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It seems barely a year ago that Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition was released to critical and public acclaim, but Jacob Fryxelius is not a man to rest on his laurels. With the print barely dry on Ares Expedition, Stronghold Games have announced the imminent arrival of Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game. This may not be news to everyone, though, as a prototype was first seen in early 2020, but we all know what happened with THAT year.
Accommodating 1 to 4 players, TM: TDG has all the features of previous games such as corporations, projects and the distinctive hex-map of Mars are there, only now they have been joined by a legion of multi-coloured, embossed dice. It seems odd to see such arbiters of randomness in such a bastion of euro gaming, but the dice will be the source of resources in the game and make such things never dreamed possible in previous games a possibility (such as Animals on turn one).
Ares Expedition has been compared to Race for the Galaxy, but the Dice Game has opted not to emulate Race’s dice-based counterpart (though the starting Corporations do have that starting race feel from Roll for the Galaxy), choosing to adopt an approach more akin to Dice Throne – match the symbols to activate the cards. Unused dice remain in the players pool, but dice can be restocked during a Supply round and rolled for usage in the next round.
The terraforming board is slightly larger than the one used in Ares Expedition and there are now achievements and awards to be won for victory points. Some of the cards also introduce a ‘get back’ element into the game. Initial impressions do suggest that, despite these inclusions, TM:TDG will be the most new player friendly version of Terraforming Mars.
The Kickstarter for Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game has already fulfilled its production costs nearly seven times over and is looking to be released in July 2023.