Review of Terraforming Mars: Venus Next

Blurb from the publisher: 'Venus might just be the deadliest world in the solar system... but it has potential! Up among the corrosive clouds, far away from the scorching hot surface, humans have begun colonizing and terraforming. Your corporation has a good opportunity to make a name for itself; build flying cities, shade off the sun to lessen the greenhouse effect, and introduce life to this planet!

This is an expansion to Terraforming Mars. Venus Next is played together with the main game and may be combined with any other expansion and variant.'

What you get: Your USD 29,95 or equivalent will buy you Terraforming Mars: Venus Next, an expansion for the resource management, economy building Terraforming Mars game line. The basic game can accommodate from one to five players in just over two hours. It has been so incredibly popular (not to mention commercially successful), that it is well-seated in the 4th place of BGG game listings. The present expansion does not affect the number of players, it does however increase game time.

In addition to the 4-page medium-sized format Rulebook (two pages of rules only) that can also be downloaded from the publisher's website free of charge, the game contains the following: 49 Project cards, one Venus board, 5 Corporation cards, one Venus marker, a Hoverlord Milestone tile, and a Venuphile Award tile.

Gameplay: Isn't it boring to terraform the same planet over and over? Venus Next takes the exercise to Venus, a distinctively different planet. Venus has a fourth global parameter, the Venus Scale which ranges from 0% to 30% due to the size of the project. This scale however is not an end-game condition, and it may or may not be maxed out by the end of the game. The Venus Scale adds benefits like a free draw at 8% and an extra TR at 16%. Air scrapping is a new standard project, while players can also expand in the four new city spaces (Luna Metropolis, Dawn City, Stratopolis, and Maxwell Base).

The project and corporation cards work like the ones in the basic game and are added to the respective decks as usual. They can be easily inserted or removed in any game of Terraforming Mars, thanks to their V decals. For a more distinct Venus feeling, players may start with one Venusian corporation and a standard one to choose from.

Floaters are a new resource which represents hovering infrastructure in the Venusian atmosphere. They are collected on cards and work in the same way as microbes and animals. Additional entanglement mechanics include the Venus tags, which may now be used on many of the cards as prerequisites.

The Hoverlord Milestone works in addition to the existing ones; three out of six may be now claimed. To gain it, a player must have at least seven floater resources on his cards.

The Venuphile Award is an additional award, and is claimed by the player with the most Venus tags in play.

All these however are rather minor compared to the extra phase that the expansion introduces, namely The Solar Phase: World Government Terraforming, which takes place after the production phase. First, players check whether the temperature, the oceans and the oxygen are maxed out. If yes, the game ends immediately. If the game does not end however, the world government aids the players to terraform the second planet. The first player acts as the world government. He may either choose an non-maxed global parameter and increase that track step by one, or he may place an ocean tile. The government claims the bonuses, not the first player. Yet, other cards may be triggered by this action. The insertion of this phase shortens the game. Those wishing for an even longer game may omit it.

A solo variant is also included, where a player tries to max out all four global parameters, starting at 14 TR with 14 turns at one's disposal. The world government plays its part through the Solar Phase.

The strong points: The name of the expansion already hints about the design goals behind it: variety! Adding a fourth global parameter without however making it a game-ending condition is good game design. Now you can get additional points and income through an improved TR simply via increases in the Venus scale.

I was sceptical about the Solar Phase, after a handful of games however I am totally convinced by it. First, a shorter game is highly welcome. Second, the mechanic addresses the end-game situation where people keep playing for the score as oppose to finalizing the planet's terraforming. It also provides a layer of options that wasn't there before. The world government is as neutral as the player who controls it. Isn't it a pity when it does something that another player was just about to achieve, depriving him of the points, or when it sets up something that the first player is sure to achieve later on without opposition?

I enjoyed the solo aspect of the game. I am under the impression that it felt slightly easier than before due to the additional available options of investing in the Venus scale. I might be wrong, irrespective of that however, it is still an enjoyable exercise.

It is not hard to either learn or explain Venus Next. If you know Terraforming Mars well, you can start playing with only a two-minute overhead if you have never played it before.

The expansion increases the base game's replayability for obvious reasons: more diverse tactical approaches to terraforming and point collection, bigger decks, more randomness. Whenever you dislike something, just take it off the equation.

Theme-wise I will repeat what I wrote in the review of Colonies. 'I felt that the game was killing it with Mars when it comes to a positive, optimistic message. The focus now shifts away from the red planet, and the game becomes more of a science fiction than what our children might potentially achieve in a few generations from now. I still like it, even though its message is diluted. One thing is for sure: the red planet is no longer the game's main focus.

I like how every single expansion of the game can fit inside its main box. It makes storage and transport much easier.

The weak points: Terraforming Mars requires quite the analysis to play. Now, imagine how things are like with a fourth parameter on the table, a new resource, new tags, and additional milestones and awards. Expect games to pass the three to three and a half hour mark. I strongly recommend a timer. Long is one thing, tedious is another.

As with any deck, the more cards one introduces to it, the less cohesive it will be. I do not recommend using this deck expansion in tandem with other ones, lest the deck gets diluted to utter pointlessness. Even when you play with this expansion, you might get a different vibe. It is the difference between actively trying to optimize a known quantity, and reactively trying to make the best out of an uncontrolled situation. Randomness plays a larger part too. In some games the Venus scale will see heavy investments, in others not much will happen, and not necessarily because the players emphatically chose so. Other easy example: the Venuphile Award. There are no qualifiers there, thus somebody can claim it through the use of a single card. Errr, was that supposed to happen?

Compared to the basic game, this expansion is as expensive as Colonies was. At least it is not as ludicrously expensive as Prelude. I have said it before, and I will say it again: with its current aesthetics and the flimsiness of some its materials, this line should have followed a more modest pricing policy.

I didn't expect the cards here to change either the colour scheme or their overall approach to aesthetics. Thus they remain subpar at best, just like in the base game. Even worse, printing problems have been widely reported with the cards being less wide (!) than the ones in the basic game. I am very happy not to have encountered that problem, which is probably resolved by now. Seeing how I am sleeving all my cards the problem would not have been immediately visible, that, however is just a shortcut. If you got one of the problematic decks, write to the publisher for a replacement.

Conclusion: Venus Next might not offer ground-breaking wow! moments, it is however a solid expansion with quite some thought behind it. Try before you buy in order to be sure that it adds to what you like in the base game.

For more info on Terraforming Mars: Venus Next visit Stronghold Games at https://strongholdgames.com.

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