The root of all evil...but you can call me cookie.

What more could you possibly want?

Honestly this is the game that put a halt on me playing Citadels so much. In fact I’ve probably only played Citadels a handful of times since owning this one. See for me the role selection process of this game is there and greatly improved upon from Citadels. Each player has a match deck of characters and each round you play one. So the drafting mechanic is gone which, let’s face it, was the part of Citadels that took up the most time and when playing with more than 4 players really made the game take a long time to play. With everyone looking at their own deck and selecting a role to play this process is streamlined and faster to play the game.

The game after all in this one isn’t focused on just being the role selection process like it is in Citadels. No, no, no my friend it’s about the area majority game taking place on the surface of Mars. This is where you score points. You only score points if you use your characters well enough to get guys on Mars. That’s right the game pauses twice to score mid game and then scores again at the end of the game based on how many dudes you get to Mars in each different territory. Nice! Now we have some serious issues that have to be managed like the capacity of a rocket going to a particular territory that you want, nay NEED to control.

Why do you need that area? Well because the bonus point card you have in your hand is going to give you extra points at the end of the game if you do of course! This means you have to use some other characters to really take control. Perhaps the Femme Fatale who can seduce another player’s guy into becoming one of your guys. That could work or maybe the soldier who just out right kills off a guy of another player that is if it’s in one of the outer territories of Mars. Perhaps you didn’t get any guys on a ship that is headed for this territory and its going to wrench control away from you. In this case the pilot will help you divert said rocket to a different area of Mars altogether leaving your precious zone under your control.

Trick to all this is you only use each character once then they discard so timing on when to use each is crucial. You do have the recruiter who is one of the weakest for placement but he allows you to pick up your discards and reuse some of the more powerful guys, like the scientist who can get you another bonus card or the explorer allowing you to move guys around on Mars.

The game lasts for 10 rounds and the box claims it takes an hour to play. I suppose if you have some AP prone players this might be the case but we usually wrap this one up in about 45 minutes. It’s a very fun game that seems to have got swept under the rug. It’s been made available for as low at $10 at some online stores and is a big box game by Asmodee. The artwork is gorgeous steampunk influenced art that really adds to the theme of the game quite nicely. I highly suggest if you are reading this review to find a copy and play it. You won’t be disappointed.