Terraforming Mars Soars In Its Debut At WBC

The debut of Terraforming Mars at WBC was a huge success as 215 players played in 108 tournament games, averaging over 100 players per heat! The vast majority of games were played using the full corporate game, with production starting at 0 and an initial card draft, which worked very well. 71 different players won at least 1 game. Wins were fairly well distributed among the corporations with Tharsus leading the pack, 21 wins including the finals, followed by Mining Guild with 12, Ecoline with 11 but none in the semifinals or finals, Credicorp and Phobolog with 9, Interplanetary Cinematics and UNMI with 8, Terractor with 7, Saturn Systems and Inventrix with 6 including 2 in the semifinals, Thorgate and Beginner Corporations with 4, and Helion trailing the field with 3. Given the overwhelming response, next year we anticipate moving to quarterfinals, with hopefully all winners advancing to 4-player games.

The top 25 qualifiers, each of whom won at least 2 heats, advanced to the semifinals. Assistant GM Eric Wrobel was the only player to go 4-0 in the heats but was done in by Helion in the semifinals, falling hard to Keith Dent. Kevin Rice, Derek Glenn, Mark Giddings and David Hewitt also won their semifinal games to join Keith in the finals.

In the finals, Keith played Interplanetary Cinematics over Credicorp, Kevin played Thorgate rather than Saturn Systems, Derek played Tharsus which he won with in the semifinals instead of UNMI, Mark played Inventrix instead of Ecoline, and David choose Phobolog over Mining Guild.

Keith got off to a solid start with Commercial District on turn 1. Kevin played Arctic Algae on turn 1 and several cards to increase his energy production. Unfortunately for him, the plants generated by Arctic Algae for the first 4 turns were all destroyed by Asteroids, explaining why players shied away from Ecoline in the semifinals and final. Derek got off to a great start with Industrial Microbes on turn 1 setting up Strip Mining on turn 2. Mark went with the holding cards strategy, taking Planner on turn 2. David played Water from Europa on turn 1 and successfully pumped numerous oceans to increase his TR despite a lack of board presence, but was hit hard by Derek’s Sabotage of his last 3 titanium by Derek stealing his titanium production.

Derek played Research Outpost on turn 3, followed by Immigrant City on turn 4, and as expected claimed Mayor on turn 4. He then built Rover Construction on turn 5, giving him a huge bonus whenever anyone built a city. Keith countered with Mohole Area on turn 4 and played Greenhouses a little early on turn 6 to enable him to claim Gardner as the last milestone. Mark played Viral Enhancers on turn 3 and attempted to make up for lack of board presence with points on cards, including predators, which chomped several of Keith’s points and also upped his titanium production. Despite Derek’s aggression, David was able to stay in the race by playing Jovian tags and increasing his titanium production but also was largely off planet. Kevin played Underground City on turn 7 and Immigrations Shuttles on turn 8 to try to close the gap.

Derek started funding Awards, funding both Miner and Banker on turn 6, both of which he won, not surprisingly. Keith funded Landlord on turn 7 and was able to hold that as well. Kevin’s Immigration Shuttles gave him second in Banker. Derek’s widespread cities, combined with timely greeneries gave him second in Landlord, and Mark’s titanium got him second in Miner. The score was extremely close going into the scoring phase with Keith having 34, Derek and Kevin 33, David 32 and Mark 20, but Derek’s domination of Milestones and Awards, 17 points to Keith’s 10 and Mark’s 7, combined with 14 points for cities and greeneries to Keith’s 12, Kevin’s 8, Mark’s 5 and David’s 3, proved insurmountable. Derek finished with 68 and Keith was second with 60. David’s 20 card points, including Jovian tag multipliers, enabled him to edge out Kevin for third 55 to 53. Mark’s 10 resource points and 8 card points were not enough to close the TR gap, finishing at 50.