Terraforming Mars: Automa – The Solo Experience on Mars from Stronghold Games (2024) delivers a new solo play experience that renewed my interest in playing a boardgame that once was a family gaming staple but in recent years found itself banished to the Shelf of Lesser Used Games (SLUG)TM. The innovative solo game engine where the player competes not against a clock (as in the original rules) but against MarsBot—a card-driven AI (Artificial Intelligence)—brought this game back to my gaming table.
Given this is nearly the middle of 2026 and only my fourth “Boardgame Bulletin” entry, it should be obvious that my playing of boardgames—that is, of the non-wargame variety—has greatly fallen off. The fall off is in part because of the cycle of life; my built-in gaming partners are grown up and moving away. The oldest RockyMountainNavy (RMN) Boy is in the military and stationed in the western United States. The middle RMN Boy lives at home but has his own hobbies like bowling where he plays in several leagues. [Last weeks scoring was 187, 194, and 257.] The youngest RockyMountainNavy Boy this past month graduated college and lives about 90 minutes away and is starting a new job along with forming his own gaming group. This means that, if a boardgame is to reach my gaming table, it almost certainly needs an engaging solo mode.
Terraforming Mars made its first appearance on RockyMountainNavy Family Game Night in mid-2017. For the next few (3-4?) years it made regular appearances on Game Nights. Alas, as other family boardgames entered my collection, Terraforming Mars eventually was relegated to the shelves of lesser-played games. In the past four years, I can recall it only hitting my gaming table once and that was for an unexciting solo game using the original rules.
While Terraforming Mars has a solo mode, it is, frankly, not the most exciting. The solo mode is basically a race against yourself; i.e. after a modified setup the player has 14 Generations (turns) to terraform Mars or they lose. Only Corporations from the original Corporate Era are allowed. The solo mode works but it feels…forced. To me, the race-against-the-clock element is not that exciting.
Last Christmas, RMN T gave me a gift certificate to my FLGS and, rather than blowing it on dice or a roleplaying game (RPG) book, I chose to pick up Terraforming Mars: Automa. To be honest, I did no research in advance and went strictly off the box cover and back. For a very impulse-like buy it turned out quite well!
Terraforming Mars: Automa provides a new solo experience when playing Terraforming Mars. Instead of racing against the clock, the Automa lets you compete against corporations run by algorithms and special cards, and makes it possible for you to add any expansions to create the challenge you are looking for.
Terraforming Mars: Automa – ad copy
“Instead of racing against the clock…compete against corporations run by algorithms and special cards…”. That is what I see as the key to the success of Terraforming Mars: Automa. The rules (contained in a 12 page rulebook) delivers an entirely new Terraforming Mars solo gameplay experience…
…and much more.
Like so many solo-play games your opponent in Terraforming Mars: Automa is a Bot; that is, a paper—in the case card-driven—”artificial intelligence.” The MarsBot is a very simple—to operate—opponent. In fact, to play the most basic MarsBot opponent one needs but a single MarsBot board slid into the MarsBot board holder and MarsBot bonus deck cards B01-B08. That’s it.
Importantly, when playing against the MarsBot in Terraforming Mars the player actions are not seriously modified. Oh, yes, some actions like “Remove” or “Steal” or “Decrease” are changed but in general the Player Turn is pretty much played out using the rules as written. This, of course, makes learning to play against MarsBot that much easier.
Unlike the core solo game, where the player plays truly solo (as in no other player or proxy), in Terraforming Mars: Automa the MarsBot gets a turn. Here, again, the rules are not that different from the standard Terraforming Mars rules. The MarsBot will turn up a Project Card and then:
- Based on the tags on the card, MarsBot matches the icon to the respective track on the MarsBot board in play and advances the tracker; in the process of doing so some actions may be triggered.
- If the Project Card flipped face up has no tags, the MarsBot takes a “Failed Action.”
When MarsBot draws it’s hand for the turn in Terraforming Mars: Automa, a MarsBot bonus card is randomly seeded in. When that card is flipped up it is resolved. Resolving the card usually requires nothing more than reading the card but, if necessary, the rulebook has slightly different text to help determine the Bonus card impact on play. As markers advance along the various tracks on the MarsBot board, certain other actions may be triggered. Again, the logic to follow is laid out in a fairly straightforward manner. The rules for winning—or losing—against MarsBot in Terraforming Mars: Automa are again essentially a rehash of the basic victory conditions rules with the fewest of changes.
Players of Terraforming Mars: Automa can select a difficulty level from East to Hard to Brutal. Whereas the basic MarsBot is nothing more than an unnamed AI, a four-page “Adding Corporations” rulebook allows player to give the MarsBot one of 46 corporate personalities as shown by the MarsBot corporation cards. As if that is not enough variety, another 16 page rulebook titled, “Adding Expansions” provides rules for adding in the Prelude and Prelude 2 expansions as well as Venus Next, Colonies, Turmoil, and the several alternate maps. Be forewarned, however, that the more expansions added the more complex executing the MarsBot turn will be. Generally speaking, the MarsBot turn is resolved like any other player turn in the expansions but with a few exceptions to setup parameters or rules for resolving cards. While those rules are few, they are different and require close attention when reading and executing the actions. In many cases the rules are exceptions to existing rules to accommodate the MarsBot which introduces a layer of complexity demanding careful attention to the rules and their particular interactions.
The core game of Terraforming Mars is supposedly playable in 120 minutes. I will be honest and say that very few (once or twice?) did we get a game finished in less than two hours. Aside from the Prelude expansion—specifically designed to speed up play—in my experience the more expansions added the more the playing time.
Terraforming Mars: Prelude introduces the new Prelude cards. At the start of the game, each player chooses from Prelude cards that jumpstart the terraforming process or boost their corporation’s engine. This expansion also includes 5 new corporations and 7 new project cards that thematically fit the early stages of terraforming a new planet and can be added to the game even if you’re not using the Prelude cards; and a new solo mode where your goal is to get to 63 TR before time runs out instead of completing the global parameters.
Terraforming Mars: Prelude – ad copy
Which is to say that playing with the Terraforming Mars: Automa does not seem to reduce the playing time needed. In fact, the “Adding Corporations” rulebook specifically warns: “Playing against MarsBot corporations increases the automa’s difficulty, so you might want to consider a lower difficulty setting while you get acquainted with your opponents new capabilities (“Adding Corporations”, p. 1).
As alluded to above, the difficulty in operating the basic MarsBot engine in Terraforming Mars: Automa is not great. Adding in Corporations or Expansions certainly increases the cognitive complexity to operate the Bot, but not in an exceedingly difficult manner. The real genius behind MarsBot is not that it plays to win (it will if you are not careful) but in that it forces you, the player, to play in a more strategic manner. Whereas in the core rulebook solo game you play against the clock by yourself to see just how efficient an engine you can create, against the MarsBot you have an “opponent” that has its own strategy that is grinding against yours. That friction between you the player and the faceless (even if corporately named) MarsBot is the real challenge in Terraforming Mars: Automa. That challenge is enough to bring Terraforming Mars of the Shelf of Lesser Used Games and return it to pay rotation…once in a while.
Feature image courtesy RMN
The opinions and views expressed in this blog are those of the author alone and are presented in a personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Navy or any other U.S. government Department, Service, Agency, Office, or employer.
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