When it comes to hobby board gaming, it’s fair to say that Terraforming Mars is a modern classic. At time of writing, it sits at number 7 on the BGG rankings nearly a decade after its initial release. It has also spawned two spin off games. The excellent Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition (one of my favourite games and I prefer it to the original) was released in 2021 and in 2023 came the subject of this review, Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game.
Can Mars cope with being terraformed once more? Is there a good game hiding behind one of the blander titles I’ve come across in recent times? Let’s grab those dice and see if we can roll up a Martian eutopia.
Don’t Judge A Game By It’s Cover.
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game does not do itself any favours. It has a dull title. It has bland box art. The card art is not much better. Yet I would urge you not to be put off by such things, as this may just be the best way to Terraform Mars yet.
When it comes to hobby board gaming, it’s fair to say that Terraforming Mars is a modern classic. At time of writing, it sits at number 7 on the BGG rankings nearly a decade after its initial release. It has also spawned two spin off games. The excellent Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition (one of my favourite games and I prefer it to the original) was released in 2021 and in 2023 came the subject of this review, Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game.
Can Mars cope with being terraformed once more? Is there a good game hiding behind one of the blander titles I’ve come across in recent times? Let’s grab those dice and see if we can roll up a Martian eutopia.
Don’t Judge A Game By It’s Cover.
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game does not do itself any favours. It has a dull title. It has bland box art. The card art is not much better. Yet I would urge you not to be put off by such things, as this may just be the best way to Terraform Mars yet.
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game is the most accessible version. Gone are the tracks and cube pools to keep track of your heat/plants/energy/etc. Instead, you roll dice and then keep them with their rolled faces. Those are your resources. Want to play a card? Simply spend dice with the required faces showing. It’s simple and effective. Most importantly, it is fun.
Similarly to its big brother, you can spend resources to place oceans, trees (for oxygen) and raise the temperature. You can also trade in 3 city icons to place a city on the planet. This won’t help you terraform Mars, but it will bag you some victory points.
All of the familiar card types are present in the game, with resource production cards, action cards and event cards all available. Terraforming Mars veterans will feel right at home with many of the elements here and how the game draws them all together. Only this version will see them done and dusted inside an hour, as opposed to 3.
It captures the essence of the original game, but streamlines it, removing much of the fiddliness, whilst keeping the excellent engine building and competition for spaces on the main board.
There’s More Than One Way to Terraform A Planet.
One of Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game‘ strengths is the variety it offers players. There are numerous corporations to choose from, each of which gives a different starting bonus and production ability, perhaps offering gentle persuasion to adopt a particular strategy.
The card pool is large and all of the cards are unique. Taking production turns always allows you to draw to (or discard down to) 5 cards and there are actions you can take by spending dice to draw a card on your turn.
Whilst a feature (some may say bug) of all these games with large, unique card pools, is that sometimes you find yourself with the wrong combination in hand. TMTDG does a good job of allowing enough regular card draw that I did not find the randomness to be a source of frustration. Sometimes player turns will be less impactful, as resources are essential to the card play, but I found myself having turns where I felt I achieved something far more often than not.
There are timing bonuses to be competed for, resource goals to obtain and achievements to be claimed on a first come, first served basis. These are all reminiscent of similar things in Terraforming Mars, though, thankfully, these are randomised at the start of the game and are not things you have to purchase, or spend actions on, once the game is underway.
How Many Corporations Does it Take to Make a Planet Habitable?
Out Of This World?
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game has become my go-to game in the Terraforming Mars family. What it loses in complex strategy and card interactions, it more than makes up for with speed and accessibility. Yes, it’s not a looker, but the custom dice are good quality and it all adds up to a smooth, sleek terraforming package. Add in the fact that it plays well at all player counts (including solo) and you have a game that can find its place in most game collections.
It is as advertised: a dice game about terraforming Mars that provides the fun of Terraforming Mars, but without the complexity, fiddliness and time sink. You’ll know if that is something that appeals to you. It did to me and Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game has delivered on that promise. It’s a good life on Mars.
About the author:
When not reviewing board games, Graham is teaching maths, running a games club and failing to convince his students that baseball is the greatest sport ever invented. You can read his thoughts and opinions on all things board game on his blog, GrahamS Games.
You can find him on BlueSky, where he will invariably be wittering on about whichever game has currently captured his attention: https://bsky.app/profile/grahamsgames.bsky.social
Zatu Review Summary
Zatu Score
89%
