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The year is 2179, and Earth’s future seems bleak. Years of pollution have tarnished the landscape, and the world’s supplies of natural resources have dwindled to abysmal levels.The use of electric vehicles, solar technologies, and other energy-saving solutions have slowed the problem, but the long-term abuse on the planet by previous generations has been hard to reverse. Most Earthlings seem to have given up hope, yet a group of optimistic explorers are trekking to Mars, which some believe may turn around their fate.
In search of knowledge, these explorers hope that understanding the demise of alien populations can assist them with preventing or at least slowing the rapid deterioration of Earth. They’ll need to replicate Martian technologies, translate their languages, and avoid gaining too much radiation along the way in order to end up with the most prestige and save Earth as they know it.
In Ruins of Mars, players compete to build out their arsenal of knowledge, attempting to understand the languages of ancient civilizations that colonized Mars and made it a hub of economic activity. The game is played around a board with five locations and eleven communal action tiles that are laid out at random underneath the board as evenly as possible.
On a turn, you choose one of the locations, optionally pay to shift an action tile from an adjacent location to the active one, take the action of the location — the effect of which will be based on the tiles below that space — optionally replicate alien tech by paying resources and adding it to your board for personal use, then reallocate the action tiles from the active site in a mancala-like fashion.
Over the course of the game, you learn the Martian languages and re-discover and study their technologies, which come in three levels and multiple classifications and which grant you special abilities. Along the way, you might pick up radiation from various actions, and you’ll want to ditch that if possible so as not to lose points in the final scoring, which is mostly based on the tech you’ve assembled and your skill with languages.
Ages | 14+ |
---|---|
Players | Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
Play Time | 60m – 120m |
Designer | Don Riddle |
Mechanics | Action Queue |
Theme | Science Fiction |
Publisher | Atheris Games |
Gameson
I can't believe this is $25 on preorder. Just a fantastic mix of everdell tablu building worker placement and a mancala mechanism that buffs the actions you don't take by moving the bonuses you get clockwise to other actions. Build up tech, race up tracks, get resources, get unique abilities from the cards you buy. It's just charming, structurally good, cheap, with some great art and graphic design. I'm ecstatic. the one small rule it adds that no other game I've tried of the type, is that you can buy any card from the deck at any time for an additional resource more then the most expensive row. It might hurt you on the blue track if you're spending all that to get the card, but there is no "oh I hope it comes out" it's a solid opportunity cost at that point.
Boo_n_Cass
Bought for solo play mainly and it is a smooth automa to run and the gameplay is very straight forward. A hidden and underrated gem ?
BrokenNick
08-2021: Traded for games I could get to the table more often. Happy to have supported my friend (the designer) and the game company that made it. Happy to share his game with others.