Terraforming Mars ARES EXPEDITION Solo Playthrough

welcome in this video we're going to do a solo playthrough of terraforming mars aries expedition so down at the table i do have the kickstarter edition i've got that laid out along with a play mat i had the privilege of learning this game from alex over at board game co so not only did he teach me the rules he let me know i'm a novice at this and with that information so when you're playing solo you can choose difficulty levels novice mode increase oxygen or temperature two steps after advancing the dummy player's cube and we'll go over when that happens for the advanced mode you increase one or the other by one step in expert mode no bonuses are given so this game is an engine building type game which is probably my least played type of game style but i enjoyed terraforming mars and i enjoyed race for the galaxy which is what this game kind of reminds me of i wasn't good at that game either but i enjoyed playing it so in this game we're trying to build up an engine so that we can tear for mars by raising the temperature the oxygen and getting all of these seas located out and if we do that within the five rounds uh basically once the ai character goes through all five of its phases we're going to advance this track so basically we've got 25 turns to get this done for the game overview we've got our planning step we're going to choose one of our actions and basically each of these actions is going to allow us to do something along with the opponent if you're playing with someone else and if we choose the action we're going to get a bonus so for development phase we get to play a green project card so there's different colors the green blues and reds in here as a bonus it's going to cost us three less for construction we get to play one blue card or a red card and if we play the card we get a bonus of drawing one or playing an additional blue or a red card action phases each player activates any action effects and standard actions so some of our cards will have actions on them plus we have these additional actions here we can spend 20 credits to get a tree which will raise the oxygen and our terraform rating it's been 14 to raise the temperature by one step and our terraform rating spin eight plants to get a tree which raises the oxygen and our terraform rating eight energy to raise the temperature and their terraform rating or we can spend 15 to flip one of the uh ocean tiles there which also increases our terraform rating so after actions we have production this is where we're going to produce uh our credits energy in plants and as a bonus we'll get additional four mega credits and researching is how we draw more cards so for our setup i've gone ahead and shows that i'm gonna be red so we've placed one of those cubes onto zero on all the places or on our player board chose green for ai it's going to start at one so we've got five rounds going through this so the ai is going to get its own set of action cards basically allowing us to do something we've got our game board set up and our action phases here basically in this game whenever you flip our actions you'll flip that so everyone knows but for solo play it's not really needed then we're going to take our ocean tiles randomize those and place them on the game board so like i said we need to get both of these tracks from zero where they're starting up to the top and flip all these ocean tiles for us to have a chance at winning got our tokens and resource counters here so these count as ones fives and tens we have our project cards like i said different colors are going to give us calls some additional resources they might provide us and the bonuses they're going to give us in this game and there's a lot of cards here to shuffle so we'll take a couple stacks shuffle them separately and then swap those up a little bit so we will start with eight cards in hands one two three four five six seven eight like i said they give us a call some have restrictions so this requires red oxygen or higher so we need to move our oxygen up a bit before we can have worms on mars so moss some blueprints some micro mills a medical lab a dusty quarry some sponsors and a molehole area then we're going to take our corporations shuffle this up and this is going to give us our starting resources and possibly a special ability so look at two of those and we get to choose one to keep so if we take the united nations mars initiative we're going to start with 35 mega credits as an effect the first time your tr is raised each phase you may pay 6mc to raise your tr one step further or we can start with 27 credits start with one plan production and 27 credits when you spend plants to gain enforce vp token and raise oxygen you spend one less plant so typically cost eight so this is gonna let us spend seven and i believe i'm gonna go with the united mars nation mars initiative which is gonna get us 35 credits to start with and like i said the first time our tr is raise tear form rating has raised each phase you may pay 6mc to raise it one more step so with everything set up they said we have our planning step we're going to choose one of our phases we want to resolve we only resolve the phases that we choose and the ai so those are our five phases then instep now each player discards down to 10 cards in hand and at any time you can discard a card to get three mega credits so we are going to start with the development phase so each player may play one green project card the ai is going to let us take an action so we're going to go ahead and bring in our sponsors and it's going to cost us five minus a three so we've got to spend two money so get some change back during the production phase this produces two mega credits so we can raise this up as a reminder then we can take actions so we'll go ahead and spend 15 to take a look at an ocean tile which is going to let us draw a card raises our terraform rating we're going to spend six more to raise it again and we found an automated factories so we can't play that card again next phase so we're going to jump to production and this is going to have us develop so we'll go ahead and put out some micro mills it's going to cost us nine so we'll get one back it's going to let us produce some heat and upper steel production so when we play that type of steel building or card we pay 2mc less for it then we're going to produce and we get a bonus for mc so we're producing our tr rating which is seven plus four so we're up to eleven plus another two so thirteen zero cards we get a heat and zero plants then we're going to jump into development and this is going to let us do some possible construction so we're going to get a reduction of three there this type of building another two so five less so we're paying 13. that's going to let us raise our heat production up to five then we can play a red or blue card but all we have is green so we're going to jump to production and this is going to have us research so production once again we're plus 4 so 6 plus 7 13. now we're getting five here so we get the right cubes then we get to draw two cards and keep one so decomposers requires red oxygen or higher or towing to combat raise oxygen a step flip an ocean tile or gain two plants but pretty expensive and we don't have some money production going so we'll go for that one so we're going to go into development and we've got production coming up we're going to pitch a card to get three money this is going to be three less so we're down we need to spend 11. during the production phase going to allow us to draw another card and two more credits we're going to produce getting 11 money drawing a card into mars university gain five here and zero plants and since we're going through that we get to raise one of these tracks up by two so bring up our oxygen and shuffle these and move this up a step so we're going with production and so is that that's not good all right so we're getting eight plus seven to fifteen draw a card gain five heat and we're done there we are going to jump into development same thing here so we're a reduction of three so spinning eleven to raise this up by two then we're going to produce to break this cycle of copying so we've got construction we can play a blue or red card so we'll go ahead and bring this in so it can have requires three or fewer ocean tiles to be flipped it's gonna cost us two it's going to raise our steel up to two actually no we can't do that because strong color card so in that case we're bringing in some microorganisms i'm going to cost us 10. when you play a card you may remove two microbes from this card to pay 10 mc less for that card effect when you play any of these green cards with that resource including this one add a micro to this card and we're going to produce plus 4 so 8 plus 7 is 15. let's draw a card some space heaters create 5 heat and gather two plants so we're going to development and over here we get to take some actions so we're discount of three playing this type of card is going to give us another discount of two so we need to pay six and it's going to allow us to draw a card getting some assorted enterprises and during the production phase produces two heat then we get to take actions so we're going to spend eight here to raise our temperature which raises our tear forming then spend another eight [Music] to do the same thing then we'll spend 15 to draw a card and gain money getting some gene repair then we're going to jump in to production and this does some research so plus four so we're eight plus ten eighteen draw a card gather eight and two plants then draw two cards and keep one see power infrastructure is an action spending amount of heat to gain that amount of money when you play one of those cards you pay 4mc less for it and you draw a card grab that one some energy subsidies we're through another round we're going to take this up two steps and raise that so far i'm not feeling good about what i've got going so we're going to go into development and over here going into actions so we get a production of three so this is going to cost us 12. it does require red oxygen or higher which we have we raise oxygen one step which brings that up and then we'll go ahead and spend six using that ability to raise it up again and during production we're going to get to more heat and then for our actions we're going to spend eight to raise that on up then we're going to production and production so eight plus 13 to 21. draw a card found some algae this is going to get us nine and two plants all right so we're gonna go actions and that's allowing us to do some construction so we're gonna play red cards gonna cost us two the ability you may play an additional card this phase that card may be a green card you may you pay 2mc less for the next card you play this phase and that's going to let us bring in a dusty quarry it does require three or fewer ocean tiles to be flipped which we've got when we play this uh well when we play a steel card we pay 2mc less for it so we can raise this thing up so we've got a reduction of four now then we can take actions so spending eight to raise the heat up we'll spin six to raise that up again then we're going to spend 15 to draw a card and get a plant beginning is solar punk so we're jumping into production and this is going to have us jump into research so 8 23 getting nine and two plants and we draw a card into a strip mine and drawing two cards and keeping one so requires yellow temperature or warmer we're getting close to flip two ocean tiles or with that one requires red temperature or colder it's going to help us with plant production so we're going to go research this is going to allow us to develop so spending 15 requires red or cooler upping our plant production of four and the game just keeps on moving um we'll raise this up by two this time and feeling less confident about getting this planet terraformed so we're going into production and this has us developing so for development we're pitching three cards which would be nine money so this is going to cost us two requires red oxygen or higher we're at during the production phase this produces one plant per microbe you have including this so that's going to be one two three taking that up to seven it allows us to put an organism there then for our production we're getting 4 8 23 plus nine plus seven so put three in there and get a 10 back and we drew a card to nitrogen-rich asteroid so we're going to go development and this is going to have us construction so we're going to play mad labs or minus three so minus seven so this cost is eight uh during the production phase produce one mc per two still you have including this so one two three four raising that up by two then we get to do construction and we're gonna go for a nitrogen-rich asteroid spending two so when you play a card you may remove two microbes from this to reduce its cost by 10. so it's going to cost us 20. it's going to allow us to raise our tr 2 steps so up to 17. raise the temperature one step which in turn raises that up gain two plants if you have three or more gain four additional so we're going to gain six plants oops and hope that was worth it so we're going to production and this has us doing actions so for actions we're going to spend eight plants to gain a tree which raises the oxygen and or tr then we're going to spend eight more plants to gain a tree raise our oxygen in our tr then we're going to spend eight here to raise the temperature and our tr and then spend eight more to raise that and that and then we have eight more so we're done with our actions going into production so 4 10 so 33 plus a card plus nine and seven so put three back and grab a ten so then we're going to action and this is having us produce so spending eight to get that raises that and this then spend eight here to raise on this side and then we're going to spend 15 which raises that up and we draw a card and then spend 15. raise that up getting two plants two four six one shorten the plants then production or 27 plus 6 or 33 drawing into a giant ice asteroid getting nine here and then seven plants and we're going to produce and this has us doing research so base 10 37 drawing a card quantum extractor getting nine so trade that in for 10 and seven more then we draw two and keep one keep the fueling factory so raise this up two notches and our final round so in the final round we get to choose the order in which these come out so we're going to go for actions and production on this side so our actions spending eight plants to get a tree raises that raises that spend eight more get another tree raises that and raises that then heat spending eight to raise that up up to 30 then another eight raising both of those and spending 15 which is going to get us four credits it's been another 15. gets his two plants spent another 15. plant in a money spend another 15 plant and two money spend eight plants [Music] to get a tree then we're going to spend 14. let's raise that up see what do we have here two four six eight ten oh create six so we need to spend eight more two four six eight let's raise that up again so done with our actions so now we produce so six plus thirty eight so forty four draw a card advanced ecosystems gain nine energy and seven plants so then we're going to do actions and production so spending eight plants to get a tree which will raise that up and that eight heat to raise that up by one up to 40 then 14 to raise that up and another 14. to raise that up then producing plus 4 so 10 52. drawing a card found some small animals raise nine over here get seven plants so we will go development and construction we're going to play a strip mine that's going to be three cheaper so seven cheaper spending five requires we spend a terraform rating it's going to raise this up by two and this one up by one and we can play a blue or red card we'll bring in some small animals because why not requires red temperature warmer which we've got it's gonna cost us nine we get one victory point for two animals on this card in fact when you gain a force vp add an animal to this card not gonna happen because we're done buying forced unfortunately then we're going to do production and research so 10 so 51 2 [Music] 3 4 and 5 and 1. let's draw a card let's get nine there seven more plants draw two cards and keep one then last phase development and action we're not going to do anything there actions we're going to spend seven plants to get a tree we can't raise that anymore but we do trigger this and we'll do that again then we can spend eight to raise that up to its max and since it just happened this round we can keep on doing that spending eight more basically that's just getting our terraform rating up and then spend 14 more to keep on doing that so there's five cards so we'll get one back then spin 14 so we'll get six spin 14 should go up again spin 14 and go up again 14 again 14 and then 14 again which will take us up to 50 and spin 14 again [Music] then we have five more cards do it one more time and that will complete the novice version of the game so now it's up to victory points so we're going to get one victory point per terraform rating which is 51 vp equal to our forced victory points so we've got 9 so it takes us up to 60. and then bp equal to what's printed on our project cards so that's going to get us one victory point and looking at the rest of these two two more victory points and that is how you play terraforming mars aries expedition solo like i said that was the novice version i'm not too good at a this type of game but hopefully you saw enough in this playthrough to see if it's a game for you so as always hope you enjoyed this playthrough so please click on the like button below and be sure to subscribe thanks for watching you

Channel: Dale the Casual Gamer

Views: 3,744

Keywords: dale the casual gamer, terraforming mars ares expedition, ares expedition, how to play ares expedition, how to play, solo play, playthrough, terraforming mars

Id: oPvq0NbksRw

Length: 34min 7sec (2047 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 06 2021