Dice Temple: Terraforming Mars Review

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I like the setting at the very least. Much better than settling ancient Egypt or worse some bland "medieval times" like Dominion. Initially didn't plan on checking this out but this review and Legomancer's comments have put it on my radar.

"...I have a hard time discerning between good games and games that are all hype."

My dad was a salesman, until he started his own business and took on more roles, so I grew up dealing with hype. I know all the standard sales tactics and am highly resistant to them. Consequently, I usually have zero trouble discerning between good games and hype games, as long as I have at least some info to look over. Or I could be completely delusional and suffering from extreme confirmation bias. Probably some of both. Either way, I enjoy most of the games that I have acquired over the years.

Excellent review, because there is enough detail that I can see a decent game of a type that I don't enjoy.

This is a really useful review for me, because the near universal acclaim for Terraforming Mars had me seriously considering it for my group. But the Auction and Drafting mechanics are possibly my least favorite board game mechanics, so I think I may just steer clear of this one. I have friends who love auction games, and I figure they can buy it if they want to play it.

This has made me consider auctioning and drafting more deeply though, especially since I do enjoy some games with those activities. Tides of Time is a recent two-player game that is built around the "choose a card and pass the rest" mechanic. I don't know if this strictly counts as an auctioning or drafting game, although it's close enough that I would normally find it to be a chore. And yet I really enjoy Tides of Time, whereas I detest games like Catan. I think the difference is that a game that has auctions or drafting only at the beginning of the game can just leave you royally screwed over and with no way to auction or draft your way back into contention. Many times I have played Catan only to experience that sinking feeling of knowing that you're going to lose, knowing that you can't really do anything about it, and knowing that it will take another 90 minutes to happen. Meanwhile, a game that has that all throughout the session gives you ways to mitigate bad auctioning / drafting decisions with better ones.

It sounds like Terraforming Mars isn't like that though, and has auctions / drafting throughout the game. So maybe I wouldn't hate it after all, heh.

The draft is actually an optional rule. I personally prefer to play with it (and I hate most drafting games like Seasons, 7 Wonders etc). There are no auctions in Terraforming Mars.

There's nothing auction whatsoever in TM.

The drafting is optional and minimal. Each round you get four cards, and you can buy any number of them for $3 each. If you're using drafting, you draft the four cards. That's it. It adds some time to the game, and it gives players a little more control, but it's not as central to the game as, say, 7 Wonders.

I taught TM at Trashfest. Were you one of the players?