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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 |
Vorpa
Not necessarily bad but too many minor flaws. + Radiation as "penalty" on actions felt right and was fun. + Clear rules. Easy play. - The main action mechanic is broken and the biggest downside to this game. Especially in solo play you can get 5 or 6 tiles on the same spot, which then get redistributed evenly. When everything is distributed evenly you will generate big sets of tiles for your opponent. It is unfair and it limits decision making. - Disconnect between theme and mechanics. The same icon can mean a resource and a language-learning-thing. - Mastering 5 different languages on ancient ruins on mars to learn techs.... I just don't feel it. - Broken economy where hour-glasses are too expensive to gain. We house ruled that the wrench on the wastelands allows you to throw another die to at least get some hourglasses in play. - The card market with small cards is way too tight. I feel that it was not physically playtested. - Radiation counts double ONLY for the player which has the most. It just doesn't work in a 4 player game. - Radiation tokens all look the same except for the numbers in them. There are also very limited 1 tokens. We were exchanging them a lot! - Bunch of extra components that don't make sense. - Etc. Etc.
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 ?
burzum51
Just received, but lucky already sold. The solo bot is dump as hell and i manage to won by 10 points in my very first game. The game have good components and good artwork but it really kind of boring to do same things over and over without real goals.