Mission: Red Planet
3-5
10+
60
Are you ready for Mars?
1889. While the masses marvel at the technological wonders of the Paris World Fair, the industrial trusts prepare for their biggest endeavor yet – the conquest of Mars. The fantastic ores of the Red Planet will make men rich beyond imagination, and when this much wealth is at stake, the fighting will be bitter and intense. Beat your enemies to the spaceships, recruit the best men and women for the job, and battle for your piece of the greatest prize history has ever known!
User Reviews (3)
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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.
Load up your rocket ships and try and conquer your favorite section of Mars on this area control game.
There are many nuances in this game like controlling the use of the deck of cards that is identical for each player. While deciding when to strategically refresh your deck with your discard pile of used cards. You can change the destinations of a rocket ship to divert it away from an area you control or to complicate the strategy of another player by use of a card. Each play starts with a hidden goal card for end of game scoring and more can be added during the game.
To get ready for one of the scoring rounds you need to plan to move astronauts from one section to another to gain control and score more points.
I own the second edition and I have played both editions. The values of the second edition are:
** Components for up to six players instead of five
** Special two-player variant rules
** New action cards and revised mission and discovery cards
** Mars’ moon Phobos as a new zone that astronauts can explore before possibly returning to the planet itself
(list courtesy boardgamegeek)
I love the second edition much better because of the new features listed above but most of all for the 6th and 2 player feature. The people who love the first version do so becasue of the artwork and that they already own it.
Both versions of this game come to the table at my weekly meetup game night and some times we have more than one being played at a time. Several member own the game and multiple copies are available to play on any give night.
I have played this wit my grandchildren ages 10-14, friend of all ages and my game group of new to serious gamers(someone who plays more than 3 games a week). They all love it!
It has great replay-ability and several strategies in using the cards to gain control of an area.
After playing the original version and then the second edition with someone who purchased it at Gencon I could not wait for my pre-order to be shipped.
Try if if you get a chance and see if you to become a fan.
Mission Red Planet is a fun, easy to learn worker placement game that plays best with 3-5 players. We covered this game on our podcast, please check it out for more details. MMG Mission Red Planet Podcast
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