Terraforming Mars: Hellas & Elysium Expansion

These new maps are a fun change-up from the original board. They offer new scoring goals as well which add small wrinkles to gameplay. For the Terraforming Mars player who is looking for some added replayability after many plays of the base game, I recommend this as a good first or second expansion (Prelude is also worth adding).

A Cool board variant for diverse play of Terraforming Mars!!

Adds a lot to the base game without any overhead. You could easily have a new TfM player start with these maps without any issues. And after 5 or so years placing oceans in the same spot, this definitely breaths new life into the game. Fits very easily in the base box with the Prelude expansion as well.

Great little expansion to a fantastic boardgame. It only adds the new boards, but they offer a lot of diversity to play. Using a milestone/award randomizer (easily found online) further improves gameplay diversity.

Been wanting this for a long time and glad I have it now to add variety to the milestones and awards!

This is a fun way to change up the game playing a different board on Mars.

T.M. has become one of my favorite games very quickly, and this expansion provides two new game boards on a double-sided folding map. Quality of art and board stock is the same as the original game. The packaging is, sadly, outright bad. A thin sheet of gloss paper is all that stands between your new map and scuffs. I assume the idea was to place the folding map into the original game box, but board-specific rules are on the H&E paper, which could very easily tear or crease if mishandled. A strange choice when an album jacket would have solved everything for a small uptick in manufacturing cost. H&E both contain less plants and blank hexes, more steel and titanium. Hellas also has heat resource hexes. Elysium (like the base board) concentrates plants near the equator, and Hellas on the north edge. Each has 12 ocean hexes, as with the base. Layout for Elysium is in a large swath with a two-hex nearby, which will make placement for credit bonuses more competitive. Hellas has a 7-space hex of hexes, a 1-hex, and a 4-hex, and seems accessible and resource-friendly. Each board has its own milestones and awards as well, all of which differ from the base game. Although strategies will vary from game to game, Hellas has a milestone called Polar Explorer that is for having three tiles on the bottom two rows; coupled with that is a south pole hex that costs 6 mega credits to play a tile to, but in exchange gives a free ocean placement. That combo begs to make a greenery tile on the south pole your first play; for 29 credits you: get two TR, 3 heat or 2 titanium from the ocean placement bonus, set the pace, and are a third of the way to a 5-vp milestone. Also, the 3-heat hex is dead center of the 7-hex ocean area, meaning your opponents aren't even going to get placement bonuses out of it without playing their own aquifers. Some of my quibbles with H&E are: The expansion absolutely should have had extra projects and corporations. It could have introduced more depth via rule updates or additions, such as new resources. Missed opportunity for 6-7 player expansion and larger playfield. A double-sided board makes me annoyed the original was one-sided. Despite those and the packaging, H&E is still a great way to diversify T.M. sessions and add replay value. It's inexpensive, it does its job, and unlike Etsy knockoffs, it supports FryxGames. I recommend it for anyone currently enjoying Terraforming Mars!

If you play TM a lot, your mates will probably request that games be played on this board instead of the base game board. Game play doesn't change, and there are only a few small rules changes. Doesn't make teaching new players any more difficult than the base game. It's really just two new boards that change strategy.

If you play TM a lot, your mates will probably request that games be played on this board instead of the base game board. Game play doesn't change, and there are only a few small rules changes. Doesn't make teaching new players any more difficult than the base game. It's really just two new boards that change strategy.