Terraforming Mars continued to be a very popular tournament, with 116 unique players despite only having 2 Heats. Nine players received byes to the Semifinal, including five two game winners. Agricola shark Andrew Martin and Joseph Birnbaum from the Birnbaum gaming family made their first Terraforming Mars Final, along with regular finalists Donte Saccenti (who came in a very close second last year) and Ricky Boyes (who took down perennial champ Eric Wrobel in the Semifinal).
Final
Opening
Andrew got off to a solid start with Terractor, Io Research Outpost (Jovian and science tags, titanium production and a card) and Supplier (4 steel and 2 energy production). Joseph played Cheung Shin Mars, Business Empire and Research Network to hit 10 money production on gen 1! Research Network is a traditionally undervalued Prelude but its question mark tag and 3 cards draw can be of great value down the road. Ricky played Phobolog, Martin Industries (1 steel, energy production and $6) and Orbital Construction Yard (1 titanium production and 4 titanium), a very useful Phobolog card. He only kept one card, leaving his competitors to wonder what it could be. With limited corporation options, Donte was forced to opt for the green strategy with Ecoline. His preludes were Great Aquifer and Early Settlement, allowing him to move the game along by building 2 oceans and a city to enjoy the majesty of his greeneries.
You can see why these guys made the Final, all of them made interesting plays to maximize their early positions!
Generation One
Andrew uses Ice Moon Colony to colonize Luna and Ceres, while gaining a second titanium production. Joseph plays a card to increase his energy production by one and then opts to buy two standard project power plants, allowing him to use energy to trade on Luna in gen 2. Ricky plays his mystery card, Earth Elevator, giving him $12 worth of titanium each round! Donte plays Ice Asteroid to build 2 more oceans, enabling him to build a greenery, as well as Nuclear Zone to move the temperature up and increase his TR.
Generation Two
As is often the case, gen 2 was quieter. Players had spent their initial cash reserves and really just working off interest at this point. Ricky and Donte don’t even play cards, they just add colonies. Joseph puts down a Trading Colony and Restricted Area, great turn! Andrew blows it out of the water. Research Outpost, Sponsors, Heavy Taxation, and Natural Preserve. Tons of science and discounted earth cards.
Generation Three
Things start heating up. Well not literally -- the temperature stayed the same. But the cards, they were hot! Ricky continued his trend of maximizing Phobolog by dropping expensive titanium based cards. His vehicle of choice being Immigration Shuttles this time to give some much needed MC to his titanium empire. Andrew leverages his tech advantage to drop Quantum Extractor as he continues to stack up the discounts. Joseph has a nice one-two punch with Luna Governor followed by a Luna Metropolis. Seeing so many good earth cards played makes Donte’s Martian Zoo sad, but at least he got to play his favorite card.
Generation Four
Andrew adds on a Space Station to give him -5 off all space cards! Joseph throws down Sky Docks to get in on the discount game and continue a strong game of earth tags with 19 MC production. At this point he’s wishing he had played Terractor. Ricky and Donte probably take some actions but, sorry, none of them is worth noting.
Generation Five
Get ready. Things are about to pop off. Anti Grav for Andrew, AI Central for Joseph, Mars University for Ricky, and Mohole Area for Donte. Of all these AMAZING cards, you might be questioning one of them. Gen 5 Mohole? Dubious, you may think. But keep in mind it’s a Ceres game so steel cards are easy to play and Ecoline needs to do everything in their power to end the game early. With a 7 generation game Ecoline has a high chance of winning before the engine builders can take off. Generally, they need a bit of help to end it that early though and Donte is the only one going hard on terraforming this game. At this point Andrew has -3 discount on all cards and -7 on space so he’s in the driver’s seat.
Generation Six
The table is sighing a collective groan about Andrew’s power position. Instead of lying in a pool of his own tears like everyone else, Ricky decides to strike. He lashes out against Andrew’s dark empire with HIRED RAIDERS! Andrew laughs as he carelessly tosses Ricky 2 steel “That’s the best you can do”? (Some or all of this dialogue may have been contrived.) Regardless! Ricky adds on Olympus Conference which is the perfect pair for his Mars University to kick his card draw engine into overdrive. He also lands another heavy hitter on the titanium side of the moons SPACE PORT COLONY!
Generation Seven
Players engines are cranking and a ton of cards hit the table. Andrew funds Landlord which is sort of nice for Donte who’s been laying tiles all game. However, it means Andrew has plans to place even MORE tiles down. But no one is ever sad about a second place Award. Well except Donte because he knows he’s not winning this game. Joseph times his Giant Solar Shade to snag the extra Venus TR bump. Ricky has a Warp Drive which he would have prefer to play earlier, but at least it’s a few points. Likewise, Donte is late to the discount game as he lays down an Earth Catapult. After the dust settles Oxygen is maxed, Oceans are maxed, Venus is at 28%, and temp is at 4%. You might be wondering why Donte didn’t just standard project the last 2 bumps to make this a seven gen game. However, Andrew had a lot more actions and card plays to stall out his TR gains to ensure that he would enjoy 1 last turn.
Generation Eight
Andrew fills the board with cities and greeneries. Joseph shows his love of Venus with a funding of Venuphile. Ricky bombs Terraforming Ganymede for a ton of points and a lot of other discounted space tags. Donte plays Trees and wishes the game had ended last turn.
Final Scores
When the dust settled, Andrew won big with 99, Ricky scored 81 (his Terraforming Ganymede play being enough to edge Donte for second), Donte had 77 and Joseph 70.
Congratulations to Andrew. The king is dead, long reign the king!
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The action is underway in Seasons. |
Bielefeldt, Allbert and Wicks joining the Heat. |
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Marvin Birnbaum deciding on his next play. |
Finalists with GM Chad Martin. |
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