triggering the card effect."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Effects and discounts are cumulativedesigner
- RULING
- "Effects are in general cumulative. A card can potentially trigger several effects, and each single effect of a card may trigger. Discounts are cumulative, but a cost may not go below zero."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10End-of-game greenery conversion orderdesigner
- RULING
- "After the last production phase players may, in the preserved player order, convert plants into one or more greenery tiles. The greenery tiles are paid for (with 8 plants each) and placed one at a time, triggering placement bonuses and other effects before the next tile is placed. When that player can't place more greenery tiles, the next player goes."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Requirements are minimums, not exact valuesdesigner
- RULING
- "A requirement box (next to the card's cost) that doesn't explicitly say 'max' is automatically a minimum requirement. For example, 'requires 3 oceans' means that you can play the card if there are at least 3 ocean tiles in play. There are no 'exact requirements'."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Costs are never negativedesigner
- RULING
- "A cost may never be negative. If a card costing 1 MC and is discounted by 2, you will pay 0 MC for it, not -1 MC."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Order of simultaneous triggered effectsdesigner
- RULING
- "If several effects or triggers are to be performed at the same time, the acting player chooses the order. If it is not in the action phase, the first player chooses order."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Requirements for playing a carddesigner
- RULING
- "In order to play a card, you must 1) fulfill any requirement, 2) be able to perform all the direct effects of the card (with the 3 exceptions below), and 3) pay for the card." The three exceptions: the card may still be played if it raises an already-maxed global parameter, removes resources from any player who doesn't have enough (or whom you don't want to target), or adds resources to a card you can't collect — in each case do as much as possible and disregard the rest.
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Resolving a played card and taking back the actiondesigner
- RULING
- "When playing a card, you first reveal and declare that you're playing the card, then you confirm that you meet the requirements, and you pay for the card. It is now being played, and all its effects and all effects triggered from playing the card with its tags are now waiting to be resolved, in the order chosen by the active player. If the player can't manage to perform all effects (exceptions above), the whole action is taken back."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Removing resources: mandatory vs voluntarydesigner
- RULING
- "Effects that remove your own resources are mandatory, while effects that remove resources from any player (marked by a red border around the resource icon) are voluntary and may be performed in full, in part or not at all. Only one player or card may be targeted at a time with the effects of a card. Removing production is always mandatory."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Reserved board areasdesigner
- RULING
- "There are 12 blue areas reserved for ocean and 3 areas reserved for specific cities. No other tiles may be placed there unless specifically stated."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Greenery placement when you can't place adjacentdesigner
- RULING
- "If you can't afford or is otherwise prohibited from placing on a free area next to your tile, this doesn't allow you to place anywhere. The only condition to place anywhere is that there is no area available next to any of your tiles. The only things that can make areas unavailable is that they are reserved, they already have a tile, or that they don't exist."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Reshuffling the deckdesigner
- RULING
- "The deck is reshuffled from the discard pile if it becomes empty."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Tags on event cards are not counted after playdesigner
- RULING
- "They are active and may trigger effects while being played, but are not counted after this, neither during the game or during end game scoring (they may still give end game VP if they contain a VP icon)."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Tiles cannot be stackeddesigner
- RULING
- "A tile can never be placed on top of another tile."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Which cards can collect resourcesdesigner
- RULING
- "Only cards that explicitly can use the resources on them may collect such resources. Viral Enhancers may, for example, not collect resources because it doesn't do anything with resources. So the triggered resource gained from its microbe tag will instead be a plant resource as stated on the card."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10The Capital special tiledesigner
- RULING
- "This tile is only placed by the Capital card, not by Noctis City, Phobos Space Haven, or Ganymede colony. Those cards place normal city tiles as indicated by their icons. Capital has a special tile (that counts as a city tile) because it scores adjacent ocean tiles, in addition to the normal scoring of adjacent greenery tiles."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Ecoline's effect is not an actiondesigner
- RULING
- "Ecoline's effect is not an action, and so may be used any number of times during the generation. It is an effect that alters the plant conversion action on the player board, making it cheaper to use."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Inventrix and Tharsis Republic first actiondesigner
- RULING
- "These corporations have a pre-defined first action, meaning that the first of your two allowed actions on your first turn in the first action phase is used for this purpose. You may use the second action for that turn normally, if you want."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10UNMI action frequencydesigner
- RULING
- "UNMI works exactly like a blue card with an action; it may be used only once per generation."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Robotic Workforce targets and copiesdesigner
- RULING
- "Can only target a card with the building tag, and it only copies that card's production box, not other effects. Any decreases of production stated in that box must also be performed. It can not copy a production box that is part of an action or effect on the upper panel on a blue card; only a production box on the lower panel of a card with the building tag."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Solo endgame and win conditiondesigner
- RULING
- "The game ends after 14 full generations. In order to win you must finish the terraforming before the extra round of converting plants into greenery tiles. Only games you win are scored (after the extra placement of greenery tiles)."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Solo setupdesigner
- RULING
- "Randomly place 2 neutral cities and greeneries. Terraform rating starts at 14 instead of 20. Corporate Era is used: add all [CE] cards and start with 0 production, plus what the chosen corporation gives you."
AUTHOR: Fryxen (Jacob Fryxelius, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(534 replies, 301 thumbs)DATE: 2017-01-10Are played event cards hidden information?designer
- CONTEXT
- Players debated whether opponents may inspect which event cards have been played (relevant for cards/awards that count events).
- RULING
- "TM is not a memory game, and all trackable information is in theory open, so you could ask a player what events he/she has played, or how many VPs are on his/her cards. BUT such information is semi-hidden exactly to prevent AP and kingmaking, and players taking AP time to survey every card of every opponent should be called out."
EDGE CASES1
Zero in a category still qualifies for an awardlinked official sourcecommunity high-engagement
- SITUATION
- When scoring an award, players with 0 of the counted resource/tag dispute whether they still place (e.g., two players tied at 0 cubes for the Miner award).
- RULING
- "We don't have any special rules in this case. If all players on second place happens to have 0 in that category, then they all get some very cheap 2 VPs! ... In the extreme case that no player has anything at all counting for the award, then all would get 5 VPs for sharing first place!" Zero is a valid value — it qualifies for placement.
AUTHOR: EagleEye80 (Enoch Fryxelius, FryxGames — no Designer/Publisher role label on the post, but treated by the community as the official answer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.comDATE: 2016-09-19
Last researched: 2026-06-29
CATEGORIES
Civilization·Economic·Environmental·Industry / Manufacturing·Science Fiction·Space Exploration·Territory Building
MECHANICS
Closed DraftingContractsEnd Game BonusesHand ManagementHexagon GridIncomeSolo / Solitaire GameTagsTake That
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An opponent's settlement blocks your road network — your road cannot be built through or past an occupied intersection.
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Null cards deal 0 damage regardless of base value or any bonuses applied.
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