Terraforming Mars: Turmoil Expansion

YES! Finally some adversity! Billed as an expert expansion to Terraforming Mars, Turmoil comes in light on projects, but adds global events and politics, which immensely enriches the play experience for those able to spend the ten minutes necessary to learn the expert ruleset changes. 5 corporations, 16 projects, 31 events. Nothing too crazy in the projects, but one corporation, Terralabs, has a unique ability to buy cards at only 1 mc!! The buffer for their hapless opponents is that they only get 14 mc to start, and have a -1 to TR. To me, Terralabs is game-breakingly overpowered in the right context; all it takes is combining some expansions, and suddenly they're getting prelude bonuses to offset their mc, swinging huge VP from Venus Next, or spamming wincons because they picked up early mc production increases. Scary stuff! The events can often have a negative impact on every player's megacredits, which is for me a breath of fresh air in a game whose expansions have tacitly declared there to be absolutely zero setbacks when terraforming entire planets in a race for resources while fending off hostile corporate rivals. Riiiiiiiiight. I love Terraforming Mars, but honestly, I would expect more setbacks than not in a real-life scenario, which seems to be how the game was modeled. Some events are positive, of course; upticks in production, credit windfalls, etc. The events roll over for three generations, entering as distant, then coming, and lastly, current. Players can see and prepare for the events, just like in real life. Looking at you, climate change deniers. To go with the events, there is also a -1 TR hit that every player takes each generation, which is loosely explained thematically, and mechanically serves to promote gaining a chairman through political maneuvering, which grants +1 TR. The politics are the most complicated part of this and any other other TM expansion to date, and could have been a little less fiddly, but aren't all that hard to grasp. Like other aspects of the game, it is handled by purchasing power, in this case delegates for parties. There are six parties, all of whom are oscillating from generation to generation as the ruling party, which provides a policy that affects gameplay. Delegates are cheap at 5 mc each, and can provide influence along with having a dominant party leader or a chairman, for a max of 3. Influence will significantly affect many of the event and project results in your favor, so...get lobbying! Turmoil adds two extra boards for recordkeeping, but no new playable areas. It could increase reactive gameplay quite a bit, making players vie for seats in favor of actually terraforming; perfectly suitable to politics and the theme, and the first direct competition in the series. The global effects aren't too punishing or rewarding thanks to the influence cap, and overall I would say this is the best expansion in terms of depth. My quibbles: No organizer. (Why, please? Saving cardboard? Cutting cost? There is no good reason...) Boards give no increase to playfield size or alternate awards and milestones. The small amount of cards is disappointing. Give us 100-card sets AT LEAST. Political rules are fiddly with piece removal and party swapping. Missed opportunity to tie-in politics with other expansions. However, the final vote is in, and it is unanimous; if you play Terraforming Mars and enjoy it, you need to get this! It brings more to the table than any of the other expansions, and has a play mechanic that, while predicated on pure resource allocation like the rest of the game, still offers a completely different experience while staying thematically consistent. I would say get this after Venus Next and Colonies. Happy terraforming!

If you love Terraforming Mars, then this is a must. It adds depth to the game, and will add some time to gameplay. So keep that in mind for game night!