Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition – Discovery · Foundations · Crisis

Players take the roles of rival corporations managing projects and choosing phases to advance the terraforming of Mars while addressing emergent threats. A persistent Crisis deck introduces planetary disasters each round; unmet crisis objectives reduce terraforming metrics and must be resolved cooperatively to avoid collapse and ultimately trigger the endgame when re-terraforming is complete. The package adds player-facing systems: awards (three drawn at setup) and first-to milestones for in-game VP, upgraded phase cards that offer alternative bonuses, and wild-tag project cards that players assign a tag to when revealed. Foundations also expands player count, adds extra boards and a fourth terraforming metric (infrastructure), new phase cards, and project cards tied to that metric.

Players: 1–6 best 3
Playing time: 60 min
Age: 14+
Complexity: 2.8 / 5