TIL my whole game group has been playing Terraforming Mars wrong for a year

We were at a cafe in Portland last week and a guy at the next table saw our board and asked why we only had 12 cubes on the oxygen track. Turns out you're supposed to add a cube every time you raise oxygen, not just move one cube up. We'd been playing with half the oxygen needed to win. It explains why our games always took 5 hours. Has anyone else missed a rule that big for that long?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_miles25d ago

Wait, did you also mess up the temperature track? I've seen people forget that oceans raise temperature too, not just the heat cards. That would make your games even slower if you were only using half the possible ways to increase it.

tyler61425d ago

How about the rule for placing cities? I used to think you could put them anywhere on Mars, but then I read you need to be next to an ocean or another city. That really changes how you plan your board. It makes the map way more crowded and competitive. I was totally playing it wrong for months.