Vital Lacerda instantly evokes a certain mindset in gaming for those of us in the hobby. Deep, thematic, heavy games that will give you an amazing table experience every single play. Add in Ian O’Toole and you’ve got quite a combo. Today we will look at their newest creation and see if it stands up to expectations and as my first Lacerda game I have owned, we will see how it fits into my gaming experience.
On Mars is designed by Vital Lacerda with art from Ian O’Toole. It is published by Eagle-Gryphon games and is played with 1-4 players at a running time of 2-2.5 hours.
Overview
On Mars is played over numerous rounds each consisting of two phases. Turns continue back and forth while players attempt to complete missions. Once three missions are completed the game will end. Players who contribute the most to the development of our joint community on Mars will score the most Opportunity Points (OP) and win the game!
Gameplay
The game will have two phases each round, a Colonization phase and a Shuttle phase. The Colonization phase will occur with each player in turn order taking 1 Main action and possibly 1 Executive action. Next the Shuttle phase will allow team members to move to and from the Orbit or the Colony, or move one space closer to doing so in later rounds. All actions in the Colonization phase take place in turn order from the Orbit side to the Colony side.
The actions on the main board during the Colonization phase will have to take place based on the side you are on, so either the Orbit side or the Colony side. Actions spots may also show a red or teal Colonist or a Crystal. The Teal Colonist and Crystals allow you to pay whichever indicated of those to boost or increase your action selection. This could get you more resources or find ways to increase the production of the action you choose. Red Colonists mean you will place one of your Colonists in that space to work and use the action.
Orbital Station Main Actions:
Let’s first look at the options on the Orbit side that you can choose from. First off is the Landing Pad which will allow you use all of your turn to move from the Orbit to the Colony. This is a great later round use move and will allow you to make the jump without having to wait multiple rounds.
The Obtain Blueprint spot will allow you take one Blueprint in the market and place it in front of you with one of your Advance Buildings on top of it. When you are able to build that building in a future round you can use the action on the Blueprint as an additional Executive action choice.
Learning New Technology will let you take one Tech tile from the market and place it at the beginning of your Laboratory. This will trigger the action under the spot you play. When you buy them from the market you must pay the resources in the row it is in. Players may only have one type of these in their Lab.
Research and Development (R&D) will move these Tech tiles you have down the down the rows to advance them and make them more powerful as the game continues. You must pay the cost of the resources at the top of the column you move them to. Each placement will score OP at the end of the game based on the number at the bottom of the column. Tech tiles care used to boost or utilize and action or gain a benefit. You may use your own or another player’s tile, but if you use another player’s tile they gain an Oxygen tile that allows them to level up the Tech tile that was used for the resource or add it to their general supply.
Finally there is a Resupply action to chose that will allow you take any 1 Resource or 1 Crystal from the Warehouse and place it in your Storage. You have a limited capacity for these and cannot take them if you don’t have the room for them. You will need these resources for purchasing a lot of different things in the Colony so don’t slack on getting them into your Warehouse storage.
Colony Main Actions
Next up is the Colony where you have another series of actions you can take with your turn. The first we will highlight is the Control Center where players can move their Rover and Bots 2 movement points each. Bots are cleaners and builders. Anything they land on is destroyed and removed from the board. Their positions will allow you to build from where they are placed as well. Rovers travel around picking up Crystals as they pass over them and collect Tiles if they land on them. This is another place where the Tech tiles can come in to play, the Rover Tech tile would allow you to move further with your Rover. Gained Tiles are immediately resolved.
Construct a Building allows players to add a new building to Mars directly next to a Building of the same type or exactly 2 hexes away from an existing Building of the same type. Building next to one or more of the same type requires a Tech tile of that type at a level that matches the amount of those building in the Complex already on Mars. Building these will give you Resources equal to the hexes in the Complex or 1 Resource if it is by itself. As you build these you will move a cube from your board onto the Progress area that will score a the end of each Colony Upgrade. You also move the LSS tracker for the type of Building you built if applicable, gaining rewards if applicable.
The Life Support System (LSS) Tracker is where you can monitor the types of Buildings that are needed for your survival on Mars to happen. This is also where you can see the current Colony level of the game. Buildings that are built that move the marker above the current Colony marker there are additional reward tiles and benefits that can be gained.
The LSS is also where the Colony Status can be updated progressing towards the end of the game. When all the building markers advance to the row of the current Colony level marker or higher the Colony Status is updated at the end of the current player’s turn. New Blueprint cards are added, the Warehouse is refilled and the cubes for each player in the Progress area are scored. This can also push the Missions marker forward one space if it is Level 3 or higher.
The action Upgrade a Building lets you take a blueprint you already have and upgrade the building you placed on it earlier when you obtained the card. By placing these buildings you gain resources from them when travel to Orbit and they also unlock the blueprint card as a special Executive action.
You may also choose the space that will allow you to Welcome a Ship to your Colony once you have sustainable lodging area. This action brings two Colonists or one Colonist and 1 Robot. You may bring ships equal to the current Colony level. When you pick this action it helps to bring in more workers but also to focus into new areas to build around Your Robot.
Finally you can Hire a Scientist or Take an Earth Contract on your turn as well. Scientists can be used to make unlocked Blueprint cards free to use as Executive actions and will also score victory points at the end of the game based on built buildings. Earth Contracts are looking for sets of resources or built buildings to score points at the end of the game.
Play moves forward each round taking a Main action and if possible an Executive action for each player. Executive actions open up on your board as you welcome Ships and as you build buildings giving you access to the Blueprints. The Shuttle phase moves the ship one space forward in the track it is in or across the sky from and to Orbit and the Colony. Players may travel during this time on the ship or using one of their personal ships.
As mentioned earlier, moving up the LSS moves the Colony status forward and potentially pushes you towards the end of the game. As the 3 individual Missions that were set up at the start of the game are met, the Remaining Missions tracker moves one space closer to triggering the end of the game. Once that tracker has met the end of the line, the round will end and the end of the game is triggered. You will play one more round then at completion of that assess points.
What could be better:
Player sheet. I like the player aides but an additional player aide for each player that covers some of the info in the reference book would be helpful. The reference book was utilized quite a bit throughout the game by every player, so easy access to some of that information would be helpful.
Using other players Tech abilities. Using another player’s Tech ability works really well throughout the game to let you get the extras you need in movement, building, card play or many other things but the payoff is that your opponent gains an oxygen from the bank to upgrade at the end of that turn. Although it pushes their Tech tiles up it comes at little cost to you personally. This feels like it would be better if the player who used an opponent’s Tech tile had to pay them the resource directly.
What I liked:
Complexity. This game hums with how smooth it is. There are so many moving parts here in this game and they all fit together like the cogs of a wheel. Like 800 cogs all working together in one giant puzzle. Every decision you make and every move is compounded that you need to think so many turns ahead to get where you want. This game is complex in a very good way-I constantly found myself crunching through my turns trying to decide what to do now and for the next 3-4 turns.
The potential for double actions is huge and the way you unlock your array of Executive actions on your own board and on Blueprint cards really opens the game as you move forward into the depth of it. I’ve played a lot of different games of varied complexity and this one just shines for me.
Graphic design. Ian O’Toole artwork definitely gets my attention quick when I see it attached to a game and this one is no different. The design is really smooth and immersive throughout. The game board is by far my favorite part and the opposite side is the artwork without the graphic overlays so it is a work of art in itself.
Iconography. There are a lot of symbols in this game. Like a lot. That being said, Lacerda does a great job of categorizing them into easy to understand patterns. Color scheme, design and organization really help to streamline the process. I still think you will need quite a few plays of this to get a handle on the symbols and really make it second nature, but it will come.
Components. This game is loaded to the gills with some high quality components. The wooden tokens are all solid and I love how the player buildings are all unique per player as well. I love the quality and the design of the robots and rovers along with the rocket ships. The player boards are high quality and very well designed. All of the tokens are big enough to not be fiddly which is a great aspect as well. They definitely made quality a priority in this game and it shows.
Overall:
In the world of “heavy” games, this one is the king of my personal collection. It is one of the heavier non-war games on BGG and truly the heaviest I have ever played. I took the time to really understand this game through mutilple readings of the manual, watching the video playthrough a few times and putting the work in to study up the interactions before we played the first time. That being said, it’s still hard to find all the little details and know all the specifics the first time through. Or the second, third or multiple plays into it. You will be checking the reference book and rulebook often, and that’s ok. It is very well written and a great resource for you throughout the game.
Gameplay is everything I want in a strategy/hobby game turned up to an 11. The depth of this game is amazing. Every lever you turn, every move you make affects so many other things in the game. Your plans and moves leave little room for error as you navigate around the planet and into space.
Theme is not always a strong draw for me but a game that really shines with theme pulls me in much more. This game has great strategies and movement going into the gameplay but it also drips with such awesome theme as you play that it really thrusts you into the experience. I felt the back and forth tug of the colony and space exploration and how difficult it got as you moved further into the game to travel or do what you wanted. There is a solid race for resources, blueprints, scientists and construction as you compete against the other colonists trying to get their piece of the Martian pie before you.
If you are looking for a challenging game that really gives you the experience of space exploration and building up the colonies on Mars, this is the game for you. If you are looking for a Lacerda game I think this is a great jump-in spot. If you want a crunchy, heavy experience you won’t go wrong with this game. On Mars is one of the best games I have played in 2019 and 2020 and I truly expect this to stay high on my must-play list for a long time coming.
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