Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition – Discovery · Foundations · Crisis Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Discovery
  • Overview
  • Contents
  • Setup
  • Upgraded Phase Card
  • Milestones
  • Awards
  • Wild Tag
  • Variants
    • Drafting
    • 2-Player Dummy Hand
• Foundations
  • Overview
  • Contents
  • Setup
    • Card Notes
    • Phase Card Notes
    • Player Aid
  • Gameplay
  • Infrastructure
  • End Game
  • Discovery
• Crisis
  • Overview
  • Contents
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
    • Communication
    • Round Structure
  • Crisis Step
    • a. Check Metrics
    • b. Resolve Persistent Crises
    • c. Draw a Crisis Card
    • Crisis Cards
    • Completing Goals

Discovery

Overview

Ares Expedition: Discovery adds four new mechanics to base Ares Expedition: Awards, Milestones, upgraded phase cards, and wild tags. Awards and Milestones work very similarly to how they function in Terraforming Mars. Wild tags give players flexibility as to what tag the card has when it is played, and upgraded phase cards give players an even bigger bonus when they play the corresponding phase.

Contents

• 40 upgraded phase cards
• 4 corporation cards
• 3 card dividers
• 38 project cards
• 7 Award tiles
• 11 Milestone tiles
• 40 tag tokens
• 16 3VP tokens

Setup

Before dealing the corporations and project cards, do the following:

1. Shuffle the Award tiles facedown. Reveal three of them and set them next to the main game board. Repeat this process with the Milestone tiles. Return the unused Awards and Milestones to the box.
2. Each player takes a set of ten upgraded phase cards with card backs matching their player color and sets them near their play area. You will not use these at the start of the game.
3. Set the tag tokens in a pile to the side of the play area.
4. Shuffle all of the new project cards into the project deck.

You can customize your play experience to only have certain expansion content. If you want to play a game without Awards and Milestones, simply remove all the project cards with the Award icon next to their card number. If you'd like to play a game without upgraded phase cards, remove all the project cards and corporations with the upgraded phase icon next to their card number.

Upgraded Phase Card

Upgraded phase cards function the same as normal phase cards except they have better bonuses. Each phase has two different upgrade options. There are project card and corporation card effects that allow you to upgrade a phase card. To upgrade a phase card, choose one of the upgraded phase cards that were set aside at the beginning of the game. Replace the corresponding phase card from your hand. If you chose that phase this round, place it faceup replacing the phase card you chose this round. If that phase hasn't resolved yet, you will receive the bonus from the upgraded phase card instead of the normal one.

When resolving an "upgrade a phase card" effect, you may choose to upgrade a phase card you have already upgraded into a different upgraded version.

Source note: the rulebook prints the card art and text of only one example upgraded phase card (Upgraded I, Development: "Each player may play 1 green project card." Bonus: "Reduce the cost of the card you play this phase by 6MC."). The full text of the other 39 upgraded phase cards is not reproduced in this rulebook.

Milestones

Each Milestone tile shows a goal. The first player to achieve that goal takes the corresponding Milestone tile. If multiple players achieve the Milestone in the same phase, one player takes the Milestone tile, and each other player takes a 3VP token. At the end of the game, each player will score 3VP for each Milestone they have achieved.

3VP tokens count as Milestones for the cards that mention Milestones.

The printed Milestone tiles are: 9 different tags in play; 8 Green Cards; 10 heat production.

Awards

Awards reward players with VP for having the most or second most of something at the end of the game. The Award tile shows what tag, production, etc. is required to earn that Award. The player who has the most of the shown item at the end of the game receives 5VP. The player with the second most receives 2VP. If there is a tie for first, all tied players receive 4VP and there is no reward for second. If there is a tie for second, all tied players receive 1VP.

The printed Award tiles are: Most building / space tags; Most heat production; Most science tags.

Wild Tag

Whenever a card with a wild tag is revealed, the player who revealed it chooses what tag it counts as. When you play a card with this tag, you will be instructed to take a tag token matching the tag you chose and place it over the wild tag. You choose the tag when you play the card. Therefore, it will trigger effects that affect that tag. For example, if you choose the space tag, titanium capabilities will reduce the MC it costs to play the card.

If you use an effect that reveals cards from the deck, you choose what tag this counts as. If you play (or discard) the card later, you are allowed to choose a different tag.

Variants

Drafting

During setup, after project cards and corporation cards are dealt, players draft their starting projects. Each player chooses one of their eight project cards to keep and passes the remaining cards to the left. This continues until all players have drafted eight project cards. Then players choose which corporation they want to play as.

You can also use the advanced play variant in the original rules that allows you to discard unwanted project cards and redraw a card for each you discarded. This would happen after you draft and before you choose your corporation.

2-Player Dummy Hand

If you'd like an even faster game, you can use a dummy hand. At the end of setup, shuffle an unused set of phase cards and set them facedown near the game board. At the start of the planning phase, reveal a random phase card from the dummy player. That phase is also resolved this round. Once all of the dummy player's phase cards have been revealed, shuffle them facedown at the start of the next round.

There are no other changes to the planning step.

Foundations

Overview

Foundations contains additional player boards, cubes, and phase cards so that Ares Expedition can be played with up to six players. This expansion also includes two additional game boards. One is a larger score track. The other adds a fourth terraforming metric: infrastructure.

Additionally, there are new project cards that involve infrastructure.

Contents

• 1 infrastructure track
• 1 supplemental score board
• 10 phase cards
• 20 upgraded phase cards
• 22 project cards
• 1 corporation card
• 2 dual-layer player boards
• 2 player aids
• 1 card divider
• 1 clear cube to track infrastructure
• 13 black player cubes
• 13 white player cubes
• 50 copper cubes
• 12 silver cubes
• 12 gold cubes

Setup

Player setup is exactly the same as with the base game, using the black and white cubes and phase cards for the additional players.

1. Set the supplemental score board to the left side of the board. Players can use this board to have additional space when multiple score cubes are on the same number. When going below 5 or above 25, players should move their cube to the score track on the main board and continue on there.
2. Set the infrastructure track along the top side of the board and place a clear cube on the 0% space on that track. It is recommended to only use this track for games with 5 or more players. You can use it in lower player count games, and it will make the game last longer.
3. Shuffle all of the new project cards into the project deck.
4. If this is your first time playing with this expansion, replace the corporation card Inventrix and the project cards Adaptation Technology and Special Design from the base game with the ones provided with this game.

When you are playing without the infrastructure track, remove all of the project cards with the 5+ icon next to the card number.

Card Notes

Inventrix (corporation card, 33 MC)

• Starting text: "At the start of the game, draw 3 cards. You start with 33 MC."
• Effect: "When playing a card with requirements, consider infrastructure, oxygen, or temperature one color higher or lower. This cannot be modified further by other effects."

Adaptation Technology (project card, cost 12)

• Effect: "When playing a card with requirements, you may consider the infrastructure, oxygen, or temperature one color higher or lower. This cannot be modified further by other effects."

Source note: the rulebook prints this card partly covered by the Special Design card; only the effect text above is legible in the rulebook.

Special Design (project card, cost 3)

• "You may play an additional blue or red card this phase."
• "For the next card you play this phase, you may consider the infrastructure, oxygen, or temperature one color higher or lower."

Phase Card Notes

The rulebook prints the phase cards and upgraded phase cards only as card art, with most of each card covered by the cards in front of it. Only the text that is fully legible is reproduced here.

Development phase card (Phase I, base)

• Ability: "Pay 3 MC less for the card you play this phase."

Research phase card (Phase V, base)

• Ability: "All players draw 2 cards and keep 1."
• Bonus: "Draw an additional 3 cards and keep 1 additional card."

Research upgraded phase card (Phase V, Upgraded)

• Ability: "All players draw 2 cards and keep 1."
• Bonus: "Draw an additional 2 cards and keep an additional 2."

Source note: the text of the other 9 phase cards, the other 19 upgraded phase cards, and the project cards is not legible in the rulebook and is not reproduced in this file.

Player Aid

The printed player aid, reproduced as the expansion prints it:

The game is played over the course of several rounds. Each round is divided into three steps: Planning, Resolve Phases, and End.

A. PLANNING STEP - Choose what happens this round! Each player simultaneously reveals a phase card from their hand. Flip the phase tokens for the chosen phases. A player is not allowed to pick the same phase two rounds in a row.

B. RESOLVE PHASES STEP - Execute your plan! Players resolve the chosen phases (and only the chosen phases) in order. There are no turns, so each player plays the phase at the same time. You will receive a bonus during the phase you selected. A description of the phases are on the back of this card.

C. END STEP - A small bit of clean up. Each player discards down to ten cards in hand, taking 3 MC for each card discarded. Flip all of the phase tracker tokens to the closed door side, and start the next round.

GAME END: The game ends when all of the global parameters have been completed - oxygen is 14%, temperature is +8°C, and 9 oceans tiles have been flipped. Victory Points (VP) are awarded for Terraforming Rating (TR), forest tiles, and points on cards. The player with the most VP wins!

Gameplay

Gameplay for five and six players works the same with the following exception:

Source note: the rulebook prints this sentence with no exception text following it.

Infrastructure

There is a fourth terraforming metric that must be completed before the game ends: Infrastructure. There are new project cards that increase infrastructure.

Additionally, there are two new standard actions that increase infrastructure:

• Spend 15 MC to increase infrastructure 1 step.
• Spend 5 heat and 3 plants to increase infrastructure 1 step.

Whenever you increase infrastructure, you gain 1 TR and draw a card.

End Game

The game ends in the phase in which all four terraforming metrics are completed:

1. All the oceans are faceup.
2. The oxygen is maxed out.
3. The temperature is maxed out.
4. The infrastructure is maxed out.

Discovery

Is this the first time you've seen upgraded phase cards? They were first included in the Discovery expansion alongside the Award and Milestone tiles. In order to use upgraded phase cards in your game, you will need to own Discovery.

Crisis

Overview

In Ares Expedition: Crisis, players play as corporations, just as in the original Ares Expedition. You choose phases and play project cards as normal. The difference is players are working together to keep Mars habitable after a natural disaster has landed the planet in crisis. Every round, a new Crisis card will be drawn that will require the players to achieve a certain goal to remove that crisis from play. Each turn that a Crisis card is not completely dealt with, it will lower one or more of the terraforming metrics that keep Mars habitable.

Handle all the crises as they arise. Eventually, a Crisis card will be drawn that allows the players to win the game once they have completed re-terraforming Mars.

Contents

• 4 corporation cards
• 10 dummy player phase cards
• 1 Co-op game board
• 85 Crisis cards
• 7 card dividers
• 1 Crisis board
• 16 Crisis counters
• 3 double-sided detriment tokens
• 22 1VP tokens
• 9 ocean tiles

Setup

Follow the setup instructions in the Ares Expedition rulebook, with the following alterations:

1. Set the Co-op specific game board in the middle of the table. Set the Crisis board near this board.

2. Place the two clear cubes on the top space of the temperature track and the top space of the oxygen track.

3. Place the ocean tiles orange side down on the nine ocean spaces on the board.

4. Before shuffling the project card deck, go through and remove any cards with temperature, oxygen, or ocean requirements. Also remove the cards that reference Milestones if you are playing with the Awards and Milestones expansion, which have this icon next to the card number: A. Additionally, remove the cards Adaptation Technology, Conserved Biome, and Special Design. (You don't have to do this during setup if you want to just remove them as they are drawn during gameplay.)

5. Divide the Crisis cards by their player number shown on the front. Return to the box the Crisis cards that don't have a player number matching your player count.

6. Sort the cards that do have your player count by the tier number shown on the back of the card. Shuffle the tier 5 cards facedown and place them on the Crisis board. Place the tier 4 card facedown on top of the tier 5 cards. Shuffle the tier 3 cards, return two of them to the box, then place the rest facedown on top of the tier 4 card. Repeat this for the tier 2 cards, returning two cards to the box, and tier 1 cards, returning only one card to the box, so that the Crisis cards are all in one pile. This is the Crisis deck.

   If it is your first game or you want the game to be a little easier, shuffle the three tier 0 cards and place them on top of the Crisis deck.

7. Place the three detriment tokens in a supply near the game board. These are the yellow and red tokens that correspond to the three terraforming metrics.

8. Set the Crisis counters in a pile near the Crisis deck. Set the 1VP tokens near the game board.

9. Before dealing out corporation cards, remove the Inventrix corporation. Then, shuffle in the four corporation cards included with this expansion.

Note: Awards and Milestones are not used in Crisis Mode. Additionally, you are encouraged to use the advanced play variant which allows you to discard and redraw project cards once during setup, but do not use the drafting variant introduced in the Discovery expansion.

Gameplay

Play the game as normal with the following additions:

Communication

You are allowed to talk about anything.

Round Structure

The Crisis Co-op Mode has a few additional steps in each round. The new round structure is:

1. Crisis Step (new) a. Check metrics b. Resolve persistent Crises c. Draw a Crisis card d. Draw a card from the dummy hand
2. Planning Step
3. Resolve Phases Step
4. End Step a. Spend VP tokens (new)

Crisis Step

The Crisis step is a new step that happens at the beginning of every round. During this step, players check the terraforming metrics to see if they will play the round with any hindrances, resolve persistent effects of any Crisis cards that they have not completed, and then draw a new Crisis card.

a. Check Metrics

• At the start of each turn, check the current state of the temperature and oxygen. If any of these metrics are currently in a yellow or red zone on their track, take the matching detriment token, flip it to the corresponding side, and set it out in the middle of the table.
• Effects on the temperature and oxygen detriment tokens will impact all players for the duration of the round.
• Use the Ocean zones chart on the main game board to determine the state of oceans. Place and immediately resolve the yellow or red detriment token if applicable.

If any of the three metrics are currently in the purple zone of their track, you lose the game!

Note: Use the Ocean zones chart on the main game board to keep track of the white/yellow/red/purple zones of oceans.

b. Resolve Persistent Crises

During this part, resolve the persistent effects of all Crisis cards currently in play in the order they came into play. If this causes a metric to go into the purple zone, you will need to raise it before the beginning of the next round.

c. Draw a Crisis Card

Draw a new Crisis card from the deck and place it into play. There is no limit to the number of Crisis cards that can be in play at one time. Resolve any immediate effects in the Immediately box on the card. Place a number of Crisis counters on the card equal to the amount shown on the lower right-hand of the card. Do not resolve the persistent effect of this Crisis card this turn.

Crisis Cards

Crisis cards represent the aftermath of the asteroid that has knocked Mars into crisis. Players will need to meet the goal shown on the card a number of times equal to the number of Crisis counters that are placed on it in order to handle the crisis. For each round that the crisis is not dealt with, one or more of the terraforming metrics will decrease based on the persistent effect. Crisis cards can have up to eight pieces of information on them:

1. Card name.
2. Persistent Effect: An effect that occurs during the Resolve persistent Crises step while this Crisis is in play. In this field you will find the following three icons. If any of these icons is preceded by a number, then resolve the effect that many times. a. Flip a faceup ocean of your choice facedown. b. Decrease oxygen 1 step. c. Decrease temperature 1 step.
3. Immediate Effect: When the Crisis card is drawn from the deck, this effect will happen immediately and then never be repeated. This effect can be positive or negative.
4. Goal: When a player performs the task written here, they remove a counter from the Crisis. When a Crisis has no counters on it, it is discarded.
5. Counters: How many counters to place on the Crisis card when it comes into play.
6. Tier number: During setup, Crisis cards will be divided by tier before being shuffled so that a tier 1 Crisis will happen first, followed by tier 2, and so on.
7. Player count: Only use the cards that correspond to the player count you are playing with.
8. Card number.

Completing Goals

When you play a card/take a game action that fulfills a goal, you remove a Crisis counter from the corresponding card. You may fulfill the goals of multiple cards at the same time if the card you played qualifies for both (ie. playing a blue card with a space tag would allow you to remove one counter from a goal that requires you to play blue cards and one counter from a goal that requires you to play space tags).

When you remove the last counter from a Crisis card, discard that card.

There are a few cards that allow you to discard cards, heat, or plants to remove counters. In those cases, one player must discard the required amount during the action phase to remove a counter. This cost cannot be split over multiple players. However, another player may pay the cost again to remove a second counter.

d. Draw a Card from the Dummy Hand

During this step, draw one or two cards from the dummy hand based on your player count. The effect of the cards drawn varies based on player count:

• In a solo game, draw two cards from the Crisis solo mode cards. These cards have two phases on them. Draw both, and then choose which phase you want to play for each one. Rotate the card so that the chosen phase is at the top. You will resolve both of those phases this turn, as well as the one you choose from your own phase cards. You may choose to play the same phase from your own phase cards as the dummy hand revealed this round in order to gain the Bonus, but the phase will only resolve once.
• In a 2-player game, draw one card from the dummy hand. Both players will resolve this phase as if it had been chosen by a player. You may choose to play the same phase from your own phase cards as the dummy hand revealed this round in order to gain the Bonus, but the phase will only resolve once.
• In a 3- or 4-player game, draw one card from the dummy hand. Players cannot choose that phase this round.

Once all of the dummy player's phase cards have been revealed, shuffle them facedown at the start of the next round. If you need to draw a phase card and there are none while playing solo, shuffle all of the phase cards from previous rounds together facedown.

Planning Step

There are no changes to this step.

Resolve Phases Step

There are only a few changes to this step. They are covered below.

Facedown Oceans

When you play a card or take an action that flips an ocean faceup, you can flip over any ocean tile that is facedown. The ocean rewards are visible on both sides of the tile, but they are only gained when the ocean is flipped faceup.

Action Phase

You are not required to spend heat and plants to increase terraforming metrics during the action phase.

VP Bank

The VP Bank is a section next to the Crisis board where 1VP tokens are held to reward players for scoring VP during the game. These tokens can be used to remove Crisis counters in the End step.

Whenever a player gains a forest VP, they place 1VP in the VP Bank instead. Whenever they play a card with VP on it or fulfill the condition of a card with variable VP, that player also places 1VP tokens equal to the amount of VP gained there. There is no limit on how many VP tokens may be there at one time. Players may choose to spend these tokens during the End step.

If a card that holds resources has variable VP scored at the end of the game, when the requirement to score a VP is hit, remove the corresponding resources from the card and place a VP token in the VP Bank. For example, if a card scores 1 VP for every two animals on it at the end of the game, when this card has two animals on it, remove them and add one VP token to the VP Bank.

Do not place these tokens into the VP Bank when gaining TR.

Cards with Negative VP

There are some cards with negative VP value. In order to play those cards, you must spend VP tokens from the VP Bank equal to the negative value.

End Step

At the end of the End step, players may choose to spend VP tokens in the VP Bank to remove Crisis counters from a Crisis card at a ratio of two VP tokens for each Crisis counter removed. They may remove any number of Crisis counters this way. When the last counter is removed from a Crisis card, discard that card.

End of the Game

The game ends when one of the following happens:

1. If the Dwindling Supplies Crisis card (which is the only card in tier 4) has come out of the deck and all three terraforming metrics are completed during the End step, the players win!
2. If the oceans, the oxygen, or the temperature is in the purple zone during the Check metrics step at the beginning of the round, the players lose.
3. If you are forced to decrease temperature or oxygen and the cube is on the last purple space, the players lose. The same is true if you have to flip an ocean facedown and all of them are already facedown.
4. If you would draw a Crisis card but the deck is empty and the terraforming metrics are not completed, the players lose.

Added Difficulties

The rules provided in this rulebook are for the normal difficulty of Crisis Mode. There are three additional difficulties: beginner, expert, and nightmare.

• Beginner difficulty: For your first few games, you should add the three tier 0 Crisis cards to the top of the deck once it has been formed. Once you have won a few times, try to win without them. Additionally, as you try the harder difficulties, if you find them too hard, you can add some or all of the tier 0 cards back in.
• Expert difficulty: In expert difficulty, each Crisis card that comes into play with Crisis counters comes into play with an additional counter.
• Nightmare difficulty: Nightmare difficulty is the same as expert, except during setup you decrease the oxygen and temperature 2 steps and flip two oceans facedown.