Wrobel Terraforms The Best

The third year of Terraforming Mars was another huge success with 256 different players and an incredible 583 player starts. The 3 heats had 173, 169 and 145 players and 76 players (all winners) advanced to the quarterfinals. Competition was heightened by an influx of very strong California players, including 3 of the top 6 finishers. Players liked the 4-player game format. Not everyone was thrilled with the use of all of the expansions, although a poll of the quarterfinalists showed a clear preference for doing so. Players appreciated having a choice (in the second and third heats) whether or not to play expansions, and next year we will make that a standard option, at least up until the semifinals. Also, next year we will only advance the top 64 to the quarterfinals and use random milestones and awards when possible, at least in elimination rounds.

Five players went 3-0 in the heats, led by Galen Loram’s impressive 28 point average margin of victory, which he showed was no fluke by winning the quarterfinals by 11 and the semifinals by 37. Eric Wrobel also rolled through the competition going 5-0 with an average margin of victory of over 13 points. The other undefeated triple heat winners failed to make the final: Bill Crenshaw ousted defending champ Keith Dent in the quarterfinals before being taken down by Lisa King in the semis; Jim McFarlane fell to Donte Saccenti in the semis; and first year champ Derek Glenn lost in the quarterfinals. When the dust had settled, we had a classic east (Eric and Donte) versus west (Galen and Lisa) match up for the finals.

Corps

• Galen – Manutech
• Eric – MSI
• Lisa – Inventrix
• Donte - Point Luna

Corporation selections showed a wide variety of strategies. Eric's MSI gave a large wad of cash to start and a leg up on the Venuphile award. Lisa picked Inventrix to help with the Scientist award late game as well as get out some early cards requiring 2 science. Galen's Manutech focused on economy ramping as he was able to end the game with over 30 income and 5 plant production. Donte opened Point Luna for a big card drawing strategy.

Preludes

• Business Empire (Galen)
• Loan (Galen)
• Supply Drop (Eric)
• Allied Bank (Eric)
• UNMI Contractor (Lisa)
• Donation (Lisa)
• Acquired Space Agency (Donte)
• Biolab (Donte)

An interesting note about the prelude selection is that all players had 1 card that gave production and 1 that gave resources. This allowed players to start off with a nice production boost, and increment it further with the strongest economy cards from their draft. It is no surprise that both of the MEGA CREDIT increasing preludes were drafted as income gives the most flexibility to use cards and the Banker award was in play.

Colonies

As half the colonies started the game inactive (Titan, Enceladus, and Miranda), it looked like there wouldn't be a lot of trading in this game. But oh how wrong that thought is. Get ready for a wild ride!

Early Game

First round Eric starts off with a colony on Luna after drawing 3 Venus cards from Morning Star Inc. and Lisa/Galen follow him onto Luna. This was a great investment as the colony was traded on all 10 turns of the game, resulting in a total value of $40 while only investing 17 space bucks.

Lisa plays Mars University to get 2 science tags. This enables her to play Extremophiles and Floating Habs. Titan and Enceladus colonies become active. She then has the tags to play Sister Planet Support for +3 cash dollar money credits.

Galen opens with a strong floater strategy, playing both Titan Floating Launch-Pad and Titan Shuttles. Normally first turn trading is not very effective since all colony markers are on the first level. HOWEVER. With 3 colonies on Luna, Galen is able to use Titan Floating Launch-Pad to trade there for $7 and shower everyone but Donte in another $2.

Donte peels a very nice Miranda Resort off of his Acquired Space Agency prelude to further support the earth tag strategy. Unfortunately he's only got 1 earth tag in the opening draft and first plays Cartel to draw a card and increase income by $2. Donte's game would have been significantly stronger had a few more earth tags landed in his opening hand. The opening 1 plant production on his Biolab prelude didn't seem to fit with the strategy. However this was all part of the plan as Donte deployed a turn 1 Food Factory to convert that production into $4 incomes.

Milestone Race

All players at the table were able to capture milestones in the deal ideal way - Without slowing down their economic growth. As milestones are a competition this is not always an option. Note that we played with random milestones and awards. This adds more variety and requires players to adapt their strategy.

The first milestone claimed was a battle between Lisa and Galen. Both got out floater cards turn 1. Lisa's advantage was going first on turn 2, while Galen's advantage was getting 2 floaters per turn on his Titan Shuttles. Because the Titan colony was in play this game, it changed the dynamic. Galen was able to use Titan shuttles in round 1 + 2 for 4 floaters, then build a colony on Titan for the 7th floater.

Donte did an excellent job of positioning himself for a milestone. He played Optimal Aerobreaking and used the Point Luna Company. Many events are space events, and also have an earth tag. His efficient engine would let him play events and get money, heat, and cards. Some of the early events he played were Convoy from Europa, Technology Demonstration, Mineral Deposit, and Comet for Venus. Eric was the table's punching bag and the honorary selection to lose $4 on Comet for Venus. Like the Legend he is, Donte claimed his milestone on generation 3.

The last milestone was slow to be claimed.

• Mayor - There was only 1 city on the board
• Polar Explorer - There was only 1 tile on board (the aforementioned city)
• Tycoon - No one was close to 15 cards.
• Generalist - People were focused on producing titanium and megacredits.

On generation 4 Galen has 4/6 production boxes and Eric has 5/6. Eric ponders for a long time and then decides on the risky play. He neglects to play the 1 plant production card he's holding. Instead he drops Sulphur-Eating Bacteria and lands 2 colonies on Enceladus with the help of a friendly Research Colony. Sweat drips down Eric's neck on Galen's turn. The risk pays off as Galen doesn't have the required cards to gain production in all 6 areas. Eric trades on Enceladus with his double colony for 6 microbes, putting Sulphur-Eating Bacteria up to 12 microbes! He activates the bacteria for $36 which is more than enough money to get the last plant production and claim Generalist.

Milestone Summary

• Legend (Donte)
• Tycoon
• Generalist (Eric)
• Mayor
• Hoverload (Galen)
• Polar Explorer

Award Standoff

Galen funds Celebrity on turn 3 before all the milestones have been claimed. At the time he's up 4-2. Bold move in a game that's sure to last a long time because everyone is ramping their economy instead of terraforming.

After Celebrity was funded, there was a long award standoff. Not Mexican flavored, just a normal standoff. Players had strong economies, tons of cards, and there was no clear winner for any category. Some of the major impact cards had not been played yet so it was too risky to fund.

• Cultivator - Greenhouses, Plantation, Kelp Farming
• Scientist - Research, Everything in Lisa's hand
• Banker - Toll Stations, Zeppelins, Galilean Waystation, Satellites
• Venuphile - Venus Governor

Eventually Eric funds Scientist as he's up 10-6-4-3 on science tags with 2 more in his hand. That seems like a safe play... On turn 9 / 10 Galen decides to fund the last award, Contractor. This is a fairly safe move as he's up on the table 9-5-4-4.

While not technically in the game, Eric would have won the award most take-backs in a single turn. He tries to play Omnicourt without a Jovian tag in play, switches to Freyja Biodomes, then changes his mind and decides to release Inert Gases. By day 8 of the convention everyone was very tired and the rest of the players were very understanding. Great sportsmanship all around.

Mid Game Big Plays

Lisa drafts cards. She grabs cards like never seen before. When asked on the last turn of the game, she just stopped counting at 20. In addition to this, she's got Mars University in play on turn 1 to cycle cards. There are many cards and they are quality. She drops Mass Converter for cheap energy to trade with alongside Arctic Algae for easy plants.

Galen sets up a nice Rover Construction/Pets combo and starts filling the board with cities. He positions his first 3 cities perfectly.

He gets the 8% oxygen track free temperature bump with Water Splitting Plant, and the 16% Venus track TR using Giant Solar Shade. There was a pretty long stall battle between Eric with 8 plants and Galen with Water Splitting Plant over who would get the free temperature increase. Eventually Eric ran out of actions and decided to use his plants. This was because next round Donte was first and might use an asteroid to kill the plants. Additionally, Eric wanted to first action double trade.

Donte set up the trading trifecta: +1 trade fleet, +1 bump when trading, -1 resource when trading. What a legend. He also brought a Large Convoy of bears to the planet.

Eric played Ecology Experts for an impressive +5 plan production, and the card helps with Scientist and Celebrity awards. His trading setup wasn't as powerful as Donte, but it was up and running sooner. Space Port Colony gave +1 trade fleet and Cryo-Sleep was -1 resources. Having 5 colonies was particularly useful as every colony was traded every turn in the mid and late game.

Last Turn

Donte ponders for a while, then drops DEMOS DOWN for the last 3 heat bumps. This guarantees generation 10 will be the last. He takes 8 plants from Eric (also being somewhat ironic because Eric’s team is named Deimos Downers). Galen joins the party and plays Sabotage on Eric. To be fair, Eric is ahead at this point and deserves it. Donte and Eric have fewer cards and stall actions so they play out their hands. Titan Air Scrapping and Asteroid Mining hit the table for Eric, stealing lead in the Celebrity award from Galen.

Galen counts up Eric's points and decides to take a risk. He knows a Jovian multipler card will give him 4 points and a tie for Celebrity. He swallows hard. Standard project power plant and plays AI central to draws 2 cards..... Galen looks at the two cards, then tosses them into the discard pile. His last actions are standard projecting some greeneries and taking a $15 Venus bump.

Lisa is working on research to grow a third hand to help hold so many cards. Media Archives and Molecular Printing give her over $20 each! At this point she goes on a science tear, starting at 6 science tags and ending at 13! Conveniently this is 1 more than Eric and secures Lisa the 5 point Scientist award. Most players at the table applaud. Well played.

Final Scoring

Lisa got eaten by both ants and predators. She still scored an impressive 28 resource points thanks to Floating Habs, Stratospheric Birds, and Extremophiles. This matched up well with the fact that there was a floater, microbe, and animal colony.

Donte scored good points off his bears and cattle. His space based strategy did not match up well with the awards, resulting in 0 points from this category. At one point during the game Galen remarked how he had taken 5 earth tag cards that would have been passed to Donte. Ouch.

Eric scored well in every category, with the highest being 28 points from cards. A sizable chunk of that was 7 from Space Port Colony. Yes we made 14 colonies this game!

Galen had the highest TR thanks to running Water Splitting Plant and Venus Magnetizer most turns. He was able to fund this high energy strategy because Titan Floating Launch-Pad let him trade for free. He also played some solid energy cards: Beam from a Thorium Asteroid and Nuclear Power. His pets scored a lovely 7 points.

After counting up scores, Galen was 5 points behind Eric. But under the table was a surprise! Galen's Farming card had fallen on the ground. This made it a 3 point gap. Another look revealed a point on Medical Lab, and closes the gap to 2. After scouring underneath, Galen takes off his socks to look for more points. Unfortunately for him there is nothing but loose toe hair and Eric is declared the winner for a second time.

Award Scoring

• Celebrity (Eric/Galen)
• Cultivator
• Scientist (Lisa/Eric)
• Contractor (Galen/Eric)
• Banker
• Venuphile

Final Scores: