A Practice Plan for Tournament Terraforming Mars

You know the rules, the strategy paths, the draft, the expansions, and the tournament procedure. The last step is practice that matches what you will face: four players, a draft, the event’s expansions, unfamiliar boards, and a clock. Terraforming Mars games are long, so the plan is built around fewer, fuller games, with short drills in between.

The plan assumes about four to six hours a week. Scale it to your life, but keep all four parts.

Choose your event first

A plan needs a date. The tournaments lesson lists the main routes:

• The World Boardgaming Championships in Pennsylvania, for a multi-round event with experienced players. Read the current event preview for its setup.
• A national circuit or qualifier, if your country runs one.
• A convention tournament, with its own house rules.

Write down your event’s exact setup: player count, expansions, boards, draft rules, and time limit. Every practice game should move toward it.

The four parts of every week

1. Volume. Play two or three games a week. Board Game Arena is the easiest way to get them in. It supports the draft, Prelude, Colonies, Corporate Era, and several maps, which covers much of a typical tournament setup. Turn-based games let you play several at once around a busy week.

2. The event’s setup. At least one game a week should match your event as closely as you can: four players, the same expansions, the same draft, and a board from the event’s list. If your event uses random milestones and awards, play with random ones.

3. Time. At least once every two weeks, play a full game at a real table under the event’s time limit, with the end-of-time rule from the tournament rules lesson. Use the announce-and-show procedure for every action. A long game on a clock is the best rehearsal there is.

4. Review. After every game, split your final score into four categories and write them down:

Then compare each category with the winner’s. The category with the biggest gap is where the game was lost. Ask three questions:

1. In which generation did I stop building and start scoring? Was it too early or too late?
2. Which milestone or award decided the game, and could I have claimed or funded it first?
3. What was the strongest card I passed in the draft, and who used it?

Short drills

Ten minutes, a few times a week:

• Card pricing. Take five random cards from your box and price each with the method from how to value a card, at generation 3 and again at the last generation.
• Board reading. Look at a board you know least and name the two easiest milestones and the two awards most likely to swing late.
• Corporation reads. Deal yourself two corporations and ten cards, and decide in under five minutes, the way you would at a timed event.

The eight weeks

Weeks 1 and 2: the base of it. Four-player drafted games with Prelude, on the original board. Focus on your openings and your switch from engine to points.

Weeks 3 and 4: expansions. Add Colonies and, if your event uses it, Venus Next. Spend a drill session each week on the Colonies and Venus lessons.

Weeks 5 and 6: boards and the clock. Rotate through Hellas, Elysium, and random milestones and awards. Play your first full timed game at a table.

Week 7: event rules. Every game under your event’s exact setup, procedure, and time limit.

Week 8: sharpen and rest. One or two games early in the week, then review and rest. Long tournament games reward a clear head.

What to measure

Keep three numbers from week to week:

• Average score in four-player games with your event’s setup.
• Your weakest category, and whether it is closing.
• Generations finished in timed games, so you know whether your pace fits the limit.

If your weakest category is improving and your timed games finish, the plan is working, whatever your win rate.

The people around the table

A four-hour game is a long time to sit with three strangers. That is part of the reward. Learn their names, help each other track triggers, and talk through the final scores afterward. The players you meet on the way to a tournament are often the best reason to go.

If you are near Indianapolis, join the Indianapolis list for first word on local learn-to-play nights as The Ludarium grows.

That is the end of the course. You can play, teach, and read every card; open with a hand you can afford; price cards and map spaces; pick a path and time the end; draft, play Prelude, and handle the table; build colonies, work Venus, and read any board; and walk into a tournament knowing its rules. Mars takes a whole table to terraform. The game is the reason. The people around it are the point.