Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition – Crisis

About this expansion

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition – Crisis is a cooperative game for 1–4 players that takes about 60 minutes. Players take on the roles of corporations working together to keep Mars habitable after a natural disaster plunges the planet into crisis.

The familiar Ares Expedition structure remains in place: players choose phases and play project cards as normal. However, the focus is now on responding to an ongoing series of threats rather than working independently toward terraforming goals.

Each round, the players draw a new Crisis card. Every crisis presents a specific goal that must be achieved before it can be removed from play. Until the players completely deal with it, the crisis will lower one or more of the terraforming metrics that keep Mars habitable.

• Play as corporations working cooperatively.
• Choose phases and play project cards as normal.
• Draw a new Crisis card every round.
• Complete each crisis’s required goal before it damages the terraforming metrics.

The group must handle crises as they arise while preventing Mars from becoming less habitable. This creates a continuing challenge in which every unresolved problem can make the planet’s recovery more difficult.

Eventually, a Crisis card will appear that offers a path to victory. To win, the players must complete its requirement and finish re-terraforming Mars. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition – Crisis offers a cooperative take on the Ares Expedition experience, with the entire table working toward survival and a shared restoration of the planet.