Yeah, I can play another too.
I feel the way I feel about Agricola with this game, which is another game that I have only played digitally. I kind of understand what is going on. But I can really only just pick a strategy and follow it and it will either work or not. Like all-in green or all in-sheep. I imagine playing a bunch of live games around the table greatly accelerate the learning curve here.
The nice difference between this and Agricola is that in this game you can definitely choose an all-in strategy and be successful. The game doesnât play you like Agricola does and there are many paths to victory.
I think the one thing that was not clear to me on this one was city building. I noticed in both my games so far with SP peeps everyone opens with building a city and then expands around that. But the AI does not play that way.
I still need need to learn this game.
Anyone up for a practice game in a day or two?
I think, unfortunately, the answer to this is âit depends.â There are milestones and awards associated with cities and tiles in play, and developing a presence on the board has a number of advantages like claiming board bonuses, placement bonuses, and end-game scoring. That said, you can win a game with minimal board presence if you focus on other ways to score including from your cards to other milestones and awards that focus more on production. Play to the strengths of your corporation and starting cards, if possible. I like to hang on to cards that give bonuses for city placement so youâll often see me building early and often, but I do try to be flexible with my plans. There are people out here more knowledgeable about the game than I who could probably offer better insight. @OhBollox isnât in our decathalon but he may be our Terraforming Mars guru.
I think virtually everything in TFM is contextual, and cities can be too expensive (depending on corp and situation) to be placed routinely (shut up, Tharsis), but theyâre a great way to grab some land, e.g. no adjacent cities rule, and then surround with greeneries. If someone beats you to it, you parasitize VP from their greeneries with your cities, which is shitty and mean and my favourite thing to do, which also just so happens to prevent them (and anyone else) from getting even more VP from their greeneries. Having some board presence is very worthwhile in nearly all circumstances, even if itâs some cheap tiles from cards and the odd city.
@js619 did you have a chance to watch the video I posted earlier?
It might give you some more ideas, but definitely agree with @Mirefox and @OhBollox that this game can be played so many different ways - and the cards and other player actions have a big impact - so itâs hard to give a strategy guide that isnât mainly just a guideline or specific to certain situations.
Yes, I definitely need some practice. I tried the tutorial and it didnât quite click.
Woah! I have never seen this before in several games of Terraforming Mars - just opened the game due to a notification and I actually got to see a replay of the other players taking their turns⌠?!
Yeah, the replays are there but it is a little iffy what triggers them. Presumably you hadnât swiped the game closed or something?
LOL yes that must be it⌠other games have âtrainedâ me to swipe every game closed to avoid issues and have a better chance of getting a badge/notification. 
Interest in another practice game from;
@js619
@SpiceTheCat
@kennfusion
@KYakerDude
@doublebullout
so far.
I think Iâve created a game with myself, @js619 and @kennfusion as the first on the list. Not that I trust TFMâs game creation, but itâs there in my list.
If thereâs no 6th person, Iâll happily join @KYakerDude and @doublebullout in another game.
I had a look at the strategy forum on BGG and it is remarkable how unhelpful the many posts there are. I know itâs BGG but usually you can pick useful gems out of these discussions.
My personal learning points so far are âdonât buy too many cardsâ and âI keep forgetting about milestones/awardsâ.
For the experts, the Ganymede/Phobos space cards seem expensive for little return. Whatâs a good context to look at playing those? Also, any corp-specific hints?
Ganymede and Phobos and lots of Jovian cards are usually expensive, but theyâre supposed to be funded mostly by titanium, I feel. If youâve got decent titanium production those cards can usually be encheapenized and used surprisingly early, otherwise theyâre outside bets. If youâre Phobolog, for instance, Iâd take those cards as a matter of course.
Always do cost/benefit for every card you think of buying. How much does it cost to play, what sort of return will you see over the remaining generations in the game? This automatically gets rid of quite a few cards.
In terms of corps:
UNMI is the best example of sprinting to the finish. Do terraforming, always save credits for your corp TR bump, forget about engine building unless itâs super efficient. You can end up winning the game with a score of about 45-50 while everyone else is still building their engines.
Inventrix is very much a gamble. The bonus early card draw is good but thereâs no guarantee the resulting cards will be. Make use of your corp effect and get cards out as early as you can, before anyone else can play similar cards. Science tag though!
Phobolog is all about titanium and space cards. I feel theyâre high risk and high reward. Save your titanium for cards that will get you more titanium or at least more resource production.
Mining Guild. Prioritise tile placement (via cheap cards is best), ramp up your steel production, use steel whenever you can to pay for cards, save money for other cards.
Interplanetary Cinematics. Spam events, use your steel to increase your production.
Tharsis Republic. Just shit cities everywhere, steal VP from opponentsâ greeneries and deny them placements, take any cheap cities and city bonuses you can.
Credicor. Donât get suckered in to only playing 20+ value cards. Use the discount to make expensive cards more affordable, but donât prioritise them inordinately. Use the discount to afford cheaper cards between expensive cards. Donât limp from big card to big card.
Thorgate. You actually have a solid leg up, donât sacrifice your energy production, and donât shy away from using the standard project power plant. Energy can be super valuable. Excess isnât wasted, itâs just slow.
Helion. Do not become addicted to heat. Donât over-invest in it. Make sure you get the bonuses from bumping the heat (you should have more heat production than anyone, and so should be able to dictate when). Thermalist should be a dead cert. Feel free to use heat as credits. Donât store up loads of heat in the mid-game.
Ecoline. Do everything in your power to up your plant production. If you have 7 plants, create a greenery ASAP. Plants left on your board will be killed. Then prioritise cities and prevent, as much as possible, people stealing VP from your greeneries.
Vitor. Focus on VP cards, cheaper the better, and the award is a total gamble, but try to determine based on your starting cards.
Valley Trust. Hope for a synergistic set of preludes, play science tags. Feel free to get a big pot of money/resources with your preludes and be as versatile as possible. I like lots of credits, versatility over efficiency in the early game.
Robinson Industries. Always have the credits spare to bump your production, always bump your most important production first, bear in mind 4 for a plant bump is a steal. Feel free to play cards that sacrifice important production for gains knowing you can then bump that production again, instead of bumping something less useful.
Point Luna. Bonus card draw, quite a powerful corp. You should be able to find enough cheap Earth tags to make up for any gaps in your engine.
Cheung Shing Mars. Do all the building, get builder even over Mining Guild.
Nice. Also approving nod for âencheapenizedâ. 
NP. I can talk about TFM as long as people have ears.
The hero we needed
My Asmodee profile name is Mi_dormas_bone. I created the account just to play Onirim. At the time, I was teaching myself Esperanto.âMi dormas boneâ means âI am sleeping wellâ, which seemed pretty clever at the time for an Onirim account. Ah, well.
@SpiceTheCat - looks like it will be up to you to capture final scores in our practice Terraforming Mars game. Which seems fitting, since I think you are going to win the game! 